Flag of Russia

The flag of Russia is a tricolor of three equal horizontal fields, white on the top, blue in the middle and red on the bottom. The flag was first used as an ensign for merchant and war ships and only became official in 1896. Rumored to be based off of the Dutch tricolor, the flag was in use until the 1917 Revolution, which toppled the tsar and established a communist government. For that time period, a red flag charged with communist symbols was favored over the tricolor. It was not until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 that the tricolor was brought back as the official flag of the new Russian Federation. The modern era flag underwent a slight change in 1993 and has been official since 2000. The flag of Russia provided the Pan-Slavic colours of red, blue and white that appear in the flags of Slavic countries.

History

There was no universally accepted flag for Russia until the middle of the 17th century. The earliest mention of the flag occurs during the reign of Tsar Alexis I, in 1668, and is related to the construction of the first Russian naval ship Oryol (The Eagle, Russian: Орёл).

According to one source, the choice of the colors may originate from the Dutch flag, and is related to the nationality of the ship's lead engineer Butler. During the construction, he faced the need for the flag, and issued a request to the Boyar Duma, to "...ask His Tsarist Majesty as to which (as is the custom among other nations) flag shall be raised on the ship." The official response merely indicated that, as such issue is as yet unprecedented, even though the land forces do use (apparently different) flags, the Tsar ordered that his (Butler's) opinion be sought about the matter, asking specifically as to the custom existing in his country. The Netherlands had at the time already settled on its current flag, consisting of red, white and blue stripes, which Butler duly told the Tsar.

This conversation apparently took notice, as the source proceeds to describe the materials bought "overseas" for the ship, and specifically mentions red, blue and white fabric. It is not at all certain, however, that the choice of the colors was effected by the Dutch flag. Another possibility is that the flag repeats the colour choice of the Coat of arms of Moscow; that emblem is alleged by at least one author (Prince Aleksandr Putyanin) to effectively be the first Russian flag. The different theories about colour origins of the Russian flag are discussed in more detail below.

A different account traces the origin of the Russian flag to Tsar Peter the Great's visit to the Netherlands in 1699. The tsar, who went there to learn about shipbuilding, realized the need for Russia to have a flag for its navy too. While differing in the circumstances, the two flag origin version agree on the Dutch flag influence. However, there are historical reasons to doubt that the flag was chosen as late as Peter's reign. One of the strongest arguments against that comes from a German flag book of 1695 by Carel Allard, which is considered to be one of the world's first flag books. Printed two years before Peter's trip to Western Europe, the book already describes three flags of a similar design noted as belonging to the either Tsar of Muscovy, or Muscovy itself. One of the three flags shown is the tricolor with a double-headed eagle holding a a shield in its hands, and wearing a golden crown over both of its heads. Another is the tricolor with a blue saltire over it, and the third consists of two white (top left and bottom right) and two red (top right and bottom left) squares, with a blue cross in the middle.^[1]

The flag was used as naval and military ensign since 1693 at least, and was adopted as a merchant flag in 1705. On May 7, 1883 it was authorized to be used on land. However, it did not became an official national flag (State Flag) until the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II in 1896.

Meaning and origin of the colors

While there are several theories as to the origin and reason for the choice of white, blue and red for the colors, none is currently accepted as universally correct. There is no official meaning assigned to the colors in Russian laws.

The three colors purportedly came from the coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which depict Saint George wearing white (silver) armor, riding a white horse, wearing a blue cape and holding a blue shield, on a red field. According to another version, these three colors were associated with the robes of the Virgin Mary, the holy protectress of Russia.

Yet another interpretation of the three colors is the order that they are placed reflected the Russian social system while under the monarchy: white represents God, blue represents the Tsar and red represents the peasants. A very common interpretation is the association of colors with the main parts of the Russian Empire: White thus represents White Russia (Belarus), blue the Ukraine or Small Russia ("Malorossia"), Red the Russian mainland.

A different interpretation associates white with the bright future (where the colur itself is associated with brightness, while its placement at the top - with future); blue with clouded present, and red with bloody past.

Several other theories have been proposed, with some allegedly coming from officials of Russian Federations in the USA.

Variant versions

A variant of the flag was authorized for private use by Tsar Nicholas II during World War I, adding the Romanov eagle on a yellow field in a canton in the top left-hand corner. This variant was never made official.

When the Bolsheviks took power in 1917, the tricolor design was discarded, and a definitive new flag of the Russian Republic (one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union) was introduced in 1954 (see flag of Russian SFSR), and this remained the republic's flag until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. All of the Soviet Republics' flags were created by introducing a small, but noticeable change, to the flag of the Soviet Union. In this case, the change was an introduction of the left-hand blue band. The previous Soviet design was different (a plain red flag with different variants of the "RSFSR" abbreviation in the honor canton).

The original flag of 1883 (rather than the black-yellow-white colour combination) was re-adopted by Russia on August 22, 1991. The readotion date is celebrated yearly as the national flag day.

The president of Russia uses a Presidential Standard (Russian: штандарт президента), which is officially defined as the tricolor with the Coat of Arms (depicting the two-headed eagle with the shield, as described above) in the middle.

See also

• List of Russian flags
• Coat of arms of Russian Federation
• Flag of the Russian SFSR
• Coat of arms of Moscow

References

External Links

• Official image of the Russian flag, from the Russian governmental source.
• (Russian) Text of the constitutional law about the flag.

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