To set the record straight the “hammer and sickle” are not symbols representing Russia today.

Russia’s flag (sometimes called the “Imperial flag”) was adopted on August 21, 1991. It consists of three equal horizontal bands of white (on the top), blue and red (on the bottom).

The design of the flag is over 300 years old and was first used by Peter the Great (it was adapted from the flag of the Netherlands). It was the official flag of Russia from May 7, 1883, until November 1917, when the communist Bolshevik revolution took place. When the communist regime fell, the old tri-color flag was reinstated.

This would almost be in comparison as someone saying the Swastika is Germanys flag today.

The original flag of Germany was black, red and gold. Until the development of the Nazi Regime on January 30, 1933 the black, red and gold design were scrapped by the Nazi Party, but a ruling on March 12, 1933 established two legal national flags: the reintroduced old black-white-red imperial tricolour, and the flag of the Nazi Party.

After the defeat of Nazi Germany the original flag was flown once again.

The moral of the story is that the Swastika and Hammer and Sickle were never really once a countries flag but a image of a murderous political party hellbent on killing anyone who did not agree or were different to there standard.

To say this is all bull is a slap in the face to all soldiers who have fought against communist countries to keep its murderous reign from spreading world wide.

Yes, I do agree that we have the right as an individual to freedom of speech. This falls no where in the category of freedom of speech.

I collect numerous Nazi Party flags but there for my own historical value and not to go an parade them around. I’m sure if I decided to put one on my flag pole and fly it for everyone to see I would catch hell about it.

I agree that its all just a symbol, but it takes just one twisted person to change it from just a symbol to a political gain and power. I still fly my American flag and Confederate flag proudly on my flag poles. For people to say the Confederate flag was about slavery is completely bull. It was all about state rights and freedom from the oppressive north.

The current arguments over flags and symbols will go on for a life time. To know the history is one thing and to be dumb of facts is another. 

Adam Muirhead