Soviet Russia (1917-1923) and early flags of Russia in the Soviet Union (1923-1954) (original) (raw)

This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website

Presentation
Improvised red flag
Red flag with modern script (1918.04)
Red flag with ancient script (1918.05)
Flags of the 1918.08 constitution
State Coat-of-arms of 1918
Merchant Flag of 1920
Flag of 1937 See also:
Construction details of Soviet flags
Soviet Union
Russian Provisional Government (Feb - Oct 1917)
Russia in the Soviet Union (later flags)
Naval flags of Soviet Russia (1917-1924)
Russia External links:
Flag plate from the Aug.1918 Constitution
reported by Valentin Poposki, 29 August 2006
poster identified as Civil War poster: White Russian anti-Semitism, dating from 1919 (Trotsky Internet Archive). In the background, several flags.
reported by Phil Nelson, 12 November 1999

Presentation

These are the flags of (post-revolutionary) Russia, used from 1918 to 1954. Naturally, once the Soviet Union was formed, in 1922, these flags stand for a part of it, not for an independent Russia. (But of course the federal character of the Soviet Union was largely fictional: That’s another story but the flags, even so, reflected this.) The name RSFSR did not change both before and after the set up of the Soviet Union.
António Martins, 15 January 2000

Improvised red flag

image by António Martins, 22 July 2007

The red flag became the most popular symbol from the first moments of the 1917 revolution, being widely used even by non-Communist elements. People often ripped the white and blue stripes from the tri-colour Russian flags to make very narrow, unraveled red flags that were shown everywhere.
José Manuel Erbez, 12 June 2001

If the regular russian flags these were ripped from were standard 2:3, then these would be quite long: 1:9 ∵ 6:9 = 2:3.
I guess that the flags in question were the regular Russian tricolor and the tricolor with imperial canton.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 30 July 2007

Red flag with modern script (1918.04)

image by Mark Sensen, 25 May 1996

Cyrillic letters in one row in canton (I saw it on posters). This variant was recommended by Order No 320 in April, 1918 as national and war flag.
Victor Lomantsov, 31 October 2000

Red flag with ancient script (1918.05)

image by António Martins, 28 June 2002

Red with in the upper hoist yellow Cyrillicinitials (RsFsR). Yellow border around the canton.
Mark Sensen, 24 April 1996

“Ancient Cyrillic” letters in different sizes (big letters — R, F, R; small letters — S, S). This flag existed in 1918-1937: It was approved by Foreign Ministry (“People’s Commissariat”) on May, 20, 1918 (before the adoption of the Constitution) instead of the modern script variant.

Ratio of the flag = 1:2
Height of the canton = 1/2 of the height of the flag
Length of the canton = 2/5 of the length of the flag

In 1920 the Central Executive Committee readopted this flag as War Flag (Navy flag and Merchant flagbecame other). The description of the flag in the Constitution was not changed until 1954. But really in 1937-1954 the flag was other.
Victor Lomantsov, 18 August 2000 and 31 October 2000

The War Flag (called the State Flag after 1925) was red with the initials in a decorative slavonic script in the canton, bordered on the lower and fly sides by a gold fimbriation. This flag continued in use until 1954. There’s a photo of one of these in Wilson’s _Flags at Sea_[wil99]. New forms were worked out pursuant to a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviet of Workers’, Soldiers’, Peasants’, and Cossaks’ Deputies dated 29 September 1920, created by the artists S. V. Chekhonin, N. P. Kolchanovskii and V. N. Serebryan.
Dave Martucci, 17 January 2000

State flag of RSFSR [Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic] (1918-1920); The first flag of the Navy of the Republic(1918-1920); and Flag of auxilliary vesselsof RKKF (until 1924) [RKKF stands for Workers and Peasants Red Fleet]
Željko Heimer, 11 April 1999, quoting from Flag-znamya korablya, 07 March 1999

Proposed by S. V. Chekhomin, this flag is described by W.E.B. (name?) in [smi72] as «regarded by some as “pseudo-Slavic” and by others as an unnecessary and inappropriate manifestation of Russian chauvinism».
António Martins, 15 January 2000

This flag shows in an old photograph, taken March 1919, of the 3rd International Congress of Communists. The canton is red and the letters and border are (I will assume) yellow. The letters are RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic).
Steve Stringfellow, 18 August 1999

The march 1919 photo of the III International shows the border all around the letters, on all four sides, while [wil99] shows the border only on the lower and fly sides. Which version was correct?
António Martins, 22 November 2002

