Last modified: 2005-11-26 by zach harden
Keywords: belarus | ussr | europe | commonwealth of independent states | national ornamentation | referendum | belorussia | byelorussia |
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image by Mark Sensen, António Martins and Zach
Harden, 31 January 2004
Official Name: Republic of Belarus
(Respublika Byelarus')
Previous Name: Belorussian (Byelorussian) Soviet
Socialist Republic
Capital: Minsk
Location: Eastern Europe
Government Type: Republic
Flag adopted: 7
June 1995
ISO Code: BY
See also:
Other Sites:
Editorial Remark: It must be noted that all the opinions are the authors opinions and not of FOTW.Our site is non-political and concentrates only on vexillological issues.
Flag of Belarus is red over green (1:2) with white stripe
along the mast (1/9 length). On the white stripe is a red
ornament (the same like on the flag of soviet era, but in inverse
colors). Proportions of the flag are 1:2.
Petr Exner, 30 June 1995
From <www.savva-la-belle.com>:
The National Flag of the Republic of Belarus is a rectangular
banner, the ratio of height to length is 1:2. The upper
two-thirds of the flag is red, and the lower third is green. A
vertical red-on-white Belarussian decorative pattern, which
occupies one-ninth of the flag's length, is placed against the
flagstaff. The flag is fixed on a flagstaff painted golden with
ochre. Red symbolizes Belarus' glorious past. That was the color
of the victorious standards of the Belarussian regiments that
defeated crusaders at Grunewald, and was the color of the battle
flags of the Red Army divisions and Belarussian guerrilla
detachments that liberated the country from fascist invaders and
their henchmen. Green symbolizes the future. It is the color of
hope, spring and revival, the color of forests and fields. The
Belarussian decorative pattern symbolizes Belarus' rich cultural
heritage, its spiritual continuity, and the unity of its people.
Jarig Bakker, 7 July 1999
I found a Belarus flag at <dailynews.yahoo.com>.
It says that is the official flag of Belarus. This picture was
taken at the Soviet-Afghanistan War Memorial in Minsk yesterday
US EST. And two people from the army were there with the flag. I
was only able to see that there is no bar seperating the ornament
to the rest of the flag. See also the flag at <www.president.gov.by>.
Zach Harden, 15 Febuary 2001
From <www.undp.org>:
"Based on the decision of the May referendum (1995), the
President of Belarus issued decrees .....On Approval of
Regulations for National Flag of the Republic of Belarus.The
National Emblem and National Flag are symbols of national
sovereignty..... The National Flag of the Republic of Belarus is
a rectangular color cloth consisting of two longitudinal stripes:
red upper stripe and green lower stripe that are two-thirds and
one-third of the flag width respectively. Close to the flagstaff
there is a vertically placed red-on-white Belarusian decorative
pattern which occupies one-ninth of the flag's length and the
ratio of width to length is 1:2. The flag is fixed on the
flagstaff painted golden with ochre. It is precisely these
symbols that have been met with approval of 75.1% of people voted
at a national referendum. Red color in a flag is from ancient
days. That was the color of victorious standards of the
Belarusian regiments that had gained victory over crusaders at
Grunewald, that was the color of flags of the Red Army divisions
and Belarusian guerrilla detachments that liberated the country
from fascist invaders and their henchmen. Green is the color of
hope, spring and revival, the color of forests and fields.
Belarusian decorative pattern is a symbol of ancient culture of
folk, its spiritual richness , the unity of folk singers and
makers with people. The present National Emblem of the Republic
of Belarus symbolizes historical adherence of the Belarusian
people to constructive labor, their faith into triumph of justice
and attainment of worthy place in the world community."
This is possibly a more reliable (or at least official
Belarusian government) source, the Belarusian Mission to the UN
Development Program. There is also an image of the flag in
the site. I may be stating the obvious here, but using
USSR-period sources for the current Belarusian flag is apparently
a bad idea. A private site in Belarus <chronicle.home.by>
citing Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, says the current BY flag
is "almost identical to the Soviet era flag" i.e. not
the same.
