The president's spokesman, Anatoly Krasikov, said Yeltsin had signed a special decree on the reconstitution of the service and appointed an official state herald to run it. He is Georgy Velinkhabov, deputy director of the St. Petersburg Hermitage museum.
Krasikov said the main function of the new service would be to create new or restore old emblems and symbols for official use -- flags, medals, uniforms and badges. "Russian diplomats, for example, still have ceremonial uniforms with old Soviet symbols," he said.
Many of the old, familiar hammer and sickles and red stars emblazoned on thousands of different uniforms and documents will soon be replaced by traditional Russian symbols from pre-revolutionary times, chosen by the heraldry service. But some Soviet symbols will remain.
"We don't want to discard the achievements in Soviet heraldry," Velinkhabov said in an interview.
The first Russian State Heraldry Department was set up by Peter the Great in 1722. By 1917 it had created coats of arms for 5,000 noble families.
The new service will oversee the creation of official emblems for all civic and military institutions.
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