The emblem contains an image of a hammer and sickle on the background of the terrestrial globe, in the rays of the sun and surrounded by ears of grain (wheat), in a red ribbon with the inscription in the languages of the union republics "Proletarians of all countries, unite!"

On 10 January 1923, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR established a commission for the development of the state emblem and flag.

At the same time, the CEC defined the main elements of the state symbols of the union: the sun, the sickle and hammer, the motto "Proletarians of all countries, unite!".

Dunin-Borkovsky - he, as an adherent of classical heraldry, represented the coat of arms of the USSR as a heraldic shield with a sickle and a hammer.

The Commission outlined several key principles that should form the basis of the new symbol: All of Goznak's sketches rejected the conservative layout of European heraldry, especially shields.

On the basis of the order, the artist prepared several projects based on the idea of "a hammer and sickle hovering over the globe".

[3] This design was fixed in the 1924 Soviet Constitution: "The State Emblem of the USSR is composed of a sickle and a hammer on a globe depicted in the rays of the sun and framed by ears of wheat, with the inscription "proletarians of the world, unite!"

The Soviet Union joined World War II by invading Poland and Finland and occupying the Baltic states in 1939–40.

Thus there were de facto 16 Soviet republics, but the state emblem was changed to reflect this only after the end of WWII.

By a decision of Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on 26 June 1946, all 16 constituent republics were represented on the emblem.

Also, several language from newly annexed republics were added: Finnish and Romanian (written by Cyrillic and officially called "Moldovan") as well as Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian.

In 1956, the Karelo-Finnish SSR was demoted into the Karelian ASSR and a part of the Russian SFSR, and soon this was reflected on the USSR state emblem.