PROVINCIAL AND REGIONAL COATS OF ARMS

We, Russians, are too often being under the suspicion of having the imperial way of thinking. It’s not known, by the way, if that is good or bad (I mean the thinking). But I’m certainly not sure, if we’ve got it.

For the imperial kind of thinking crucial is not only patriotism but speculative feeling of the vastness of the nation’s territory and the sense of homeland as well. That is even true with only not more than one percent of its territory being able to be attended physically. In other words, a man with the imperial state of mind is to know personally ‘by face’ each part of its territory – the province, region area or borough. Well, the imperia’s ‘faces’ are the coats of arms. Prior to the revolution (or the October riot, if you like) the average gymnasium student would know the coats of arms of Russia’s provinces and regions as the multiplication table. By today’s standards the knowledge of the home city coat of arms could be considered as a good result. That’s why the world powers and the international public bodies worried by our ‘imperial’ reputation could sleep undisturbed. Provided, that we fail to remember at least 30per cent of those brilliant heraldic emblems. So, we begin listing them in alphabetic order…
Captions to the coats of arms as approved by the Emperor on December 8th 1806: