The hammer and sickle (Unicode: U+262D ☭ HAMMER AND SICKLE) is a communist symbol representing proletarian solidarity between agricultural and industrial workers. It was first adopted during the Russian Revolution at the end of World War I, the hammer representing workers and the sickle representing the peasants.

Communist symbols have been banned, in part or in whole, by a number of the world's countries. As part of a broader process of decommunization, these bans have mostly been proposed or implemented in countries that belonged to the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War, including some post-Soviet states.

The hammer and sickle represented, respectively, workers and peasants, and the star symbolized the ultimate goal of global communist victory.

The gold-bordered five-point star situated above the hammer and sickle was a representation of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The first flag was adopted in December 1922. In 1923, 1924, 1936 and 1955, statutes were adopted that resulted in adjustments to the hammer's handle length and the sickle's shape.