Flag of Russia Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
The Flag of Russia is a tricolour. It consists of three equal horisontal fields, white on the top, blue in the middle and red on the bottom. The flag of Russia is the source of Pan-Slavic colors.
Moscow Coat of Arms
Most flagbooks trace the origin of Russian flag to
Peter the Great's visit to the
Netherlands in
1699. The
tsar who went there to learn about
shipbuilding realised the need for Russia to have a
flag for its
navy too. So, he based the plan of the flag of Russia on the
Flag of the Netherlands, making it a tricolour with three equal horizontal fields, but he chose Russian colors for it (the flag of the Netherlands at that time was orange-white-blue, it had no red). He chose the colors of
coat of arms of the Duchy of Moscow, which had
Saint George, having white armour, riding a white horse, wearing a blue cape and holding a blue shield, on red field. This story, while being in wide circulation, is certainly a myth, as a flagbook of
1695 (i.e., predating Peter's trip to Western Europe) already describes flags of a similar design as belonging to the Tsar of
Muscovy. While the Russian tricolour is evidently based on the Dutch civil ensign, it was derived earlier than is commonly presumed (in fact, it was already flown by the
Oriol, the first boat of the Russian navy, in
1667).
In use as naval ensign since 1600's, it was adopted as merchant flag in 1705. On May 7, 1883 it was authorised to be used on land, thus officially becoming the national flag. Tsar Nicholas II changed it in 1914, adding the Romanov eagle on a yellow field in a canton in the top left corner. When the Bolsheviks took power in 1917, they changed the flag (see Flag of Russian SFSR). The current flag was re-adopted by Russia on August 22, 1991.
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