Russia

Rossia

Last modified: 1997-09-08 by zeljko heimer
Keywords: russia | rossian federation | commonwealth of independent states | ussr | cross | st.andrew | st.george | pietra santa method |
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• Presentation of Russia
• Origin of white blue red colors
• Russian coat of arms
• The black yellow white flag
• Presidental flag

• Rossian Federation
• Russian Navy flags
• Other Russian flags
• Krymskaja (Crimea) in Ukraina
• Russian Heraldry Page on a historic heritage of Russia.
• The finial of the Russian National Banner, piece of art was made in 1896 by the famous Faberg� jewellers modeled on the coat of arms.

Presentation of Russia

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

Origin of white blue red colors

Russia's white-blue-red flag was influenced by that of the Netherlands, a country visited by Peter the Great in 1699 when he wished to learn about ship building. 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 Gorbachev. A day later, Russian President Boris Yeltsin 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

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

From Carl Alexander von Volborth's book on heraldry there's this picture about the coat of arms of Moscow, redender by Pietra Santa method:

The caption says:

"The rider is said to be St. George from 1730. This version of the arms is dated 1856"

An other book says about the three colors:

"The imperial Russia had a red,blue and white flag, created in 1697 by Peter the Great, based on Holland's (...) It was the origin of pan-slavic colors, used by Serbia, Slovakia, Croatia and Bosna (...) The white-blue-red flag was used till the fall of Kerensky's government, in November 1917. The same happened to the two-headed eagle, without the imperial crown"

Russian coat of arms

This was found on the head of the letter from Russian Embassy in Zagreb, so I guess, it should be an official version of the coat of arms of Russian Federation.
Zeljko Heimer 28-NOV-1995

In "Meyers Konversations-Lexikon" (Leipzig, 1889) I found the following description of the Russian imperial coat of arms:

"On a golden shield a black, twoheaded, triple-crowned eagle with red beak and talons and spreaded out wings, holding the golden sceptre in his right, the golden imperial orb in his left talon; on the breast the Moscow coat of arms: St. George on horseback, piercing the lime worm [?, unsure translation of 'Lindwurm', C.L.]. On every wing of the eagle there are three shields: the coat of arms of Astrakhan, Novgorod and Kiev on the right, the arms of Siberia, Kazan and Vladimir on the left one. The eagle is surrounded by the chain of the St. Andrew Order and headed by the imperial crown with two blue bands bordered golden."

According to FLAGS THROUGH THE AGES AND ACROSS THE WORLD by W.Smith, 1975 [smi75]:

The two major symbolic elements of Russian vexillography [the two-headed eagle and St. George slaying the dragon] which predate Peter I [the Great] were both considered Russian state arms. The older form (a mounted dragon slayer known as George the Victorious) was always associated with the Grand Duchy of Moscovy, later becoming the official arms of the city of Moscow. The earliest graphic representation of a rider with a spear (1390) figures in a seal of the prince of Moscow, Vasilii Dimitriyevich. The serpent or dragon was added under Ivan III (1462-1505), probably to represent the Christians of Russia defeating the pagan hordes of the east - Russia's traditional enemy, the Tatars."

"The familiar Russian double - headed eagle was in fact a foreign symbol, adopted to demonstrate the imperial pretensions of the Russian Tsars beginning with Ivan III (the Great) in 1497. ... Ivan married Zoe Paleolog whose uncle Constantine had been the last Byzantine emperor. ... From 1497 on the double-headed eagle proclaimed Russian sovereignty over East and West..."

The black yellow white flag

The Russian nationalists' black-yellow-white might be based on the imperial eagle shield, which differs from the German only in details.
anton sherwood

I go to my favorite modern source: [smi75]: Russia adopted a 'heraldic flag' ...

"...on 11 June 1858 for use as a civil flag. Under the influence of German counselors, the government based it on the livery colors of the imperial arms - black and golden yellow, the latter usually represented as orange. A white stripe was added at the bottom lest the flag be exactly the same as the one used by Austria, whose arms also featured a black eagle on gold. White, long a symbol of legitimist monarchies in Europe, was specifically attributed here to the cockades of Peter I and Catherine II. The black-orange-white flag was very unpopular, so much so that the government felt compelled on 7 May 1883 to recognize the white-blue-red as official for use on land during celebrations. Hence the flag intended for unrestricted use was rarely seen in prerevolutionary Russia, while the flag restricted to special occasions was in fact the most likely to be hoisted whenever private citizens wished to express their nationality by displaying a flag on land. "

Presidental flag

The double headed eagle appears, not only in the arms of Russia, but also on the Presidental flag which is white-blue-red, like the Russian flag but square.In the middle appears the double-headed eagle with the Moscow arms, but not the red shield behind the eagle.The flag is gold fringed.

Pascal Vagnat 09-MAY-1996