Cambridge University students at King’s College vote to remove ‘offensive’ Communist flag

The framed flag was reportedly bought by the fellows on eBay for £5.50 in 2004 and put up in the bar to stop vandals drawing hammer and sickles on the red walls.

Students at King’s College have voted to remove the Communist flag from the wall in their bar after nearly 10 years.

The painting of a hammer and sickle flag was removed from the college after a King’s student raised a complaint that the flag’s Soviet connotations were “incredibly offensive.”

At a meeting held at the end of term, students agreed to remove the painting and will vote to replace it with another next term.

Linguistics student Lisa Karlin, whose family lived in Ukraine while it was controlled by USSR, proposed the motion to the JCR (junior common room) student body two weeks ago.

Speaking to the News, she said: “It’s not that the flag is a Communist symbol, but it’s that it specifically represents the Soviet Union.”

As opposed to the traditional hammer and sickle symbol, the Soviet flag also included a red star, which represented the Communist Party.

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