Russia

Rossia^

Last modified: 2000-01-14 by antonio martins
Keywords: russia | russian federation | peter 1 (russia) |
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• Presentation of Russia
• 1991 flag
• Origin of the flag

• Administrative subdivisions of Russia
• Clickable map of russian subdivisions (european Russia detail)
• Unofficial regional and ethnical flags
  • Languages of Russia
• Russian Coat of Arms
• Historical flags:
  • Soviet Union
    • Russia in Soviet Union
  • Russian Empire
• Maritime flags
• Government and military flags:
  • Presidential flag
  • Russian Navy flags
  • Russian Air Force flags
  • Police, Customs and Border Guard
  • Civil Defense
  • Transportation Authorities
  • Postal Service
  • WWII commemorative flag
• Political flags
• Cossack flags
• Commonwealth of Independent States
• Proposals for a new flag

Full name: Russian Federation
Location: Eurasia
Status: Independent state since 26 December 1991. Member of the United Nations (Permanent Security Council member.)
Notes: The world’s largest state, Russia was the dominant member of the USSR, which many people saw as the modern inheritor of the expansionist policies of the Tsars. With the collapse of the USSR, Russia inherited the Soviet Union’s permanent seat on the UN Security Council, but also much of the debt of the former USSR. Russia is a federated state with, in theory, widespread devolution to its regions. Unresolved tensions exist between the central government and many of these regions.
Stuart Notholt, 13 Nov 1995

The russian "State flag day" is the 22nd of august. I suppose that this is a quite new thing, not prior to 1991. I dont think that neither R.F.S.S.R. had a flag day, nor that this was reestablished from the 1905-1917 period, but...
António Martins, 18 Feb 1999

The right official ratio is 2:3. It was been changed by president’s law some years ago. In 1991 when Russian tricolor was officially adopted one had 1:2 ratio.
Michael Simakov, 25 Jan 1999

Although it is mentioned in a lot of (flag)books, it is probably just a myth that the Russian tricolour is derived from the Dutch one during Tsar Peter’s (incognito) visit to the Netherlands in 1697. In one of the worlds first flagbooks, compiled by Carel Allard (from Amsterdam) in 1695 [ala95], shows three Russian flags:

• horizontal white-blue-red, over all (shifted to the hoist) a golden double headed eagle with a red shield (with St.George, without the dragon) on its chest and a golden crown over its heads. Caption: Czar of Moscovia. (See here.)
• horizontal white-blue-red, over all a blue saltire. Ratio of the flag aprox. 1:3. Caption: Other flag of Czar of Moscovia. (See here.)
• quarterly red and white, a blue cross over all. Caption: another Moscovian flag. (See here.)

More correctly it should be said that the shape of the Dutch flag influenced the Russian one, while the colors were “traditional”. It is to remember that the Dutch ensign, created 1572, was the first marittime flag in the shape of three horizontal stripes, and since then, it got great popularity. We could say that white, blue and red flags were in used in Russia from about 1667, mainly in the quartered form with a blue cross, while from 1697, after the visit of Peter the Great to Netherlands, the triband design became the preferred one. (Sources: [zig94], [sto74] and [fow69].)
Mario Fabretto, 27 Nov 1998

Originally the civil ensign, the tricolour was officially recognized for use on land on 7 May 1883. Under the Bolsheviks, the flag was suppressed. It began to re-surface in 1990, and was officially adopted as the state flag on 21 August 1991, three days after the hardline attempted coup against (USSR) President Gorbac^e"v. A day later, Russian President Boris Elcin waved the flag from on top of a tank as the coup collapsed. An enormous white-blue-red cloth was paraded through the streets of Moscow and the flag was raised over the building of the Russian Supreme Soviet. On 25 December, it was also hoisted over the Kremlin. The next day, 26 December 1991, the formal legal termination of the USSR and its symbols took place.
Stuart Notholt

Smith [smi75] says that the plain white-blue-red tricolor had been the civil ensign since 1799 and an “alternate civil flag” since 1883 — this owing to the unpopularity of the black-orange-white flag. However, the black-orange-red was not officially abolished, so that Russia had two civil flags from 1883 to 1914. Tom Gregg, 21 Mar 1999

The white-blue-red is based on the coat of arms of the duchy of Moscow, which is red with Saint George, wearing white armor and a blue cape, riding a white horse, holding a blue shield, defeating the dragon.
Anton Sherwood

The rider is said to be St. George from 1730. The dominant colors are in effect red, blue and white. The white-blue-red flag was used till the fall of Kerenski’s government, in November 1917. The same happened to the two-headed eagle, without the imperial crown.
Giuseppe Bottasini

I seem to recall that the current Russian flag has similar means, the white for the White Russians, the blue for the Ukrainians and the red for the Russians of what is now Russia.
David Kendall, 10 Aug 1999