The Russian flag is one of the main and most recognizable state symbols. It was officially established in 1994, but its history began much earlier, several centuries ago. The founder of this flag is considered Peter I, but the tricolor cloth was used as flags on ships even before that.
Russian flag
The flag of the Russian Federation is a rectangular canvas with three horizontal stripes of the same size - white, blue and red. There is no official interpretation of these colors, although there are several options. It was believed, for example, that white symbolizes freedom, blue is a symbol of the Mother of God, and red means statehood. This is how the shades of the flag were explained several centuries ago. Today they say that white is purity, blue is stability, and red is power.
History of the Russian flag
Like many other national flags, the Russian flag was for a long time exclusively naval and was used only on ships. The first Russian warship was built in 1668, and from that time one of the hypotheses of the origin of the tricolor flag originates. A Dutch merchant participated in the construction of the ship, who said that it was necessary to make special flags of the colors that should symbolize the country. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was informed that for the "Eagle" (so they decided to call the ship) it was necessary to order fabric and asked what colors should be used. The king inquired about the Dutch flag and learned that it consists of red, white and blue stripes. As a result, they ordered fabrics of these colors, and the tsar ordered to depict eagles on the flags.
But it is not known exactly what these flags looked like: there are versions that they were blue or white panels with red crosses, tricolor flags made of horizontal stripes with different options for their location.
The official history of the Russian flag began in 1705, when Peter I ordered to raise a white-blue-red canvas on any ships. He drew a sample himself and indicated the exact color sequence. But it was not yet a state, but only a naval flag.
In 1858, the state flag was approved, but completely different: it used yellow, black and white colors. It turned out to be gloomy and similar to the Austrian, so it was not popular. The white-blue-red version was more familiar and more pleasant and continued to be used. Alexander III drew attention to this, who made it state. It existed until 1918, was replaced by a red flag with a hammer and sickle, and was revived in 1991 by presidential decree. At first, the middle stripe was blue, but since 1993 it has become a deep blue.
