Proposed Belarus Coat of Arms

[Marcus Karlsson]

Found this proposal for Arms of the Republic of Belarus a compromise by the 1991-95 Coat of Arms and the Post 1995 Soviet Style Emblem.

[Marcus Karlsson]

The 1991 Coat of Arms:



The State Emblem in use since 1995. The Text read Republic (of) Belarus.

[Marcus Karlsson]

The 1995 emblem is clearly based on those of the Belarus Soviet Socialist Republic, Part of the Sovietunion.

[Michael F. McCartney]

Heraldically, we would say that the "arms" are the shield (quite nice!) and the rest merely external ornamentation or perhaps additaments, the whole being the achievement.

But if Belarus were to specifically and officially designate the whole thing as their arms, then arms it is!

[Arthur Radburn]

I wonder what the Lithuanian government thought of the proposed Belarus arms. There is a very strong resemblance between the two shields (which makes historical sense seeing that Belarus was once part of greater Lithuania) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Lithuania

[Chris Green]

The Belarusian People's Republic used the mounted knight CoA from 1918-1920:

[Mike_Oettle]

Assuming that the people’s republic was in fact communist, its use of a mounted knight is an interesting contradiction, although (in my view) a laudable reintroduction (or retention) of an ancient symbol.
While I cannot like the insertion of the shield into the outer part of the communist state emblem, I do feel that the use of green on the shield would be a useful distinction from the arms of Lithuania.

[Chris Green]

Assuming that the people’s republic was in fact communist ...

Despite the name it wasn't apparently. It was replaced by a Communist government on 5 January 1919 having lasted less than a year.