A history of the Russian tricolor is presented on the Presidential Library’s website

Before the Day of the State Flag of the Russian Federation, which is celebrated on August 22, the Presidential Library opens an access to rarities and current materials, revealing a history of the Russian tricolor.

The state flag was approved by the Federal Constitutional Law of the 25th of December 2000 "On the State Flag of the Russian Federation" and along with the anthem and coat of arms refers to the official symbols of the state.

One of the serious studies of the history of the state flag of Russia is a rarity edition of 1910 entitled "The Colors of the National Flag of the Russian State" by well-known historian of the Navy P. I. Belavenets. In the book, he offers his version of the origin of the national flag starting from the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.

The author writes, "the Moscow state colors - red, white and blue - have been established by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich on April 9, 1667." There are some assumptions on how could the flags prepared in the years 1667-1668 for the first Russian warship "Eagle" look like. "It is difficult to identify how were these allotted to the ship color fabrics combined, - said Belavenets - but I think so: the blue straight cross, two squares of white and two of red..." There were also ideas that the flag, imitating the Dutch one, consisted of three horizontal stripes - white, blue and red, with the image of a golden double-headed eagle in the center. So far, no consensus on this issue was reached among researchers.

Tsar Peter the Great, the son of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, continued the tradition of using white, blue and red for the flag. As it says in P. I. Belavenets’ book, in 1693 Tsar Peter Alexeevich granted to the archbishop of Archangelsk Afonasiy his own flag. "The flag had three horizontal stripes - white, blue and red, with sewn yellow eagle, who had on his chest an oil painted red shield with the image of St. George over a white horse; a body turning position is canonical. The saint stabs green snake."

The researchers found Peter I the "father" of the tricolor. On January 20, 1705, he issued a decree according to which white-blue-red flag should raise "on any cargo ships", adding to it his own drawing of the sample and determining the sequence of horizontal stripes. Author’s image of Tsar Peter I is published in the book by P. I. Belavenets. It was the very same flag under which the ship went to Constantinople.

Three-stripe flag in different variations adorned warships until the Navy has approved the Andrew's flag.

Thus, "various color combinations of white, blue and red are the basis of all Russian naval flags from 1667, agreed as the colors of the Moscow state."

According to the author of the book, a combination of black-yellow-white "first appeared in 1709 on the Russian standard, initiated as heraldic colors for officers’ scarves in 1742, and only in 1858 by the high injunction joint in the flag and announced the heraldic colors, and in 1864 as a ribbon for a medals named national colors."

Some other books from the collections of the Presidential Library also refer to the combination of black, yellow and white colors on the national flag. For example, in the historical and legal study of a full member of the Society of the Spiritual Enlightenment Lovers E. Vorontsov entitled "What colors are arranged in history and Russian law to distinctive Russian all ranges and the national flag?" (1892) is said, that "a distinctive Russian national state color, mutual to the Tsar and the Russian people, was for four centuries during the reigns of all Tsars and Queens Russian as Ruriks and Romanovs, invariably now and, must hope, will always be of the colors: black, orange (or gold) and white."

During the development of our state flag was changed several times. Every Russian ruler was making changes in the Russian symbolism. Only in 1896, before the coronation of Nicholas II, the white-blue-red flag was finally approved as a national. Since 1918 our country has lived under the red flag, and on the 22nd of August 1991, the white-blue-red flag (tricolor) reappeared on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment. This day on an extraordinary session of the Supreme Soviet were decided to consider it the official symbol of Russia.

In addition to electronic copies of rare books the contemporary audio-visual materials are presented in the Presidential Library’s website. For example, anyone can get acquainted with the video lectures of the candidate of historical sciences, the executive secretary of the Heraldic Council under the President of the Russian Federation G. V. Kalashnikov entitled "The national flag of Russia." The lecturer reviled the interesting facts about the history of our flag, the changes that have undergone by the symbols of power over time, etc. Video lectures are prepared within the framework of the educational project of the Presidential Library called "Video Lectures. Knowledge about Russia."

Thorough materials about the symbols of power of IX-XVIII centuries, the Russian Empire, the state power in the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation can be found in the "Symbols of State Power" section of the Presidential Library’s collection entitled "State Power". This section is intended to represent the Russian national and regional symbols, as well as legal documents, defining its appearance, content and use in different periods of Russian history.