Country
The white, blue and red flag of Russia is known from the 1690s, and ship flags in these colours are already recorded under Aleksei Mikhailovich; the flag of the Tsar of Moscow was raised on 6 August 1693, and under Pyotr I the tricolour became the flag of merchant ships. The black, yellow and white flag of 1858 competed with it until 1896, when Nikolai II recognised the tricolour as the national flag in all cases (the black, yellow and white flag was not officially abolished), and the red flags of the Soviet period replaced it until 1991. The double-headed eagle, whose earliest surviving reliable evidence is a seal of Ivan III of 1497 (first documented in 1472 according to English Wikipedia), was the arms of the state until 1917 and returned, in gold on red, in 1993.
Flag
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Coat of Arms
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| Flag | Three equal horizontal stripes of white, blue and red, in the proportions 2:3 |
|---|---|
| Oldest surviving tricolour | The flag of the Tsar of Moscow, 1693, in the Central Naval Museum |
| Flag law | Decree No. 2126 of 11 December 1993; Federal Constitutional Law of 25 December 2000 |
| Arms | A golden double-headed eagle on a red shield, under three crowns, with a sceptre and orb; on its breast a horseman slaying a dragon |
| Arms adopted | Presidential decree of 30 November 1993; Federal Constitutional Law of 25 December 2000 |
| Flag Day | 22 August |
In early Rus’ the princes’ standards were long poles topped with branches, tufts of grass or a horse’s mane, and then with wedge-shaped pieces of brightly coloured cloth; from the 14th century they carried a sacred image. The word “flag” came into wide use only under Pyotr I. These are the stages of the flags of the Russian state, from the banners of the tsars to the tricolour. The flag of the Soviet Union, which was the flag of the Union and not of Russia, is not included.
Click the thumbnails to go through the flags.
1552
Banner of the Most Merciful Saviour, 1552, drawn by Vladimir Lobachev according to Wikimedia Commons.
From the 14th century the princely standards of Rus’ carried a sacred image, of the Saviour, the Mother of God, saints or Orthodox crosses, and came to be called znamya or khorugv’. With the banner of the Most Merciful Saviour, Tsar Ivan IV marched on Kazan in 1552. According to Russian Wikipedia it was about 3 metres long and 1.5 metres high at the staff, made of crimson cloth, with the image of the Saviour Not Made by Hands sewn in the middle and a gilded silver cross on the staff; English Wikipedia notes that the Illustrated Chronicle of Ivan IV shows it white, and that other sources say red. Russian Wikipedia also describes the Great Standard of Ivan IV of 1560, light blue with Christ on a white horse and the Archangel Michael.
1666
Armorial banner of Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich, according to Wikimedia Commons.
In 1666, or in 1669 according to other sources, a ceremonial banner was made by order of Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich which, unlike earlier sovereign’s banners, combined religious and state symbols. This “armorial banner”, used at solemn state and church ceremonies and marking the tsar’s presence with the army, was made of white taffeta with a crimson border; in the centre a circle held a golden double-headed eagle under three crowns. Russian Wikipedia names the Polish painter Stanislav Loputsky as the designer of the banner, English Wikipedia dates his work to 1669, and Wikimedia Commons dates the image to 1668.
1693
Three horizontal stripes of white, blue and red, with a golden double-headed eagle in the middle.
On 6 August 1693 the 12-gun yacht Saint Peter sailed from Arkhangelsk into the White Sea under the flag of the Tsar of Moscow: three horizontal stripes of white, blue and red with a golden double-headed eagle in the middle. Pyotr I later left it to Archbishop Afanasy; it was kept for many years in the cathedral of Arkhangelsk until the naval historian P. I. Belavenets brought it to Saint Petersburg in 1910, and it is now in the Central Naval Museum, the oldest surviving Russian tricolour. According to Russian Wikipedia it was in fact the tsar’s ship standard; in the opinion of the historian G. V. Vilinbakhov it was Pyotr I’s personal flag until the early 18th century. The image is a drawing of the flag of the Tsar of Muscovy “circa 1693”, according to Wikimedia Commons.
1705
Three horizontal stripes of white, blue and red.
