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The bulava or buława (Polish spelling: buława; Russian spelling: булава [bula'va]) is a ceremonial mace or baton or sceptre.

Historically the buława was an attribute of a hetman, an officer of the highest military rank (after the monarch) in the 15th- to 18th-century Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Hetmans typically added an image of a buława to their coats of arms.

Today the buława appears in the rank insignia of a Marshal of Poland.

In the Ukrainian language, a булава (bulava) is a mace or club, in both the military and ceremonial senses. The bulava was one of the Ukrainian Cossack kleinody (клейноди - "jewels"): Bohdan Khmelnytsky bore a bulava as Hetman of the Zaporizhian Host (in office: 1648 to 1657).^[1]

Historically the bulava was an attribute of a hetman, an officer of the highest military rank, and of the Hetman or the military head of a Cossack state (Cossack Hetmanate).

The Ukrainian People's Republic of 1917-1920 referred to the General Staff of the Ukrainian People's Army as the "General Bulava".^[2]

A ceremonial bulava is now an official emblem of the president of Ukraine, and is housed in Ukraine's Vernadsky National Library.

Ukrainian military heraldry often features bulava-images, particularly as a part of rank insignia for generals and admirals, as well as an element of the insignia of the Ministry of Defence and of the NSDC.

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  Hetman Zamoyski, in crimson delia and blue żupan, holding hetman's buława
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  Edward Rydz-Śmigły (right) receiving marshal's buława from Polish President Ignacy Mościcki, Warsaw, 10 November 1936
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  Coat-of-arms (two crossed buławas) of a Polish hetman
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  Buława of Crown Field Hetman Kalinowski
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  Bulava of Hetman of Ukraine Bohdan Khmelnytsky, 17th century
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  Bulava of Hetman of Ukraine in exile Pylyp Orlyk, 18th century
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  Toy bulavas in a Kyiv market
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  17th-century Russian bulat steel bulava
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  Volodymyr Zelenskyy lifting presidential bulava during the 2019 presidential inauguration of Ukraine

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bulawa.

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