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People's Republic of Bulgaria, 1967-1971

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2:3, by Željko Heimer

The white over green over red Bulgarian flag with the states coat of arms in white stripe towards hoist.
Željko Heimer, 7 June 1997

Introduction
Coat of arms (1967)
Civil Ensign
Chairman of the Council of Ministers
Chairman of the Presidium
International Workers' Movement

See also:

Introduction

In 1947 a new coat of arms was adopted, and the state flag with the coat of arms in the canton changed too, as well as the civil ensign becoming a simple tricolour. Regarding the background colour of the shield - it seems that the adopted version was gradually changed to blue without any regulation about it. Not to enter into the discussion on "socialist heraldry" in depth, but I believe that the change was influenced by other socialist emblems of this style where the "field" was always "felt" to represent the sky and was tended to be represented in blue. A similar tendency might be seen in Yugoslav coat of arms as well as those of the Yugoslav republics, and I guess among SSR coats of arms as well).
Željko Heimer, 9 September 2001

The #88 Decree of the Grand National Assembly from 27 Jan 1948 approved the plastic and the graphic pattern of the coat of arms. According to that, the coat of arms was a golden lion on a red background; surrounded by corn-ears, fixed by a red ribbon with inscription 9.XI.1944 on it, and a red five-pointed star above. Later the coat of arms was changed. The official explanation of the symbols on coat of arms, given by #431 Decree of National Assembly from 14 June 1967, Section 3, already talked about a sky-blue background, cog-wheel and tricolor ribbon. The last changes of the coat of arms were regulated by #954 Decree from 7 Dec 1967.
Stoyan Antonov, 10 September 2001

Although I did not find the legislative text (in the article from 1968 about the Bulgarian coat of arems by Hristo Dermendjiev), this information must be right. In the book Gerbat (The Coat-of-Arms) by Borislav Nikolov & Maria Cherneva (Sofia, 2000, ISBN 954-90599-2-8) I found the following:

The graphic and plastic image of the coat of arms, adopte