On 20 January 1705 (31 January by the Gregorian calendar) Pyotr I issued a decree on the flags of merchant river vessels, with a drawing believed to show stripes of white, blue and red (English Wikipedia describes it as making the tricolour the maritime flag of all Russian merchant vessels), and the Naval Regulations of 1720 required Russian merchant ships to fly a striped flag “of three colours: white, blue, red”. Russian Wikipedia notes that some historians have suggested Pyotr I took the colours from the Dutch flag, while several researchers point to the lack of documentary evidence and to white, blue and red ship flags recorded under Aleksei Mikhailovich. According to Russian Wikipedia the white, blue and red flag served de facto as the national flag from the 18th century until 1858, and was most often regarded as such both in Russia and abroad.
1858
Three horizontal stripes of black, yellow and white.
On 11 June 1858 (23 June by the Gregorian calendar), on the initiative of the heraldist Bernhard Köhne, Aleksandr II approved a drawing of a flag “of the armorial colours of the Empire”: black and yellow for the black state eagle on a gold field, and white for the white horseman of the arms of Moscow. Russian Wikipedia calls it the first official state flag of the Russian Empire; it was first named the “armorial people’s flag” and, in 1873, the “national” flag. The white, blue and red flag remained the merchant flag, and in Russian society the black, yellow and white came to be seen as the flag of the government.
1883
Three horizontal stripes of white, blue and red.
On 28 April 1883, on the eve of his coronation, Aleksandr III ordered that on solemn occasions buildings be decorated “exclusively” with the Russian flag of white, blue and red. A special commission chaired by Admiral Konstantin Posyet concluded in 1896 that the white, blue and red flag had the right to be called Russian or national, and on 29 April 1896 Nikolai II decided “on the recognition in all cases of the white-blue-red flag as national”. In 1914 a variant with the black eagle in a yellow square at the hoist was allowed for limited, patriotic use. After the February Revolution of 1917 the legal council of the Provisional Government found that the white, blue and red flag bore no dynastic or monarchical emblems, and saw no obstacle to its use until the Constituent Assembly decided.
1918
Red, with the gold letters of the Republic’s name in the upper corner at the hoist.
After the October Revolution of 1917 a plain red cloth served at first as the state flag, though no act provided for it. A decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, dated 8 April 1918 by Russian Wikipedia and 13 April by English Wikipedia, made the flag of the Republic a red banner with the inscription “Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic”. On 17 June 1918 the committee approved a design by the graphic artist Sergei Chekhonin: a red cloth with the letters “RSFSR” in gold, stylised as Slavonic letters, in the upper corner at the hoist, set off by gold lines. It remained the state flag until 1937.
1937
Red, with the gold letters “RSFSR” in the upper corner at the hoist.
The Constitution of the Russian SFSR adopted on 21 January 1937 described the state flag as a red cloth with the gold letters “RSFSR” in the upper corner at the hoist. A new design by the artist A. N. Mil’kin, approved on 1 April 1937, dropped the gold frame around the letters and wrote them in ordinary type, without stops. The flag of the Soviet Union, established in 1924, at first flew only on a few buildings; according to Russian Wikipedia a plain red flag was the most common flag in the Soviet Union, the Russian SFSR included, until 1955.
1954
Red, with a light blue stripe at the hoist, and a gold hammer and sickle under a red star.
In 1947 the Soviet Union decided that the flags of the union republics should also express their national features. Projects for the Russian SFSR included white and blue stripes, or white, blue and red ones recalling the historical flag of Russia, but in the end only a vertical light blue stripe was added, a design by the artist V. P. Viktorov. A decree of 9 January 1954, confirmed by a law of 2 June 1954, set the new flag: a red cloth with a light blue stripe at the hoist one eighth of the length, and in the upper corner a gold hammer and sickle under a red star framed in gold, in the proportions 1:2.
1991
Three equal horizontal stripes of white, azure and scarlet, in the proportions 1:2.
From 1987 the white, blue and red flag was used openly again, first by national-patriotic organisations and, from October 1988, at the rallies of the democratic movement. During the August putsch of 1991 it was widely used by the forces opposing the coup, and on 22 August 1991 the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR declared the “historical flag of Russia” the official national flag. On 1 November 1991 the Congress of People’s Deputies made the white, azure and scarlet flag, in the proportions 1:2, the state flag, by 750 votes of the 865 deputies voting. On 25 December 1991, at 19:45, the flag of Russia replaced that of the Soviet Union over the Moscow Kremlin.
