It has also come to serve as the standard symbol representing communism as a whole, recognized as such in international circles, even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

On the other hand, the unique hammer-and-sickle design was a modern industrial touch adopted from the Russian Revolution; it represented the "victorious and enduring revolutionary alliance" by unifying the hammer (i.e. workers) and the sickle (i.e. peasants).

The gold-bordered five-point star situated above the hammer and sickle was a representation of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

In 1980, an amendment was made to the 1955 decree that removed the hammer and sickle displayed on the flag's reverse side, though the legal description remained completely unchanged.

The adopted statute stated that:[4] Officially since 1980, the reverse side of the flag was a plain red field without the hammer and sickle.

For vertical display, the flag was made with the distinct difference of having the hammer and sickle rotated 90 degrees in order to compensate for the change in dimensions.

[7] During the establishment of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Vladimir Lenin and his followers had considered the inclusion of a sword symbol in addition to the hammer and sickle as part of the state seal on which the flag was eventually based.

The description of the first flag was given in the 1924 Soviet Constitution, accepted in the second session of the executive committee (CIK) of the USSR on 6 July 1923.

It was ordered with the unusual ratio of 4:1 in proportion and consisted of a red flag with the state coat of arms in the center.

In the third session of the CIK of the USSR, the description of Soviet flag in the Constitution was changed, and article 71 was edited to read: "The state flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics consists of a red or scarlet field, and in the canton a golden sickle and hammer, and a red five-pointed star bordered in gold above them.