A history of tricolor flag of Russia — in the electronic folios of the Presidential Library

22 August 2017

Day of the National Flag of the Russian Federation is celebrated in our country on August 22. This day in 1991, a white-blue-red flag (tricolor) replaced the red Soviet banner. That way it was complied with decision of the extraordinary session of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic to consider the returned banner as the state symbol of Russia. There is meaningful information about the official state symbols under the “Symbols of state power” in one of the four basic collections of the Presidential Library named the State authority.

Focusing on this, the Presidential Library presents on its website both rare books and recent audiovisual materials that introduce users to the work of leading researchers at all stages in the history of the tricolor, which regained a status of the national flag.

Sources from the Presidential Library stock testify that during the development of our state the flag changed several times. Each Russian ruler made changes in the Russian symbolism with reference to “a peculiarity of current moment.”

In this sense, the history of transformations of the Russian tricolor is most indicative. At first it was intended only for the merchant cargo fleet, which was built under Peter the Great and went out into the open spaces of the seas and oceans, where it was necessary to somehow designate its statehood. “…these three colors, — as we could read in the digitized copy of historical and legal study of E. N. Voronets entitled What colors are established by a history and the Russian laws for the distinctive Russian of-all-classes and state flag? (1892), — were recognized merely only for merchant cargo vessels and bestowed by the Emperor Peter I in 1705. Red, blue and white were the far-back state colors of Holland, and Emperor Peter I, probably out of respect for Holland, where the Tsar himself and Russia in general first earned knowledge in seafaring — chose color of this country exclusively for Russian merchants and cargo vessels.”

The well-known historian of the Navy P. I. Belavenets dedicated several books to the history of the Russian flag and, in turn, defined the “Peter’s period” of the history of our flag in a rare edition of The colors of the Russian National Flag (1910). He also recognizes Peter I as “the father” of the tricolor, because the sovereign himself sketched out his example and determined an order of horizontal stripes. The own hand drawing of Tsar Peter Alekseyevich is published in the above-mentioned book by P. I. Belavenets.

In different versions, the three-lane flag decorated Russian warships as long as the St. Andrew's flag was not established in the navy.

So, according to Belavenets, “various combinations of white, blue and red colors compile all Russian naval flags since 1667, established as colors of the Moscow state.”

In 1709, after the Battle of Poltava, the Moscow kingdom came to be called the Russian Empire, and in the same year the standard of the new model appeared — a yellow flag with a black two-headed eagle, on whose chest, in a white shield, stabbing the dragon St. George is depicted. It is known from the sources that this was a personal initiative of Tsar- reformer, who was overwhelmed by a giant need for renewal in all areas of public life; he subjected the flag to a radical change as a symbol of the renewal of the Russian state. This flying on the flagpole of the ship banner could be seen in the movie of Pavel Medvedev and Georgy Vilinbakhov entitled The state symbols of Russia. Film 2. Flag of Russia (2007), available on the Presidential Library website.

The return of the tricolor took place only in 1896, on shortly before the coronation of Nicholas II: the white-blue-red flag was finally assigned as the only state flag of the Russian Empire. This fact was described by P. I. Belavenets in his aforementioned work The colors of the Russian National Flag (1910): “A special meeting on the establishment of colors of the national flag… in its final decision spoke in favor of the white-blue-red colors, completely rejecting the combination of black and yellow-white, finding that the last colors “have no heraldic or historical foundation.” It was at this time that the three colors of the flag, which had become national, were officially interpreted. White color symbolized freedom and independence, blue — the color of the Most Holy Mother of God, who patronized Russia, and red meant the great power statehood.”

Executive secretary of the Heraldic Council under the President of the Russian Federation, PhD in Historical Sciences G.V. Kalashnikov articulated his own version of the tricolor history in The State Flag of Russia public video lecturing of the Presidential Library’s “Knowledge of Russia” series.

The illustrations from The album of standards, flags and pennants of the Russian Empire and foreign countries (1890), as well as The album of flags and pennants of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the Union Soviet Republics and foreign states (1923), available on the Presidential Library website, are of special value for all those who are interested in the history of the Russian flag.

About he history of the flag, as well as the standard and the sign of the President of Russia, is also told in the documentary entitled The symbols of the Presidential Power, released by the Presidential Library as part of the “Presidential Chronicle” project.