Russian Bear

[3] The Republic of Marii El's coat of arms is a red bear with a sword and shield.

[4] One of the earliest usages of the Russian bear was from William Shakespeare's Macbeth in Act 3, Scene 4.

[5] The Russian bear has also been depicted in political cartoons, especially in the British publication Punch.

[4] The Napoleonic Wars also had bears used to represent Russia alongside other animals, such as the Lion of England.

[4] In the First World War, many Punch cartoons referred to Russia using a bear to represent the empire.

[4] The cartoons, however, did not always represent Russia through war or expansion but also used the bear to describe internal problems.

[4] Especially after the January Uprising in Poland, a Russian bear is portrayed fighting a woman who represents the Poles.

Coincidentally, the surname of Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president elected in 2008, is an inflectional form of the word медведь, thus meaning "of the bears".