Coat of arms of Ukraine

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The Coat of Arms of Ukraine (Tryzub) features the same colours found on the Ukrainian flag: a blue shield with yellow trident—the symbol of ancient Slavic tribes that once lived in Ukraine, later adopted by Ruthenian and Kievan Rus rulers.

The coat of arms is a yellow trident with a blue background. The history of the trident symbol as featured in the current Ukrainian coat of arms is more than 1000 years old. The first known archeological and historical evidence of this symbol can be found on the seals of the Riurik dynasty. The oldest of those seals is the one of Prince Sviatoslav Ihorevych, (deceased in 972).

This Ukrainian trident overprint of May 1919 is on a five-heller stamp of Austria-Hungary.

There is no sure and definite interpretation of the symbol, however, most historians agree that it most probably depicts a stylicised hawk or some other totem of the first Riurikid rulers's family. The use of this symbol has been supplanted since the 11th century by the Christian tradition of using the images of the saints (most notably Saint George or Saint Michael) considered to be the protectors of the ruling family, and later by Galician or Cossack heraldic or cultural images. The trident was not thought of as a national symbol until 1917, when one of the most prominent Ukrainian historians, Mykhailo Hrushevsky, proposed to adopt it as a national symbol (along other variants, including an arbalet, a bow or a cossack carrying a musket, i.e. images that carried considerable historical and cultural and heraldic significance for the Ukraine).

The Great Coat of Arms (not officially adopted).

In arguably the most popular (but never officially adopted) variant, the Great Coat of Arms, the shield is supported by a crowned lion from the Galician Coat of Arms on the left and a cossack in traditional dress, wielding a musket, the symbol of the Cossack Hetmanate on the right. The Coat of Arms is crowned with the crown of Volodymyr the Great, symbolizing Ukrainian sovereignty, and decorated with red fruits and wheat at the bottom. The official adoption of the Great Coat of Arms has to be adopted by a majority by two thirds in the Ukrainian parliament - Verkhovna Rada, which has not yet been reached to this date (2006) because of the opposition of various opposition parties (especially Communists and left-wing parties).

Ukrainian speakers also point out that the trident can be broken into four letters of the Ukrainian alphabet: В, О, Л, and Я, spelling "ВОЛЯ," which translates as "liberty" or "freedom."

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