  A study of two-dimensional QCD on a spatial circle with Majorana fermions in
the adjoint representation of the gauge groups SU(2) and SU(3) has been
performed. The main emphasis is put on the symmetry properties related to the
homotopically non-trivial gauge transformations and the discrete axial symmetry
of this model. Within a gauge fixed canonical framework, the delicate interplay
of topology on the one hand and Jacobians and boundary conditions arising in
the course of resolving Gauss's law on the other hand is exhibited. As a
result, a consistent description of the residual $Z_N$ gauge symmetry (for
SU(N)) and the ``axial anomaly" emerges. For illustrative purposes, the vacuum
of the model is determined analytically in the limit of a small circle. There,
the Born-Oppenheimer approximation is justified and reduces the vacuum problem
to simple quantum mechanics. The issue of fermion condensates is addressed and
residual discrepancies with other approaches are pointed out.
