The Flag of Russia reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Flag of Russia

The Flag of Russia is the tricolour of Pan-Slavic colors. It consists of three equal horisontal fields, white on the top, blue in the middle and red on the bottom.

When Peter the Great visited the Netherlands in 1699 in order to learn about shipbuilding, he realised the need for Russia to have a flag for its navy too. So, he based the plan of the flag of Russia on the Flag of the Netherlands, making it a tricolour with three equal horizontal fields, but he chose Russian colors for it (the flag of the Netherlands at that time was orange-white-blue, it had no red). He chose the colors of coat of arms of the Duchy of Moscow, which had Saint George, having white armour, riding a white horse, wearing a blue cape and holding a blue shield, on red field.

This flag became the official flag of Russia on May 7, 1883. It was changed by Czar Nicholas II in 1914, adding the Romanov eagle on a yellow field in a canton in the top left corner. When the Bolsheviks took power in 1917, they changed the flag (see Flag of Russian SFSR). The current flag was re-adopted by Russia on August 21, 1991.

The flag of Russia is the source of Pan-Slavic colors.

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