Pahonya
Pahonya (Belarusian: Паго́ня translated as Chase) is a historical symbol of Belarus.
Structure
The heraldic shield features a red field with an armored knight on a white (silver) horse holding a silver sword in his right hand above his head. A silver shield hangs on the left shoulder of the charging knight with a double gold (yellow) cross on it.
History
The charging knight is known to have been first used as the state emblem in 1366. It is featured on the seal of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Alhierd, which marks a document belonging to that year. The old prototype of the present Pahonya depicts a knight on horseback holding a sword in his raised hand. The symbol of the charging knight on horseback was handed down through the generations: from Alhierd to his son, Grand Duke Yahaila, then to Grand Duke Vitaut and others. By the 14th century, the charging knight on horseback with a sword had begun to be featured in a heraldic shield, first in Yahaila's seal in 1386 or 1387, and also in the seal of Vitaut in 1401. As early as the 15th century, the heraldic charging knight on horseback became the coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and of its central part – the Duchy of Vilnia. 16th century documents refer to it as Pogoń. At first, the charging knight was depicted riding in one or the other direction and sometime held a lance. But as of the first half of the 15th century, he is always shown riding to the left (as see by the viewer) with a sword in his raised hand and a shield in the left hand.
In the 15th century, the colors of the seal became uniform. The livery colors became fixed: a white (silver) charging knight on a red field of the heraldic shield. The shield of the charging knight was blue then and set against the blue field was a double (gold) cross. The coat of arms featured the grand duke's headgear on the crest.
At first, the charging knight showed the figure of the ruler of the country, but with time it came to be understood and interpreted as that of a riding knight who was chasing an intruder out of his native country. Such an understanding was especially popular in the 19th century and the first half of 20th century. The explanation has a sound historical foundation. It is known that at the Grunwald battle, where the united Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian army crushed the army of the Teutonic Knights, thus putting an end to its expansion to the east, thirty Belarusian and Lithuanian regiments out of the total forty were flying with the sign of the Pahonya.
With minor stylistic changes, the Pahonya coat of arms remained the state symbol of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until 1795, when Belarus was annexed by Russian Empire. The Pahonya was then incorporated into the imperial state emblem.
More recenly, the Pahonya is used on the state seal of the Belarus National Republic since 1918.
During Soviet times the emblem was forbidden and used only by Belarusian emigrant communities in the USA, Canada etc. In late 1980ies, during a new wave of the Belarusian national rebirth, the Pahonya was taken as a coat of arms of the Belarusian Popular Front. In 1990, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it became the coat of arms of the independent Belarus.
The new Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko prohibited the Pahonya for use again in 1995. Since then the Pahonya is an amblem of anti-Lukashist democrat opposition in Belarus.
See also:
Categories: Belarus | Coats of arms