1993
Three equal horizontal stripes of white, blue and red, in the proportions 2:3.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs proposed returning to the proportions 2:3, “as before the revolution”, and a parliamentary commission proposed calling the lower colours blue and red, as in the laws of the Russian Empire, rather than azure and scarlet. On 11 December 1993 President Boris Yeltsin signed decree No. 2126, which described the state flag as three equal horizontal stripes of white, blue and red in the proportions 2:3; the shades were not fixed. The same description was repeated in the Federal Constitutional Law of 25 December 2000, in force since 27 December 2000.
The history of the Russian arms goes back to the end of the 15th century, when the double-headed eagle first appeared on the seal of the Grand Prince Ivan III. Before it, from the 13th century, the seals of the princes of Rus’ often showed a horseman, a saint or the prince himself, and, according to Russian Wikipedia, from the coins of Vasily I the horseman slaying a serpent; English Wikipedia says the dragon was added under Ivan III. These are the stages of the arms, chosen from the chronology given by Russian Wikipedia.
Click the thumbnails to go through the coats of arms.
1497
Double-headed eagle on the reverse of the seal of Ivan III, according to Wikimedia Commons.
The oldest surviving reliable evidence of the double-headed eagle as a symbol of the Muscovite state is the seal of the Grand Prince Ivan III on a charter of 1497, whose reverse shows a double-headed eagle crowned. Russian Wikipedia gives several versions of its origin: the marriage of Ivan III to Sofia Palaiologina, niece of the last Byzantine emperor; Ivan III’s acquaintance with the symbols of the Holy Roman Empire; or the example of Balkan rulers. From then on the double-headed eagle and the horseman slaying the dragon became the two constant emblems on the seals of the Russian sovereigns. The image is a modern rendering of the reverse of the seal, by Vladimir Lobachev according to Wikimedia Commons.
1577
Arms of Ivan IV, 1577, according to Wikimedia Commons.
In 1561, under Ivan IV, a new type of state seal put the double-headed eagle at the centre, with the horseman and a new symbol, the unicorn, in small shields on its breast. On the Great State Seal of Ivan IV of 1577–1578 the eagle is crowned with a single large crown instead of two, and for the first time it is surrounded by 24 territorial emblems, twelve on each face of the seal, following the full title of the tsar; above the crown stands an eight-pointed Orthodox cross, and higher still the cross of Golgotha.
1667
Coat of arms of the Russian tsardom of 1667, according to Wikimedia Commons.
The third crown was placed on the Great State Seal from 1645, and from then on the double-headed eagle was always shown under three crowns. A decree of Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich traditionally dated 1667 used the word gerb (arms) for the state symbol for the first time and explained its elements: “Орел двоеглавный есть герб державный”, the double-headed eagle is the sovereign’s arms; the three crowns stood for the tsardoms of Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberia, the sceptre and orb for the sovereign and autocrat, and the horseman on the breast for the heir. On either side of the eagle the seal shows six “towns” with the letters for Great, Little and White Russia and for the Eastern, Western and Northern lands.
1730
Coat of arms of the Russian Empire of 1730, according to Wikimedia Commons.
Under Pyotr I, from the 1710s, imperial crowns of Western European type replaced the royal crowns above the eagle, and the chain of the Order of Saint Andrew surrounded the shield with the horseman. In 1722 Count F. M. Santi described the state arms as a black double-headed eagle on a gold field with, on its breast, the arms of Moscow: Saint George on a white horse slaying a black serpent, on red; and a Senate decree of 11 March 1726 described them as “a black eagle with outspread wings in a yellow field”. The Banner Armorial of 1730, compiled under Pyotr II, shows the state arms; the image is a drawing of the arms of 1730 by Yan Veretennikov, according to Wikimedia Commons.
1799
The state arms with the Maltese cross and the crown of the Grand Master of the Order of Malta.