This flag image in Internationaal Seinboek, c. 1920 has the canton-height perhaps even slightly larger than half flag-height. That agrees with Smith’s FTAAATW p. 177. [smi81d] This flag was in use from 1920-1954, according to [smi81d]; the Flag-Encyclopedia [zna99], has 1918-1937 [which is the correct period].
Jarig Bakker, 17 August 2000

This flag was never made or used. Constitution of 1918 did not say that letters stand in cross. The flag adopted 17 Jun 1918 continued in use. Letters in cross were shown in enclosure to publication of constitution.
Janis Lasmanis via Ben Cahoon, 8 December 2020

Flags of the 1918.08 constitution

Constitution (august 1918) adopted the flag of RSFSR:

Article XVII, §90.
… the commercial, naval, and war flag of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic consists of a scarlet cloth, in the left-hand corner of which, near the staff, are placed the gold letters «RSFSR» or the inscription «Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic».

As you see, the details of the design were not regulated. We know about flags with full inscription, and flags with with abbreviation looked like cross.
Victor Lomantsov, 18 August 2000 and 31 October 2000, and Dave Martucci, 17 January 2000

The first published edition of the constitution is accompanied by a drawing of the flag — with the initials in a cross pattern.
Dave Martucci, 17 January 2000

Full name

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 29 July 2008

Red with inscription «Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic» in Cyrillic as decreed 13 Apr 1918.
Mark Sensen, 30 July 1996

According to Konstantin A. Ivanov [iva67], the red flag with the full name of the RSFSR in the canton is a legal flag after the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee [A-RCEC] of the Soviet of Workers’, Soldiers’, Peasants’, and Cossaks’ Deputies on 14 April 1918 which stated «As the flag of the Russian Republic is established the Red Banner with the inscription — «Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic».» Note that there is no reference to the color of the inscription.
Dave Martucci, 17 Januay 2000

Improved version for the image at <su-ru%5Fh.html#18c> in FotW-ws. According to the illustration in [iva67] (p.43, fig.1), this flag had 2:3 ratio.
António MARTINS-Tuválkin, 29 July 2008

Cross

image by Mark Sensen, 24 April 1996

Cyrillic letters "RSFSR" in cross ("R" on the top, "SFS" in the middle, "R" on the bottom):

R S F S R

This variant was drawn in first edition of the Constitution (1918).
Victor Lomantsov, 31 October 2000

Red with in the upper hoist yellow Cyrillicinitials (RSFSR) in serif, placed in the form of a cross.
Mark Sensen, 24 April 1996

I’m surprised that the official imageshows the flag with a 2:3 ratio.
António Martins, 31 August 2006

In Crampton’s 1990 flag book [cra80d] the flag is entitled «the USSR national flag from 1918 to 1920». This caption is a misnomer as the USSR was not formed by the RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR et al. until 1922.
Edward Mooney, 13 January 2000, and Roy Stilling, 14 January 2000

Incorrect depiction in Petit Larousse

The Petit Larousse encyclopedia (1924 ed., Dutch) shows under «_Sovjet Russia_»: A version with the Latin characters RSFSR in a triangle, the R’s at the base-corners, the F in the apex:

F S S R R

Peter-Hans van den Muijzenberg, 29 Oct 2000

It is a fiction. I think the drawing was made according to textual description («red banner with abbreviation RSFSR») by the artist who never saw the real flag. I don’t know about variants with either Latin "RSFSR" or Cyrillic "RSFSR" in a triangle.
Victor Lomantsov, 30 October 2000 and 31 October 2000

State Coat-of-arms of 1918

CoA of Russian SFSR in 1918 18.gif) image reduced

See also: later coat-of-arms

Merchant Flag of 1920

image by Željko Heimer, 13 July 1996

On 29 of September, 1920 the Government revised the flags. Merchant ensign — red with white letters ’"RSFSR"
Victor Lomantsov, 31 October 2000

The merchant flag was red bearing the plain Cyrillic letters "RSFSR" in white. This flag was superceded in 1923 by the Flag of the Soviet Union.
Dave Martucci, 17 January 2000

This is one of the flags shown in the background of aposter identified as Civil War poster: White Russian anti-Semitism, dating from 1919 (Trotsky Internet Archive).
Phil Nelson, 12 November 1999

Flag of 1937

image by Mark Sensen, 25 May 1996

Red with in the upper hoist yellow Cyrillicinitials (RSFSR) in serif. The same flag used in 1940’s.
Mark Sensen, 25 May 1996

Red field with golden letters «RSFSR» in canton (without the yellow border).
Victor Lomantsov, 31 October 2000

This flag was replaced by a new onein 1954.
Željko Heimer, 17 April 1996