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Flags of the Soviet Republics

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The Flags of the Soviet Socialist Republics were all defaced versions of the flag of the Soviet Union, which featured a golden hammer and sickle, (the only exception being the Georgian SSR, which used a red hammer and sickle), and a gold-bordered red star on a red field. When Byelorussia and the Ukraine were the founding members of the United Nations in 1945, all of their flags were red with only small markings in upper left corners and needed distinct flags for each other.

In February 1947, with UN pressure, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union adopted a resolution, which each of its republics were recommended to develop and adopt new national flags. So they expressed the idea of a union state, asked to use the symbols of the State flag of the Soviet Union, such as the gold hammer and sickle and the red star, as well as maintain the predominance of red color on the flag of the Union republics. National, historical and cultural features of each republic was instructed to express the other colors and the order of their location, as well as the location based on the national ornament. After the competitions for the best projects in the 1949–1954 years of the new flags of the 16 republics were developed and adopted. The authorities in the Ukraine and Byelorussia were the first to adopt the flags on July 5, 1950, and December 25, 1951, respectively. All others followed suit between 1952 and 1953 with the last republic, the Russian SFSR, adopted the flag on January 9, 1954.[1]

Their final versions prior to re-adoption of the non-Soviet national flags were as follows:

Republic Flag Date adopted Main article Description Present day flag
Russian SFSR
January 7, 1954 Flag of the Russian SFSR The state flag of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic presents itself as a red rectangular sheet with a light-blue stripe at the pole extending all the width which constitutes one eighth length of the flag.

Flag of Russia
Ukraine
July 5, 1950 Flag of the Ukrainian SSR A horizontal bicolor of red over azure (light blue) with the golden hammer and sickle and gold-bordered star on top of the canton.

Flag of Ukraine
Byelorussia
December 25, 1951 Flag of the Byelorussian SSR A horizontal bicolor of red over green in a 2:1 ratio and the golden hammer and sickle with the bordered star on the canton, with a white ornamental pattern on a red vertical stripe at the hoist.

Flag of Belarus
Uzbekistan
August 25, 1952 Flag of the Uzbek SSR A triband flag with the colors (from top to bottom) red, blue, and red, with the blue band frimbrated in white, with a golden hammer and sickle in the upper canton.

Flag of Uzbekistan
Kazakhstan
January 24, 1953 Flag of the Kazakh SSR A red flag with blue stripe and a golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton.

Flag of Kazakhstan
Georgia
April 11, 1951 Flag of the Georgian SSR A plain red flag with the red hammer and sickle with a red star in a blue sun in canton, blue bar in upper part of flag.

Flag of Georgia
Azerbaijan
October 7, 1952 Flag of the Azerbaijan SSR A plain red flag with a golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton and an horizontal blue band on the bottom fourth.

Flag of Azerbaijan
Lithuania
July 15, 1953 Flag of the Lithuanian SSR A red flag with the golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton with the white thin stripe and green thick band on the bottom.

Flag of Lithuania
Moldavia
January 31, 1952 Flag of the Moldavian SSR A plain red flag with the green horizontal stripe and the golden hammer and sickle with a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton.

Flag of Moldova
Latvia
January 17, 1953 Flag of the Latvian SSR A plain red flag with a golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton with the blue and white rippling water at the bottom.

Flag of Latvia
Kirghizia
December 22, 1952 Flag of the Kirghiz SSR A red field with a golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton with two navy blue bars and a white stripe in the middle of the flag.

Flag of Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
March 20, 1953 Flag of the Tajik SSR A triband flag sporting the Pan-Iranian colors of red, white and green, manifested in the large white and green stripes in the middle of the red flag, with a golden hammer and sickle in the upper canton.

Flag of Tajikistan
Armenia
December 17, 1952 Flag of the Armenian SSR A plain red flag with the blue horizontal stripe and the golden hammer and sickle with a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton.

Flag of Armenia
Turkmenistan
August 1, 1953 Flag of the Turkmen SSR A plain red flag with a golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton with two blue bars in the middle of the flag.

Flag of Turkmenistan
Estonia
February 6, 1953 Flag of the Estonian SSR A red flag with the golden hammer and sickle and outlined star above a band of blue water waves near the bottom.

Flag of Estonia

Flags of other republics

Other Union Republics and autonomous republics existed within the Soviet Union, mostly using flags on a similar pattern, or the flag of their "parent" Union Republic, further defaced. Today, the only former Soviet Union territories that use modified versions of their original Soviet flag are the republic of Transnistria (a state of limited recognition, formerly part of the Moldavian SSR), Belarus (since 1995), Kyrgyzstan (since 1992, maintains the red background with the blue and white stripes removed) and Tajikstan (since 1992, using the same colours with different design.)

