Flag of Russia
Russia’s flag is three equal horizontal stripes, white, blue and red from the top, as the federal law on the state flag of 2000 describes it. The law gives the colours no meaning, and the Presidential Library notes that they have no official interpretation today.
Easily confused with
- Flag of the NetherlandsThe Dutch flag is three horizontal stripes of red, white and blue, red at the top. A royal decree of 1937 fixed those three colours in a single sentence and gives them no meaning.
- Flag of SerbiaSerbia’s flag has red, blue and white horizontal stripes; the state flag adds the smaller coat of arms towards the pole, a white double-headed eagle on a red shield under a crown. The flag law gives the colours no meaning; Store norske leksikon says the tricolour goes back to 1835 and took Russia’s flag as its model, with the stripes in reverse order.
- Flag of SloveniaSlovenia’s flag has white, blue and red horizontal stripes with the coat of arms in the upper corner by the pole: Mount Triglav in white under three gold stars, above two wavy blue lines for the sea and rivers, on a blue shield edged in red. The constitution gives the wavy lines their meaning; the stripes are the Slovene national flag, first raised in 1848 in the colours of the old duchy of Carniola.
- Flag of SlovakiaSlovakia’s flag has three horizontal stripes, white, blue and red, with the state coat of arms on the half by the pole: a silver double cross on the middle of three blue hills, on a red shield. The law gives it no meaning; Store norske leksikon says the cross stands for Christianity and the hills for three mountain ranges, the Tatra, Fatra and Mátra.
How to read it
The Federal Constitutional Law “On the State Flag of the Russian Federation”, adopted on 25 December 2000, describes the flag as a rectangular cloth of three equal horizontal stripes, white at the top, blue in the middle and red at the bottom, with a width to length of 2:3. The white, blue and red flag became the state flag of the RSFSR by a resolution of 22 August 1991, the date Russia keeps as State Flag Day under a presidential decree of 20 August 1994.
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What does the Russian flag look like?
Three horizontal stripes of equal height, white at the top, blue in the middle and red at the bottom, on a flag one and a half times as long as it is high. The law describes only the three stripes.
Peter the Great’s merchant flag
White, blue and red were first chosen for a flag at the launch of the first Russian warship, the Oryol, in 1668, according to the Presidential Library. On 20 January 1705 Peter I issued a decree ordering merchant ships to fly a new white, blue and red flag; he drew the pattern himself and set the order of the horizontal stripes. For a long time it remained the flag of trade, beside the emperor’s personal standard and the flags of the armed forces. Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University adds that Peter had already raised the “flag of the Tsar of Moscow”, white, blue and red with a golden double-headed eagle, in the summer of 1693, and that the tricolour without other images is first mentioned in 1709, as the Russian merchant flag.
From the 1858 flag to 1991
The first officially approved state flag of the Russian Empire, set by Alexander II’s decree of 1858, was black, yellow and white. In 1883 Alexander III ordered buildings decorated on ceremonial occasions only with the white, blue and red flag, and in 1896 a special council chaired by Konstantin Posyet decided that the white, blue and red flag was the state flag. In April 1918 the red banner replaced it, the Polytechnic University notes, and the tricolour returned in 1991.
Meanings given to the colours
The Presidential Library writes that in 1896 the colours were given an official interpretation: white for freedom and independence, blue for the Mother of God, protector of Russia, and red for sovereign power. The Polytechnic University places that reading in Peter’s time. Both say the colours have no official interpretation now. The explanation commonly given today, in both accounts, is white for peace and purity, blue for faith and constancy, and red for energy, strength and the blood shed for the homeland.
Where this symbol came from
oldsymbols.comFlag of the Soviet UnionThe state flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: a red flag with a gold hammer and sickle and a gold-edged red star in the upper corner by the pole. It was set by the constitution of 1924 and came down over the Kremlin for the last time on 25 December 1991.Read next
- Next in European flagsFlag of AustriaAustria’s flag is three horizontal stripes of equal width: red, white and red. The constitution fixes the colours but gives them no meaning; they are the colours of the shield of the Babenberg dukes, documented from 1230, and a legend of a bloodstained tunic at Acre in 1191 is told to explain them.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of AngolaAngola’s flag is red over black with a yellow emblem in the centre: part of a cogwheel, a machete and a five-pointed star. Its constitution says the red is the blood shed by Angolans under colonial oppression, in the liberation struggle and in defence of the country, and the black is the African continent; the cogwheel stands for workers and industry, the machete for peasants, farming and the armed struggle, the star for international solidarity and progress, and their yellow for the country’s wealth.
More european flags
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with lines or squares and rectangles.
Sources
- Федеральный конституционный закон от 25 декабря 2000 г. N 1-ФКЗ "О Государственном флаге Российской Федерации", Federal Constitutional Law No. 1-FKZ of 25 December 2000 on the State Flag of the Russian Federation, Article 1 (summary and text), Garant, Document summary (Article 1)
- День Государственного флага Российской Федерации, Information guide for State Flag Day, Presidential Library named after B. N. Yeltsin, Pages on the history of the flag
- Спецпроект Petro Primo: Пётр – «отец» триколора, Olga Lyudnikova, Public Relations Office, 22 August 2022, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Full text
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 13, 2026. How we research
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