Pan-Slavic colors

The pan-Slavic colors—blue, white and red—were defined by the Prague Slavic Congress, 1848, based on the symbolism of the colors of the flag of Russia, which was introduced in the late 17th century. Historically, many Slavic nations and states adopted flags and other national symbols that used some combination of those three colors. Slavic countries that use or have used the colors include Russia, Yugoslavia,^[1] Czechoslovakia,^[2] Czech Republic,^[2] Montenegro, Slovakia,^[3] Croatia,^[3] Serbia^[3] and Slovenia,^[3] whereas Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Poland^[a] and Ukraine use different color schemes.

The blue-white-red pan-Slavic tricolor approved at the Prague Slavic Congress, 1848. It also used to be the flag of Yugoslavia from 1918 until 1945.

Illustration of the wedding procession of Sigismund III Vasa in Kraków from the Stockholm Scroll (c. 1605).

Yugoslavia, both the Kingdom (Kingdom of Yugoslavia, 1918–1943) and the Republic (SFR Yugoslavia, 1943–1992) was a union of several Slavic nations, and therefore not only sported the pan-Slavic colors but adopted the pan-Slavic flag as its own (later adding a red star). After the initial breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, two of the remaining Yugoslav republics—Montenegro and Serbia—reconstituted as Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992 and as State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2003, and continued to use the pan-Slavic flag until its own dissolution when Montenegro proclaimed independence in 2006. Serbia continues to use a flag with all three Pan-Slavic colors, along with fellow republics Croatia and Slovenia.

Most flags with pan-Slavic colors have been introduced and recognized by Slavic nations following the first Slavic Congress of 1848, although Serbia adopted its red-blue-white tricolor in 1835 and the ethnic flag of Sorbs (blue-red-white) had already been designed in 1842. Czech Moravians proclaimed their flag (white-red-blue) at the very congress. In 1848, Croatian viceroy Josip Jelačić first designed the flag of Croatia with its modern tricolor (red-white-blue) for the then-concepted Triune Kingdom (and officially adopted by the Kingdom of Croatia), a group of Slovenian intellectuals in Vienna, Austria created the flag of Slovenia (white-blue-red), and the first Slovak flag (in reverse layout – red-blue-white) was introduced and flown by Slovak revolutionaries.^[4] The flag of the Czech Republic adopted its three national colors in 1920 with the founding of Czechoslovakia.

Examples of flags with Pan-Slavic colors

• Current countries
•  
  Croatia^[5]
•  
  Czech Republic,^[2] formerly Czechoslovakia (1918–1993)
•  
  Russia^[3]
•  
  Serbia^[3]
•  
  Slovakia^[6][3]
•  
  Slovenia^[3]

• Former countries
•  
   Flag of Kingdom of Montenegro (1910–1916)
•  
   Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941)^[1]
•  
   Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945–1992)^[1]
•  
   Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992–2003) and Serbia and Montenegro (2003–2006)^[5]

• Other entities
•  
  Republika Srpska^[7]
•  
  The Polish National Government during the January Uprising^[8][9]
•  
  Transnistria (co-official flag)^[10][b]
•  
  Traditional flag Vojvodina
•  
  Flag of Vojvodina
•  
  The Sorbs^[12]
•  
  The Rusyns^[13]
•  
  Crimea
•  
  The Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia
•  
  The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
•  
  The Kingdom of Slavonia

See also

• Nordic Cross flag
• Pan-Arab colors
• Pan-African colours
• Pan-Iranian colors
• Pan-nationalism
• Pan-Slavism
• National colours of the Czech Republic

Notes

1. The flag of Poland is red and white, but has different roots that pre-date the pan-Slavic colors.
2. Although the majority of the population of Transnistria is Slavic (Russian and Ukrainian), the largest single ethnic group are the Romanians.^[11]

References

1. The Encyclopedia Americana, Volume 11. Americana Corporation. 1972. p. 357. ISBN 9780717201044.
2. Flag Wars and Stone Saints: How the Bohemian Lands Became Czech. Harvard University Press. 2007. p. 135. ISBN 978-0674025820.
3. Shelley, Fred M. (2013). Nation Shapes: The Story behind the World's Borders. ABC-CLIO. pp. xvi. ISBN 9781610691062.
4. Вилинбахов, Георгий Вадимович (2003). "Государственная геральдика в России: Теория и практика" (in Russian). Retrieved 2 June 2021.
5. Crampton, William G (1997). Flags. Dorling Kindersley Publishing, DK Publishing. ISBN 0789442248.
6. Kamath, Anjali. Flag Book. Popular Prakashan. p. 27. ISBN 9788179915127.
7. Bulletin on Constitutional Case-law. Secretariat of the Venice Commission. 2007. p. 395.
8. Obok Orła znak Pogoni, poszli nasi w bój bez broni...
9. Polska Biało Granatoewo Czerwoni
10. "Transnistria frozen conflict zone recognizes Russian tricolor as second "national" flag". Euromaidan Press. 13 April 2017.
11. Statie, Mihai-Cristian (2013). "Transnistria: the "hot" nature of a "frozen" conflict". Kansas: School of Advanced Military Studies: 35. S2CID 151006048. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
12. Znamierowski, Alfred (2003). Illustrated Book of Flags. Southwater. p. 237.
13. "Academy of Rusyn Culture in the Slovak Republic: Rusyn Symbols".