In 1799 Emperor Pavel I, who had become Grand Master of the Order of Malta, added the Maltese cross and crown to the state arms by decree. In 1801 his successor, Aleksandr I, cancelled these innovations and restored the arms as they had been before 1796. Pavel I also approved, in December 1800, a manifesto describing a complex project of Full Arms of the Russian Empire. The image is a drawing of the arms of 1799 to 1801, according to Wikimedia Commons.
1857
The Greater Arms of the Russian Empire.
Under Aleksandr II the state symbols were reformed to bring them closer to the rules of European heraldry. Under the direction of Bernhard Köhne, the Greater, Middle and Lesser state arms were created in the spirit of Western European heraldic art, with drawings by the artist A. A. Fadeyev; contrary to long tradition, the horseman on the eagle’s breast was now turned to the viewer’s left. The sketch was approved in 1856 and the official description published in 1857. The image shows the Greater Arms of 1856.
1882
In a gold shield a black double-headed eagle crowned with two imperial crowns, a third larger above, holding a golden sceptre and orb, with the arms of Moscow on its breast.
In 1882–1883 Aleksandr III approved new versions of the Greater, Middle and Lesser state arms by the painter Adolf Charlemagne. The imperial crowns were now silver rather than gold, after the actual colour of the imperial crowns, the eagle and the archangels supporting the shield changed slightly, and the description approved on 3 November 1882 begins: “Российский Государственный герб есть в золотом щите чёрный двоеглавый орёл”. The shield was topped by the helmet of Aleksandr Nevsky, flanked by the archangels Michael and Gabriel, under a golden canopy with the motto “Съ Нами Богъ”. These arms remained unchanged until 1917. The image is a drawing of the Greater Arms of 1882–1883, according to Wikimedia Commons.
1917
A double-headed eagle without crowns, sceptre, orb or shield, above the Tauride Palace.
On 21 March 1917 the head of the Provisional Government, Prince G. E. Lvov, and the foreign minister P. N. Milyukov approved a sketch of the government’s seal by the artist Ivan Bilibin: a double-headed eagle without crowns, sceptre, orb, territorial arms or the shield with Saint George, recalling the eagle of the seal of Ivan III of 1497, with the Tauride Palace, seat of the State Duma, below. In April 1917 the government’s legal council considered that it could be used as the arms of the state, the final decision being left to the Constituent Assembly. It remained in use until the Constitution of the Russian SFSR of 10 July 1918, and in practice after it.
1918
On a red ground, in the rays of the sun, a gold hammer and sickle crossed, handles downward, in a wreath of ears of grain.
On 10 July 1918 the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted the first Constitution of the Russian SFSR, which described its arms: “89. Герб Р. С. Ф. С. Р. состоит из изображений на красном фоне в лучах солнца золотых серпа и молота, помещённых крест-на-крест рукоятками книзу, окружённых венцом из колосьев”, with the inscriptions “Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic” and “Workers of the world, unite!”. The artist A. N. Leo is the presumed author of the design.
1920
Emblem of the Russian SFSR, 1920 to 1954, according to Wikimedia Commons.
On 20 July 1920 the All-Russian Central Executive Committee approved a new version of the arms designed by the artist N. A. Andreyev, finally confirmed by the Constitution of 11 May 1925. With small changes, Russian Wikipedia says, these arms in fact lasted until 1993.
1978
State emblem of the Russian SFSR, 1978 to 1992, according to the chronology of Russian Wikipedia.
The chronology of Russian Wikipedia lists a version of the arms of the Russian SFSR for 1954–1978, when the stops were removed from the abbreviation “RSFSR”, and this one for 1978–1992. In November 1991, when the Congress adopted the tricolour, the arms were left unchanged, and in April 1992 the inscription “RSFSR” was changed to “Russian Federation”.
1992
The Soviet arms with the name of the Russian Federation.
After the Russian SFSR was renamed the Russian Federation on 25 December 1991, a small amendment in April 1992 changed the inscription on the arms; despite the abandonment of communist ideology, the hammer and sickle and the slogan “Workers of the world, unite!” remained. This version was used fairly rarely, for instance in the office of the chairman of the Supreme Soviet, and documents went on using the arms with the old name. The use of Soviet arms with communist symbols in the new Russia was a contradiction, and work on new state symbols continued.