Joe McMillan, 15 Febuary 2001
Belarus flag colour shades from Album 2000 [pay00] are:
Pantone --- CMYK
R 1795c --- 0-90-100-0
G 370c --- 60-0-100-25
Santiago Dotor, 26 Febuary 2001
Concering [pay00] - National
Flag (CSW/--- 1:2) - There are some numbers (6 and 1) set arond
the flag image in Album in front that is otherwise used for
indicating the construction details, but I believe that they are
quite misplaced here. From information by Petr Exner, ratio of
red and green stripes is 2:1, and white stripe with ornamet to
striped fly part is 1:8. Also, I guess there are still many
questions regarding the details fo the national ornament on this
flag (and the Soviet era flag).
Željko Heimer, 11 March 2000
There is flag of Belarus at <www.mfa.gov.by>.
It's taken from the website of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I
think this information can help get rid off all the
"error" or "wrong" information on Belarus.
You only can trust official stuff. There is lots of fake and
wrong versions of flags in Belarus because people who make
them don't have a knowledge.
Vladimir Maksakov, 23 April 2001
The UN/Belarus site has changed. This is the new link:
<www.un.int>.
It still has a picture of the BY CoA/flag,
but no explaination. I found a picture from Yahoo News that
shows the flag variant with no bars, attached to a staff in a
military post. It was there for background for Belarus
soldiers to vote for the next president. Oddly enough,
attached to a staff was a final form the Soviet Union!
Strange. The Russia/Belarus Union is still on, but
still no flag.
Zachary Harden, 9 September 2001
In National flags and distinctive markings - Change Nr 1 [pay01] - BI 1.1 - National flag. -
Note added: White stripe is sometimes surrounded by a red
rectangle.
Ivan Sache, 8 October 2001
The ornament used during the days of Belarussia SSR is the
same design being used right now, except the color of the design
is white and the background is red. The current design has
the white as the background, and the red is the color of the
design. On the Belarussia SSR, there was two white stripes
bordering the ornament, going vertically. On the current
design, we have no clue if they are there or not.
Images from the website of Alexander Lukashenko, the President of
the Republic of Belarus, show the flag without the stripes next
the ornament, yet showing a 2:3 ratio. The flag site hosted
by Graham Bartram, has the flag with the two bars next to the
ornament. His rendition of the flag is at <www.flags.net>.
The government rendition can be located at <www.president.gov.by>.
The flag being used at the
Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Games looks exactly like the design
posted on the second link.
Zachary Harden, 18 Febuary 2002
The Belarussian flag on their government website is crude and
inaccurate in several regards. The one on Bartram's website errs
in having red vertical lines on either side of the red pattern in
the "national ornament." I don't know who
manufactures this flag in a correct version. The Flag Bulletin
issue giving complete details on the new 1995 flag of
Belarus is out of print.
Dr. Whitney Smith, 18 Febuary 2002
The site of Belarus Embassy in the Russian Federation (<www.embassybel.ru>)
talks about the national arms and flag in more detail. This
is what I can pull about the national flag: Ratio is 1:2 . Red
stripe: 2:3 of length; Green stripe: 1:3 of length; Ornament: 1:9
of the flag's width. If I understand this correctly, the flag
must be topped with a golden ornmament/finial. This also
has the symbolism of the flag, in Russian. It says nothing about
the national hymn, which had adopted lyrics a few weeks ago.
Zachary Harden, 28 September 2002
The BY national flag is defined as the soviet era BSSR flag
minus the golden hammer anc sickle, and therefore the colors are
medium green, white and medium red (a.k.a scarlet, alyi~
in Russian).
The RGB BS values are, for red: RGB:255-0-0; green: RGB:0-153-0;
and white: RGB:255-255-255. That said, PMS 1795 seems too dark
and and PMS 370 too yellowish.
I'd be quite surprised to read an official Belarussian text
saying that the current national flag has no connection
whatsoever with the BSSR flag and that any similarity is
coincidental. That said, and stressing the differences between
vexillology and textile observation, it is (to me at least)
evident that, even if the current belarussian flag is
manufactored using a significantly darker cloth for the red
parts, the current BY national flag has conceptually the same
shade of red (and of green and of white) as the old soviet
belarussian flag had.
