Dacian dragons claimed central part on Moldova’s coat of arms

Two designs of Moldova’s new coat of arms had competed in the final contest held in the Parliament of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic on November 3, 1990. The {Romanian Eagle} was in the central part of one of them, while the {Dacian Dragons} in the second. The contest was won by the first design. Info-Prim Neo’s reporter Irina Ursu reconstructed the events that took place 20 years ago together with one of the authors of the alternative design, historian Vlad Mischevca. On April 27, 1990, when the Tricolor was adopted as Moldova’s state flag, tens of thousands of people went out to express their joy at the change that took place, at the Moldovans’ union and cohesion in the fight for national revival. The national symbols started to be promoted with new enthusiasm. According to Doctor of History Vlad Mischevca, one of those who organized the National Heraldry Commission in 1995 and contributed to the designing of Moldova’s new symbols, the adoption of the Tricolor was an emblematic victory in the 1990s, but the problem of the coat of arms remained unsolved. That’s why, for a period of time the Tricolor did not have a coat of arms, even if the law adopted by the Parliament required it. The law says the state flag represents a tricolor flag (blue, yellow and red) that has a coat of arms on the yellow band in the center. But the arms appeared on the flag half a year later. “The models proposed by the plastic artists were insufficiently justified from historical viewpoint and did not meet the heraldic requirements and the people’s and political class’ expectations,” Vlad Mischevca said. On October 19, 1989, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic set up a special commission for studying the national symbols. On February 28, 1990, it presented a report, recommending holding a contest to select the new symbols of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic. Two designs of coats of arms were presented in April 1990 by Master Gheorghe Vrabie and the team of plastic artist Simion Odainic, in cooperation with Alexandru Colabneac and historians Vlad Mischevca and Ion Negrei. Vlad Mischevca said the first design represented a picture with many stylized symbols: a head of aurochs accompanied by a half-moon, a rose with seven petals, a star with eight corners, a sword and a mace, a crown. They were all placed on a shield that represented the chest of a bird. The bird had the symbols of the sun and the moon on its wings. Initially, painter Gheorghe Vrabie suggested four different captions for one coat of arms: {RSSM, Moldova, Virtus Moldaviae rediviva, and DaciaRomana.} According to Vlad Mischevca, the second model was much simpler. It represented Moldova’s traditional emblem {the head of aurochs} with a star between his horns, flanked by a gold sun and a half-moon placed inside a red-blue shield. The shield was supported by an oak crown and a wreath made of three wheat ears. None of the designs met the requirements for a coat of arms. On May 1, 1990, the press reported that the contest to select the arms will be continued. Later, Vlad Mischevca took part in the discussions about the coat of arms staged by the mass media alongside other historians and plastic artists. He said that all the authors published their designs in the press by November 3. Those by Master Gheorghe Vrabie and painter Andrei Mudrea were selected as the best. Vlad Mischevca said that about 100 persons took part in the contest organized by the Commission of the Supreme Soviet, created on May 12, 1990, with approximately 130 designs. The models of Gheorghe Vrabie and Andrei Mudrea contained the head of aurochs as central element, but in different graphic forms In the final contest, Gheorghe Vrabie presented an improved form of his design devised in concert with Doctor of History, deputy head of the National Commission for Heraldry, Genealogy and Sigilography of Romania, Maria Dogaru. On November 3, 1990, the Parliament adopted the Vrabie – Dogaru design as the new coat of arms of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic with 243 votes in favor, 2 against and 8 abstentions. The design proposed in the final by painter Andrei Mudrea was different from those published earlier. That model was worked out together with historians Vlad Mischevca and Ion Negrei. It represented a red and blue shield with the head of the aurochs above, and a star with eight corners between the horns of the aurochs, accompanied by the sun and half-moon. The shield was supported by two [winged Dacian dragons}. “Those dragons constituted an original element that differentiated that model from others,” said Vlad Mischevca. “I think our design wasn’t chosen because it was too unordinary. It wasn’t popularized and was published in the press with delay, on November 4, 1990, after the contest,” Mischevca said. Under the Constitution adopted on July 29, 1994, Moldova’s coat of arms represents a red and blue shield with the head of the aurochs above that has a star with eight rays between horns. The head of aurochs is flanked by a rose with five petals on the right side and a half-moon on the left side. The shield is placed on the chest of an eagle that holds a gold cross in the beak, a green olive branch in the right claw and a gold scepter in the left claw. [Irina Ursu, Info-Prim Neo]