1993
Gules, a golden double-headed eagle with raised wings, under two small crowns and one large crown joined by a ribbon, holding a sceptre and an orb; on its breast, on a red shield, a silver horseman slaying a black dragon.
On 30 November 1993 President Boris Yeltsin, “to restore the historical symbols of the Russian state”, approved by decree the Regulations on the State Arms and the drawing by the artist Yevgeny Ukhnalyov: a golden double-headed eagle on a red shield, under the three historical crowns of Pyotr the Great, with the sceptre and orb, and on its breast a horseman slaying a dragon. Ukhnalyov had presented two versions, identical except for the colours; the other followed the colours of the imperial arms, a black eagle on gold. The Federal Constitutional Law of 25 December 2000 kept the arms of 1993, and a law of 29 December 2025 added that the crowns and the orb are topped by crosses.
The Federal Constitutional Law of 25 December 2000 describes the arms as a quadrangular red heraldic shield with rounded lower corners, pointed at the base, bearing a golden double-headed eagle with raised, spread wings, crowned with two small crowns and one large crown above them, joined by a ribbon; a sceptre in its right claw and an orb in its left; on its breast, on a red shield, a silver horseman in a blue cloak on a silver horse, slaying with a silver spear a black dragon overturned and trampled by the horse. The arms may also be shown without the shield, and in a single colour. Russian Wikipedia notes that the present arms are based on the drawing of the Lesser Arms of the Russian Empire, in other colours, and that there is no official interpretation of their elements.
The Federal Constitutional Law on the State Flag of 25 December 2000 repeats the description of 1993: three equal horizontal stripes, white, blue and red, in the proportions 2:3. It does not fix the shades; the national standard GOST R 51130-2023, in force since 1 February 2024, recommends Pantone 072C for the blue and 485C for the red; English Wikipedia notes that government agencies specify Pantone 286C for the blue when ordering flag cloth.
The Day of the State Flag of the Russian Federation is celebrated every year on 22 August. It was established in August 1994 by a decree of Boris Yeltsin, “in connection with the restoration on 22 August 1991 of the historical Russian tricolour state flag”.
Each federal subject of Russia has its own page in the atlas.
There is no official interpretation of the colours today. A reading that Russian Wikipedia calls popular, and English Wikipedia calls the official interpretation under Aleksandr III, takes white for nobility and frankness, blue for fidelity and honesty, red for courage and generosity; another links them to White, Little and Great Russia in the tsars’ title. The historian G. V. Vilinbakhov noted that no official document from the time of Pyotr I onwards explained the colours.
Some historians have suggested that Pyotr I took the colours from the Dutch flag, but according to Russian Wikipedia several researchers point to the lack of documentary evidence, and white, blue and red ship flags are recorded under Aleksei Mikhailovich, long before Pyotr I’s journey to Europe. English Wikipedia, on the other hand, gives two accounts connecting the flag to the Dutch tricolour, one of which says Pyotr I modelled Russia’s naval flag on it, assigning meaning and reordering the colours.
The flag of the armorial colours of the Empire, approved by Aleksandr II on 11 June 1858: black and yellow for the black eagle on gold, white for the horseman of the arms of Moscow. In 1896 Nikolai II recognised the white, blue and red flag as the national flag in all cases.
The white, blue and red flag was declared the national flag on 22 August 1991 and made the state flag on 1 November 1991, in the proportions 1:2. Decree No. 2126 of 11 December 1993 set the proportions at 2:3, and the Federal Constitutional Law of 25 December 2000 confirmed it.
Russian Wikipedia notes that, despite a widespread opinion, the horseman on the arms of the Russian Federation is not, in the modern interpretation, an image of Saint George; there is no official interpretation of the elements of the arms. English Wikipedia describes the horseman as Saint George slaying the dragon.
On 22 August, established in August 1994 by a decree of Boris Yeltsin in connection with the restoration of the historical tricolour on 22 August 1991.
Illustrations: Wikimedia Commons. Banner of 1552 by Vladimir Lobachev (CC BY-SA 3.0); arms of 1667 by AlexTref871 (CC BY-SA 4.0); arms of 1799 by CTGonYT (CC BY 4.0); other illustrations in the public domain.
Last reviewed by the Emblema Mundi editorial team on 25 October 2026.
