Putin restores Soviet-era star as symbol of Russian military

MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin brought back the Soviet-era red star yesterday as the Russian military's emblem, the latest in a series of restored historic symbols that play to nostalgia but have some people wary of a return to the repressive past.

Once the most recognized icon of the Soviet Union after the hammer and sickle, the five-point star never vanished but was phased out after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Putin's plan — if backed by parliament, as expected — would return the star officially to the military's enormous parade banners. Military caps and belt buckles would likely be next.

The move comes after the Russian parliament, on Putin's initiative, rehabilitated the tune of the old Soviet anthem with new words. It also brought back the Soviet-era red banner as the military flag, which now should get back its star.

Putin says he hopes the resurrected symbols will help mend rifts in society by acknowledging achievements of the Soviet past. Some fear the return of authoritarian icons could herald a return of a Soviet-style authoritarian regime.

The star had symbolized the Red Army since the army's formation after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. It appeared on the communist flag above the hammer and sickle and in the graphics of Soviet-era TV news broadcasts.

Red stars sit atop the pointed towers of the Kremlin, even today.

In bringing back old icons, lawmakers also endorsed the czarist-era white-red-and-blue flag that Russia has been using since the 1991 Soviet demise, as well as the old imperial emblem of a double-headed eagle.

One observer sees it as Putin's scattershot plan to broaden his support base.

"No one is left out: Communists get their anthem, the conservatives have a double-headed eagle and democrats their tricolor flag," says Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a Soviet-era dissident who heads the Moscow Helsinki Group, a leading human rights organization.

"It makes one wonder what kind of national ideology such a state has," she said.