page_title: Western use of the swastika in the early 20th century
section_title: Russia
hierarchical_section_title: Western use of the swastika in the early 20th century / Europe / Russia
caption_attribution_description: English: Badges worn by the Kalmyk formations of the Red Army in 1919..
context_page_description: The swastika is an ancient Indo-European religious symbol with the earliest known example found in Mezine, modern Ukraine, that generally takes the form of an equilateral cross with four legs each bent at 90 degrees in either right-facing form or its mirrored left-facing form. It is considered to be a sacred and auspicious symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism and dates back at least 11,000 years.
  The swastika symbol became a popular symbol of luck in the Western world in the early 20th century, as it had long been in Asia, and was often used for ornamentation. The Nazi Party adopted the symbol in the 1920s, and its use in Western countries faded after the Nazi association became dominant in the 1930s. In recent decades many public swastikas have been removed or covered over, although others have been deliberately retained as part of debate about historical preservation.
context_section_description: The Russian Provisional Government of 1917 printed a number of new bank notes with right-facing, diagonally rotated swastikas in their centres During the Russian Civil War, the Red Army's Kalmyk units wore distinct armbands featuring the swastika with "RSFSR" inscriptions on them.
caption: Badges worn by the Kalmyk formations of the Red Army in 1919.
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