^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Russia, naval flags

Russian Navy "St.Andrew" flag
Russian Navy "UnionJack" flag (kejzer-flag)
USSR Navy flag

See also:

Russian Navy "St.Andrew" flag

Aldo Ziggioto, the CISV (Centro Italiano Studi Vessillologici) president, wrote a little book about the Russian flags: "Tre secoli di storia attraverso le bandiere" (3 centuries of history thru flags). According to him, both flags were drawn by Peter the Great:

"The military poop flag is white, with a full-sized blue cross of St.Andrew, because the Christianity became to Russian people from this apostle", explained Peter the Great in 1712. In fact since 1701 the Russian fleet was divided into 3 formations, each of them using a different flag: the first formation's (battle vessels) flag was white, the second one's (vanguard) was blue and the third one's (rear-guard) was red. All of them have a white canton with a blue St.Andrew cross.

The Russian Navy used a very great number of flags, more than one hundred. The quoted book shows 22 of them; one of this is a mix of this flag and the unionjack-like one.

giuseppe bottasini

Russian Navy "UnionJack" flag (kejzer-flag)

by zeljko heimer

Like the UK's Union Jack incorporates the red St. George's cross of England as the central figure, the Russian jack uses their blue St. Andrew's cross (from the naval ensign) as its central figure. St. Andrew is also the patron saint of Russia.

david lewellen

This flag was hoisted since 1701 on the navy's fortresses, since 1720 on bowsprits too. It was a red flag crossed by a narrow white cross; over all there was a white-bordered blue St.Andrew cross. It was drawn by Peter the Great. It was named KEJZER-FLAG, i.e. "imperial flag". It was clearly based on the British "Union" and put together the white cross of an old Dragons' flag with the navy's St.Andrew flag. According to many authors the meaninig of the red field is obscure but to Ziggioto is clear: it was the third national color. The KEJZER-FLAG was so popular that it was also used on the Soviet Navy till 1924.

from: "Aldo Ziggioto,"Tre secoli di storia attraverso le bandiere" (3 centuries of history thru flags).

According to many authors the meaninig of the red field is obscure, but to Ziggioto is clear: it was the third national color.

giuseppe bottasini

USSR Navy flag

The old USSR naval flag was white with a red star in the center, and a blue stripe along the bottom of the flag.

alvan fisher