The Pahonia (Belarusian: Паго́ня, transliteration: Pahonya, IPA: [pa'ɣonʲa], translated as Chaser; Polish: Pogoń) is a historical symbol of Belarus. Pahonia was the official coat of arms of Belarus in 1918 and from 1991 to 1995.

Contents 1 Structure 2 History 2.1 Grand Duchy of Lithuania 2.2 1918-1990 2.3 1918-1990 3 Pahonia as a regional coats of arms 3.1 Appearances on urban coats of arms 4 Pahonia as a family coat of arms 5 Pahonia as a political symbol 6 Other usage 7 See also 8 External links 9 References

[edit] Structure

The heraldic shield features a red field with an armored knight on a white (silver) horse holding a silver sword in his right hand above his head. A silver shield hangs on the left shoulder of the charging knight, and a golden (yellow) Patriarchal cross appears on the shield.

[edit] History

[edit] Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Both Pahonia and the Coat of arms of modern Lithuania derive from the symbol of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

The charging knight first emerged as a state emblem in the region in 1366. It features on the seal of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Algerd (Belarusian: Альгерд, ruled 1345 - 1377), which marks a document dating from 1366. The old prototype of the present Pahonia depicts a knight on horseback holding a sword in his raised hand.

The symbol of the charging knight on horseback passed down through the generations: from Algerd to his son, Grand Duke Yagaila (ruled 1377 - 1392), then to Grand Duke Vitawt (Belarusian: Вітаўт, ruled 1392 - 1430) and to others. By the 14th century, the charging knight on horseback with a sword had begun to feature in an heraldic shield, first in Yagaila's seal in 1386 or 1387, and also in the seal of Vitawt in 1401. As early as the 15th century, the heraldic charging knight on horseback became the coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and of its central part - the Duchy of Vilna. 16th century documents refer to it using the Polish term Pogoń. At first, the charging knight might appear riding either left or right; and sometimes he held a lance. But as of the first half of the 15th century, all depictions show him riding towards the left (as seen by the viewer), with a sword in his raised hand and a shield in the left hand.

In the 15th century, the colors of the seal became uniform. The livery colors became fixed: a white (silver) charging knight on a red field of the heraldic shield. The charging knight at this time bore a blue shield, and set against the blue field appeared a double (gold) cross. The coat of arms featured the Grand Duke's headgear on the crest.

At first the charging knight showed the figure of the ruler of the country, but with time it came to be understood and interpreted as that of a riding knight chasing an intruder out of his native country. Such an understanding became especially popular in the 19th century and in the first half of 20th century. The explanation has a sound historical foundation. We know that at the Battle of Grunwald (1410), where the united Polish-Lithuanian army crushed the army of the Teutonic Knights (thus putting an end to the Knights' eastward expansion) thirty Belarusian and Lithuanian regiments out of a total of forty fought under banners flying the sign of the Pahonia.

With minor stylistic changes, the Pahonia coat of arms remained the state symbol of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until 1795, when the Russian Empire annexed and extinguished the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Third Partition of Poland. The Pahonia then became incorporated into the imperial state emblem. After the first partition of Poland, Catherine the Great had given the Pahonia coat of arms to several towns in the newly acquired ethnic Belarusian and Latgallian territories, including Daugavpils, Ludza, Sebezh, Polacak, Nevel, Haradok, Viciebsk, Surazh, Velizh. The motive for this was that this territory once belonged to Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

[edit] 1918-1990

More recently, the Pahonia appeared on the state seal of the Belarusian Democratic Republic from 1918. In West Belarus, that was part of interwar Poland, Pahonia has been again introduced as the symbol of several provinces on Belarusian lands (Polesie Voivodeship, Wilno Voivodeship (1923–1939), Nowogródek Voivodeship (1919–1939)). It was also used by West Belarusian separatist organizations.

During Soviet times the emblem remained forbidden and used only by Belarusian emigrant communities in the USA, Canada etc. During the Second World War the Belarusian Central Rada - a puppet Nazi régime in Belarus - used the Pahonia symbol.

[edit] 1918-1990

In the late 1980s, during a new wave of Belarusian national rebirth, the Belarusian Popular Front adopted the Pahonia as its coat of arms, despite the fact that its public display constituted a criminal offense^{[citation needed]}. In 1990, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Pahonia became the coat of arms of the independent Republic of Belarus.

In 1995, following a controversial referendum, Alexander Lukashenko scrapped the Pahonia's status as the official coat of arms and replaced it with a modified Soviet emblem. Since then the Pahonia has served as one of the symbols of the anti-Lukashenko opposition in Belarus.

[edit] Pahonia as a regional coats of arms

Pahonia has been the main element of emblems of all^[1] Voivodeships on the lands of modern Belarus in the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Nowogródek Voivodeship	Wilno Voivodeship	Polesie Voivodeship	Białystok Voivodeship and Podlaskie Voivodeship (1513–1795)
Minsk Voivodeship	Polock Voivodeship	Witebsk Voivodeship	Banner of the Mstsislaw Voivodeship

After annexation of Belarus to the Russian Empire, the Vitebsk and Vilno governorates have inherited coats of arms of their former voivodeships.

Vilna Governorate coat of arms

Vitebsk Governorate coat of arms

Pahonia became official emblem of the Vitsebsk voblast in 2009.

Vitsebsk voblast coat of arms

[edit] Appearances on urban coats of arms

While being part of the Russian Empire, some towns in Belarus, notably Viciebsk, Haradok, Połacak and others, were given Pahonia as part of their coats of arms. Some of them continue usage of Russian-given coats today:

Lepiel	Verkhnyadzvinsk	Vileyka (former coat of arms from 1845)	Lida (former coat of arms from 1845)
Nevel, today part of Pskov Oblast of Russia	Velizh, today part of Smolensk Oblast of Russia	Brańsk, today part of Podlaskie Voivodeship of Poland	Puławy, in Poland
Siedlce, in Poland

Rečyca, Mahiloŭ and several other cities have historically had the Pahonia as part of their city coat of arms:

Rečyca

Lipnishki

Mahiloŭ

[edit] Pahonia as a family coat of arms

See Pogoń Litewska

[edit] Pahonia as a political symbol

Pahonia/Pogoń has been used by several political movements on the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in present-day Belarus

Emblem of the January Uprising

Emblem of the November Uprising

Emblem of the Belarusian Popular Front

[edit] Other usage

Pahonia is part of the emblems of several organizations in Belarus, including the World Association of Belarusians and the Frantsishak Skaryna Belarusian Language Society as well as the BelaPAN news agency^[2].

Emblem of the World Association of Belarusians

Emblem of the Frantsishak Skaryna Belarusian Language Society

[edit] See also

• Coat of arms of Pogoń Litewska
• Coat of arms of Pogoń Ruska
• Coat of Arms of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
• Coat of arms of Lithuania (Vytis)

[edit] External links

• The comparison of symbols of Lithuania and the Muscovite Ruthenia (Russian)

[edit] References

1. ^ Emblems of historical provinces on the territory of modern Belarus
2. ^ http://belapan.com