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Former Yugoslavia

Federal Peoples' Republic of Yugoslavia, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Federativna Narod

by zeljko heimer 01-APR-1996

See also:

Yugoslavia
Former Yugoslav Republics:

Flags of Socialist Yugoslavia

Flags used in former Yugoslavia (Democratic Federative Yugoslavia, until 1946; Federative Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia, until 1963, and Socialistic Federative Republic of Yugoslavia until 1991) all have 1:2 proportions, but those for use on sea with 2:3. Most of them were based on former national flags, removing national emblem in the middle and putting the star.

Blue over white over red flag was invented after the first WW, as the only heraldicaly proper combination, not already used (r-w-b is the other, but then allready long established as Croatian flag). Before the WWII official flag had state's coat of arms in the middle, and civilians used simple version. The flag with a red star was used since September 1941 (as W.Smith claims, IMHO it was used from July when the uprising started). However, until 1946 the star was (usually) just in the white field, and in "inner diameter equals outer radius" version, and without the yellow fimbrilation (e.g see Croatian Pertisans). The version with the yellow outlined red star was officially addopted on 31-JAN-1946. It was abandoned sometime in spring of 1991. The flags of Federal Republics with stars, were made accordingly in a year from then.

Officialy this flag was for use by gov't and army on land, but practicaly in was also used by civilians as national flag.

Naval Flag

by zeljko heimer 01-APR-1996

The flag for use on vesels was the same as national flag, but in 2:3 proportions. Navy ships used red flag with Yugoslav flag white fimbrated in canton. The star on this flag was surrounded by a yellow wreath of wheat. I would like to point out on a deatil visible on this gif. It was usual that if the star is too small to be shown with yellow outline, it was outlined furthermore with red, sometimes even yellow was replaced with white. The same practice could be seen on president's flag, and on coats of arms.

Presidential Standard

by zeljko heimer 01-APR-1996

President's flag was 1:1 in proportions. The flag was blue over white over red, with the state's coat of arms (six torches burning in one flame, surrounded by the wreath of wheat and blue ribbon with the date 23-XI-1943, and the red star above). The edges of the flag were made of red, white and blue triangles. This flag was used by president Tito, but I don't know if it was used after his death by the presidents of presidency. I don't have exact date when this flag was addopted, but it must be after 29-NOV-1963, or just then, when the state's coat of arms were changed from five torches to six. It might be that before that the five torches version was used.

The coat of arms of SFRYugoslavia had a white background, but sometimes it was light blue. In M. Ciric's book 'Heraldika 1', it is stated that the arms should be on a light blue circular shield (since in heraldry there is a rule 'no shield - no coat of arms'), but I have never seen it in use that way.

Flag of Communist Party

by zeljko heimer 01-APR-1996

The flag of Communist Party was red with a yellow outlined star in which there was sieckle and hammer, underneath the text SKJ (Savez Komunista Jugoslavije) in the canton, and next to it the motto "workers of all countries, unite!". There were at least 5 versions of this flag, according to languages and scripts used (latin like in the image, cyrrilic, Slovene, Macedonian, Albanian and Hungarian), I guess there were more but I have never seen them.

zeljko heimer 01-APR-1996