page_title: Swastika
section_title: Slavic
hierarchical_section_title: Swastika / Historical use / Northern Europe / Slavic
caption_attribution_description: English: Velikiy Ustyug ornament, 19th century, swastika, RussiaРусский: Конец полотенца. Браное ткачество. Конец XIX века. Великоустюгский район. свастика
context_page_description: The swastika or sauwastika — as a character, 卐 or 卍 respectively — is a geometrical figure and an ancient religious icon in the cultures of Eurasia. It is used as a symbol of divinity and spirituality in Indian religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
  In the Western world, it was a symbol of auspiciousness and good luck until the 1930s when the right-facing tilted form became a feature of Nazi symbolism as an emblem of the Aryan race. As a result of World War II and the Holocaust, many people in the West still strongly associate it with Nazism and antisemitism. The swastika continues to be used as a symbol of good luck and prosperity in Hindu and Buddhist countries such as Nepal, India, Mongolia, China and Japan. It is also commonly used in Hindu marriage ceremonies.
  The word swastika comes from Sanskrit: स्वस्तिक, romanized: svástika, meaning 'conducive to well being'. In Hinduism, the right-facing symbol is called swastika, symbolizing surya, prosperity and good luck, while the left-facing symbol is called sauvastika, symbolizing night or tantric aspects of Kali.
context_section_description: According to painter Stanisław Jakubowski the "little sun" (Polish słoneczko) is an Early Slavic pagan symbol of the Sun, he claimed it was engraved on wooden monuments built near the final resting places of fallen Slavs to represent eternal life. The symbol was first seen in his collection of Early Slavic symbols and architectural features, which he named Prasłowiańskie motywy architektoniczne (Polish: Early Slavic Architectural Motifs). His work was published in 1923, by a publishing house that was then based in the Dębniki district of Kraków.
  In Russia before World War I the swastika was a favorite sign of the last Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. She placed it where she could for happiness, including drawing it in pencil on the walls and windows in the Ipatiev House – where the royal family was executed. There, she also drew a swastika on the wallpaper above the bed where the heir apparently slept. It was printed on some banknotes of the Russian Provisional Government (1917) and some sovznaks (1918–1922). In 1919 it was approved as insignia for the Kalmyk formations, and for a short period had a certain popularity amongst some artists, politics and army groups. Also it was present on icons, vestments and clerical clothing but in World War II it was removed, having become by association a symbol of the German occupation.
  In modern Russia, some neo-Nazis and also Rodnovers argue that the Russian name of the swastika is kolovrat (Russian: коловрат, literally "spinning wheel"), but there are no ethnographic sources confirming this. In vernacular speech the swastika was called differently; for example, "breeze" – as in Christianity, the swastika represents spiritual movement, descent of the Holy Spirit, and therefore the "wind" and "spirit", or ognevtsi ("little flames"), "geese", "hares" (a towel with a swastika was called as towel with "hares"), "little horses".
  The neo-Nazi Russian National Unity group's branch in Estonia is officially registered under the name "Kolovrat" and published an extremist newspaper in 2001 under the same name. A criminal investigation found the paper included an array of racial epithets. One Narva resident was sentenced to 1 year in jail for distribution of Kolovrat. The Kolovrat has since been used by the Rusich Battalion, a Russian militant group known for its operation during the War in Donbass.
  The perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand used the Kolovrat swastika on one of his dog tags alongside the Celtic Cross.
caption: 19th-century Russian embroidery, Tarnogsky District
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