The official flags of the ASSRs were seldom used, and were generally the flag of the republic to which the ASSR belonged, defaced with the ASSR name in its own language(s) and the official language of the SSR; flags matching this pattern are not displayed in the gallery below:

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Государственные флаги РСФСР
  2. ^ Despite its name, the SSR of Abkhazia was never a Union Republic of the Soviet Union but had a special status as a contractual republic of the Georgian SSR, more similar to the administrative republics of the Soviet Union; see Socialist Soviet Republic of Abkhazia: Status.
  3. ^ Current flag. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Belarus returned to using the white-red-white flag of the Belarusian People's Republic, which is sometimes regarded as a German puppet state. In 1995, the current flag of Belarus was approved by referenced, created by modifying the 1951 flag of the Byelorussian SSR to remove the Communist hammer and sickle and the red star and to reverse the colours of the ornament pattern.
  4. ^ The Bukharan People's Soviet Republic was a short-lived Soviet state that governed the former Emirate of Bukhara during the years immediately following the Russian Revolution. In 1924, its name was changed to the Bukharan SSR. After the redrawing of borders by nationality in Soviet Central Asia, its territory was assigned mostly to the Uzbek SSR and some to the Turkmen SSR.
  5. ^ The Karelo-Finnish SSR was a short-lived Union Republic formed in 1940 from the Karelian ASSR with territory ceded from Finland in the Winter War. In 1956, it was demoted back to an ASSR within the RSFSR.
  6. ^ The Khorezm People's Soviet Republic was created as the successor to the Khanate of Khiva in 1920, when the khan abdicated in response to popular pressure. In 1923, it was transformed into the Khorezm SSR. A year later, it was divided between the Uzbek and Turkmen SSRs and the Karakalpak AO during the national delimitation in Soviet Central Asia.
  7. ^ Current flag. The flag of Kyrgyzstan was adopted on 3 March 1992 by the Supreme Council of Kyrgyzstan replacing the flag of Soviet Kirghizia. It consists of a red field with a yellow sun in the center having 40 uniformly spaced rays. This flag retains the red background with the blue and white stripe removed and the hammer and sickle symbols were replaced with the sun which its 40 rays represent the 40 Kyrgyz tribes unified against the Mongols by the epic hero Manas.
  8. ^ After the Russian Revolution, the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus was established; once Soviet rule was established during the Russian Civil War, the republic was converted to an ASSR of the RSFSR. Over the course of its three-year existence, the Mountain ASSR was partitioned into various autonomous okrugs and oblasts.
  9. ^ The Moldavian AO, within the Ukrainian SSR, was upgraded to become the Moldavian ASSR, encompassing modern Transnistria (generally recognised as being within Moldova) and a number of territories that are now part of Ukraine, with the intention of winning over Bessarabians and the first step towards a revolution in Romania. In 1940, as a result of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina were ceded to and occupied by the Soviet Union during World War II; the ASSR and the newly-won territories were upgraded to a Union Republic as the Moldavian SSR.
  10. ^ The Tajik ASSR was an autonomous republic within the Uzbek SSR, created in 1924 during the redrawing of borders by nationality in Soviet Central Asia. Five years later it was promoted to a full Union Republic as the Tajik SSR.
  11. ^ Current flag. The flag of Tajikistan was adopted in November 1992, replacing the flag of the Soviet Tajikistan of 1953. It is a horizontal tricolour of red, white and green with a width ratio of 2:3:2, charged with a crown surmounted by an arc of seven stars at the centre replacing the symbols of Communist hammer and sickle and the red star. Although nearly similar, the design is slightly larger in which the tricolour retains the choice of colours in the Soviet flag. Tajikistan was one of the last Soviet republics to receive the new flag.
  12. ^ In 1922, the Armenian, Azerbaijan and Georgian SSRs were merged to form the Transcaucasian SFSR. In 1936, they were repartitioned back into the original three Union Republics.
  13. ^ Current flag. The flag of Transnistria, a state of limited recognition, is near-identical to the flag of the former Moldavian SSR. When Moldova became independent, some places in Transnistria refused to fly the new Moldovan flag and continued to fly the flags of the Soviet Union and of the Moldavian SSR. The SSR flag was officially reintroduced as the flag of Transnistria in 2000. Despite the flag and coat of arms, Transnistria is not a communist state.
  14. ^ The Turkestan ASSR (initially, the Turkestan Socialist Federative Republic) was an autonomous republic of the RSFSR located in Soviet Central Asia. Upon dissolution, the Turkestan ASSR was split into the Turkmen SSR, the Uzbek SSR, the Tajik ASSR, the Kara-Kirghiz AO and the Karakalpak AO.

External links

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