Moscow News
http://www.mnweekly.ru/
August 21, 2008
Russia celebrates Day of State Flag
By Kirill Bessonov
On August 22 Russia celebrates National Flag Day, a new tradition that was begun in 1994.
Apparently, the flag was chosen due to the fact that democratic supporters of Russian leader Boris Yeltsin rallied under a white, blue and red flag during the attempted communist coup of 1991. The democratic forces also used the St. Andrew's flag and the black, yellow and white Emperor's standard of the Romanovs, but the tricolor was the most popular.
After the coup was suppressed and the Soviet Union was divided into independent republics, the Russian Soviet Federative Republic became the Russian Federation with the white, blue and red tricolor used as the state flag. However, the flag's status was finally sealed by the presidential decree dated December 11, 1993. In 1994 the Russian president issued an order introducing the new state holiday - the Day of the State Flag of the Russian Federation, apparently modeled on a similar holiday celebrated in the United States, Canada and other nations.
The situation might seem strange, but if we look into the history of the white, blue and red standard, the story becomes more understandable. The thing is, the very first mentioning of such flag in Russian history is 1667 - it was the flag ordered for Russia‘s first battleship Oryol ("Eagle") built during the reign of Tsar Aleksey Mikhailovich - the father of Russian Emperor Peter the Great. But why was the flag made this way and not the other? There is no direct answer to the question, but historians agree that the most likely reason was that the shipbuilders were Dutch and so was the captain, who was named Butler. It was Butler who wrote a request to the tsar to make the flag, and probably the Dutchman simply chose familiar colors.
The Oryol never saw the sea - on its way to Azov it was boarded by rebelling Cossacks and peasants and eventually fell into disrepair near the city of Astrakhan. The tsar's order, however, remained in force and Peter the Great chose it for his new navy that was fit for navigation and battle alike.
The pro-European stance of Tsar Peter, and also the development of trade and the new model army, called for a state flag, and the white, blue and red tricolor was approved as the national standard and the flag for the merchant fleet (the navy flew St Andrew's flag with the blue St. Andrew's cross on a white field).
As Russian emperors fell under the strong influence of Germany in the mid-nineteenth century, the black, yellow and white Emperor's standard was introduced, and the white, blue and red tricolor was reserved solely for trade missions. But in 1883 the course changed again, and Tsar Aleksander III returned to a single white, blue and red national flag. This time the flag remained till 1918 when the Bolshevik government replaced it with the red flag, first with the abbreviation RSFSR and then the communist symbols - hammer, sickle and five-pointed star.
The modern generation of Russians have already gotten used to the "new old" tricolor flag, but in the early 90s, people made mistakes confusing the right order of colors and sometimes the flag was even flown upside-down, thus becoming the Serbian National flag. The military got back the red flag in 2002, but instead of communist symbols it now bears the double-headed eagle - the Russian state coat of arms.