Soviet-era red star gets restored for Russian military

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin brought back the Soviet-era red star Tuesday as the Russian military's emblem, the latest in a series of restored communist symbols that play to nostalgia but have some people wary of a return to the repressive past.

Once the most recognized icon of the Soviet Union after the hammer and sickle, the five-point star never vanished but was phased out after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Putin's plan -- if backed by Parliament, as expected -- would return the star officially to the military's enormous parade banners. Military caps and belt buckles would likely be next.

"The star is sacred for all servicemen," Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said at a meeting of top generals broadcast on television, with a frowning Putin seated behind him. "Our fathers and grandfathers went to battle with the star."

Restoring the star -- the defense minister's idea -- was expected to please the conservative military, and appeared to be a Kremlin attempt to reinforce servicemen's loyalty.

The move comes after the Russian Parliament, on Putin's initiative, rehabilitated the tune of the old Soviet anthem with new words. It also brought back the Soviet-era red banner as the military flag, which now should get back its star.

Putin says he hopes the resurrected symbols will help mend deep rifts in society by acknowledging achievements of the Soviet past that older generations cherish.

But critics say the revivals send a powerful, potentially troubling, signal to the rest of the country. Some fear the return of authoritarian icons could herald a return of a Soviet-style authoritarian regime. Others say the symbols could be abused by Russians too young to understand their meaning.

"It's very serious. Because it doesn't just feed old people's nostalgia, but also affects the youth who don't understand the fascist or communist ideologies but are eager to grasp their symbols," said Sergei Grigoryants, a Soviet-era dissident and strong critic of the government.

The star had symbolized the Red Army since the army's formation after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. The Russian military newspaper is called "Red Star." But the star appeared elsewhere, too, on the communist flag above the hammer and sickle and in the graphics of Soviet-era TV news broadcasts.

And the star was never wiped out entirely. It remained on older-model tanks and planes. Red stars still sit atop the pointed towers of the Kremlin.

In bringing back old icons, lawmakers also endorsed the czarist-era white-red-and-blue flag that Russia has been using since the 1991 Soviet demise, as well as the old imperial emblem of a double-headed eagle.

Putin's plan

One observer sees it as Putin's scattershot plan to broaden his support base.

"No one is left out: Communists get their anthem, the conservatives have a double-headed eagle and democrats their tricolor flag," says Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a Soviet-era dissident who heads the Moscow Helsinki Group, a leading human rights organization.

"It makes one wonder what kind of national ideology such a state has," she said.

Others interpreted the call to bring back the red star as an indication that the government had abandoned its push for radical military reform.

The Kremlin had wanted a leaner, professional military to replace its bulky Soviet-style army. Top military brass had opposed government plans to abandon the unpopular draft and switch to a volunteer force. The ranks are unhappy, too, over wages that remain just over $100 a month for a junior officer.

Returning the star could boost morale, said Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent military analyst. "It may look like a trifle, but it gives an important signal to both the top brass and the civilian bureaucracy that the Soviet military machine will remain," he said.

The president's attitude about communist trappings is a sharp contrast with the policy of his predecessor. Boris Yeltsin loathed the old symbols, and staunchly resisted hardline pressure to restore the old anthem.

There seems to be no such opposition today: The proposal to bring back the star should easily pass through the Parliament, dominated by pro-government centrists who usually follow the wishes of the Kremlin.