Coat of arms of the Grateful

The heraldic description of the coat of arms of the municipality of the city of Grateful reads:

In the azure (blue, blue) field above the golden abstracted below, with two arches , a flying red (red) dove with a silver head and feathers hiding its paws, with silver wings wide edged with a scarlet flying above, and with black eyes.

- Decision of the Blagodarnenskaya City Council of March 2, 2006 No. 282 ^[5]

The semantic meaning of the coat of arms reflects the main natural, historical and cultural attractions of the city, founded in the second half of the 18th century by first settlers from the southern provinces of the Russian Empire . The Wet Buffalo River crosses the territory of the Grateful, dividing the city into two parts ^{[5] [6]} . They are connected by the ancient bridge depicted in the coat of arms with two arches ^[6] , personifying “the connection of the past and the present, preserving the traditions and the continuity of generations of city residents” ^[5] . The azure shield field symbolizes the Buffalo River, on the banks of which the city of Thanks was laid. Another important attraction of the city, reflected in the coat of arms, is the dove of thanksgiving ^[5] . This bird with white-red plumage, “in addition to the uniqueness of its breed and local origin, denotes concepts such as peacefulness and spirituality, which are the moral ideals of citizens” ^[9] .

The symbolism of the tincture field of the shield and figures is interpreted as follows: silver means purity, perfection, mutual understanding; gold - wealth, stability, respect and intelligence; light blue - honor, glory, fidelity and sincerity; the scarlet — courage, strength, labor, and beauty ^[5] .

In 1999, the Council of People's Deputies of the Grateful announced the holding of an open competition for the best project of the symbolism of the city ^[10] . For this purpose, a competition commission was formed under the executive committee of the city council, which included representatives of the city of Gratitude, deputies, public figures, artists, teachers of the art school and general educational institutions ^{[6] [11]} . The results of the competition were announced at a meeting of the city executive committee in November 1999. Before that, the commission members selected for consideration the three most interesting versions of the coat of arms developed by local artists V. V. Zhdanov and I. F. Tikhenko ^{[10] [11]} .

The coat of arms, executed by Zhdanov, was a shield with a toothed head, in the field of which the head of a wheat ear was placed in a pole, a loaf and two opposite reversed open palms ^[11] . The remaining two sketches were made by Tichenko. On one of them, the artist depicted in the center of the heraldic shield a wreath consisting of a gear fragment on the right and a wheat ear on the left, and placed a dove flying to the left on top of the wreath ^[11] . The spike traditionally symbolized fertility, agriculture and tillage, and the gear symbolized industry and mechanical engineering ^[12] . The image of the pigeon reminded of the one bred in the Grateful breed, which subsequently gained world fame ^{[6] [13]} . In another drawing of Tichenko, in addition to the flying dove, there were images of a stone bridge with two arches, an elevator and an Orthodox church. The members of the commission considered this sketch the most successful ^{[6] [11]} .

At the end of November 1999, the Blagodarnenskie Vesti newspaper published information about the results of the contest, placing all three figures on the front page and inviting readers to express their opinion about them ^[11] . In particular, the head of the administration of the Blagodarnensky district, N. S. Sergeev, responded to the proposal. In December of that year, on the pages of “Blagodarnenskie Vesti” appeared his article “Coat of arms of the city. What should he be? ”, In which the advantages and disadvantages of the competitive works described above were analyzed in detail. The use of elements of state symbols (wreaths of oak leaves and ears intertwined with ribbons with the colors of the Flag of Russia ) in all projects, the author of the publication found unacceptable, since the local government carried out in the city of Grateful is not part of the state power system. Among the common shortcomings, Sergeyev also attributed to the use in the arms of the founding date of the Grateful due to doubts about its authenticity. The head of the district administration gave his preference to the sketches of I. F. Tichenko and proposed to develop a coat of arms more concise in content, placing the figure of a dove in the center of the shield and leaving only an image of an ear under it ^[12] .

On December 1, 1999, by the decision of the Council of People’s Deputies ^[3], the project of I. F. Tichenko ^[6], who won the open tender, was adopted as the basis of the coat of arms of the grateful municipality of the city of Gratitude. The composition of the coat of arms included the elements proposed by the artist, reflecting the main sights of the Grateful: a dove of the grateful breed, an old bridge over the Buffalo river, a temple and an elevator ^{[6] [10] [13]} . Later, due to “congestion and excessive artistic naturalism” , this emblem was sent for revision ^[6] .

On March 2, 2000, deputies of the city council approved the emblem as follows: “On a heraldic shield of azure color in the upper field of blue tint a silver flying dove with scarlet plumage; in the lower field of a blue hue there is a golden bridge with two arches ” ^[4] . The graphic completion of the coat of arms was performed by R. E. Nazarov, artist-designer of the ARS-Design studio (Stavropol). March 15, 2000 the newspaper "Blagodarnenskie Vesti" posted a drawing of a new coat of arms and its description ^[10] . In the same year, the city authorities resumed work on the official symbols of the city in order to bring it into line with the rules of heraldry and to develop a flag in addition to the coat of arms ^[6] .

On March 2, 2006, the adjusted coat of arms of the city of Blagodarny and the flag based on it were reapproved in accordance with the decision of the Blagodarnenskaya City Council ^{[5] [6]} . The final version of the official symbols of the municipality was developed with the participation of the Union of Heraldists of Russia by a team of authors consisting of I.F. Tikhenko (the idea of ​​the coat of arms), K.F. Mochenov (heraldic revision), R. E. Nazarov (artist), G. A Rusanova (design), K. V. Perehodenko (substantiation of the coat of arms symbols) ^{[14] [15]} .

On May 18, 2006, after passing the examination at the Heraldic Council under the President of the Russian Federation , the coat of arms and flag of the municipality were entered in the State Heraldry Register (coat of arms under number 2278, flag under number 2279) ^[6] .

• Grateful Flag

• Okhonko N. A. Symbols of a small homeland. - Pyatigorsk: Bulletin of the Caucasus, 2007 .-- 96 p. - ISBN 5-85714-049-8 .

• Heraldry // Official site of the municipality city of Grateful.
• The city of Gratitude (Stavropol Territory) // Heraldicum.ru: official site of the Russian Center for Flag Studies and Heraldry.
• Coat of arms of the municipality of the city of Grateful // Official site of the Union of Russian Heraldists .