Anto'nio Martins, 24 Febuary 2003 and 10 March 2003
Decree Number 214 (7 June 1995) states the design of the
Belarus flag and mentions the colors of green, white and
red. There is no mention in this law, or in subsequent laws
or decrees about the exact color shades (Pantone or CMYK) for the
red and the green. It is speculated that the shade of red and
green were similar to those used on the flag of Belarussian
Soviet Socialist Republic, but no mention of shades were
mentioned in the laws creating the BySSR flag.
However, I can say that the flag of the Republic of Belarus does
nothave any bars in the national ornament. The ornament
takes up 1/9 of the length of the flag. The 2/3 of the
hoist is taken up by the red, the 1/3 is taken up by the
green. The Government of the Republic of Belarus also
requires this flag to be fasten on a brown staff, attached with a
golden finial (orbe shaped). There is no design pattern or
construction sheet being passed around, that I know of, to make
this flag correctly. However, Decree N. 214 does name the
Belarus Government authority who has information about the flag
is the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus.
The shade of green given by Album 2000 is Pantone 370C, in CMYK,
it is 60-0-100-25. But António Martins said that the RGB BS for
green is 0-153-0.
Belarus was not the only SSR that used green. Lithuania was
another one of them. Lithuania also uses green on their
national flag today. Lithuania and Belarus used the same shade of
green when they were in the USSR. The green Lithuania uses
now is C100/M55/Y100/K0. Could it be safe to say that the shade
of green for the Belarus flag is C100/M55/Y100/K0?
The shade of red also matches. Lithuania's shade of red is
C25/M100/Y100/K0. Since Belarus and Lithuania had the same
colors on their Soviet era flags, both are using the same colors
on the national flag (Lithuania has yellow, Belarus has white as
their third color).
So, I take a guess and say this for the Belarus flag colors.
Green C100/M55/Y100/K0
Red C25/M100/Y100/K0
White
Zachary Harden, 28 May 2003 and 2 June 2003
Yes, they did use the same colours in their flags during
the Soviet era, but Lithuania is now using the same colourscheme
they used during their brief pre-Soviet independent period in
1918. Belarus also used the Pre-Soviet independence flag for a
while (1991 - 1995) in which the red seemed to match the red on
the Lithuanian pre-Soviet era and current flag perfectly. Still
no reason to assume that this is still the case with the current
flag. The current President of Belarus might, for reasons best
known to himself, have chosen for a slightly darker shade of red
in order to distantiate the current flag from the previous one,
which he might have preceived as being to nationalistic.
Andre van de Loo, 2 June 2003
From <www.president.gov.by>:
"The National Flag of the Republic of Belarus, which is a
symbol of state sovereignty of the Republic of Belarus, is a
rectangular cloth consisting of two longitudinal stripes: red
upper stripe and green lower stripe that are two-thirds and
one-third of the flag width respectively. A vertical red-on-white
Belarusian decorative pattern, which occupies one-ninth of the
flag's length, is placed against the flagstaff. The flag’s
ratio of width to length is 1:2. The flag is fixed on a flagstaff
painted golden (ochre).
During ceremonies and other solemn events, the National Flag of
the Republic of Belarus is used with a diamond-shaped top edge
containing a five-point star. The star is analogous to the one
depicted on the national Emblem of the Republic of Belarus. The
top edges are made of yellow metal. "
Zachary Harden, 2 June 2003
image by Zach Harden, 31 January 2004
I am not certain, but have always understood the
'national ornament along the hoist of the flag of Belarus to
be derived from a typical local hand-woven carpet border.
Christopher Southworth, 2 March 2003
In William Crampton's "Large Illustrated Flag Guide
1990" (Dutch Version): the pattern is described as a
folkloristc decoration, which could refer to a decoration on a
handwoven carpet.
Andre van de Loo, 2 March 2003
I have no sources to back it up with, but I have always
assumed that the pattern was not used on carpets, but rather as
ornamentation on various ribbons, e.g. sewed on shirts or adoring
table-clths or something like that. Also a ribbon for hats...
I might be quite wrong, but then again, Belarus is not especially
famous for her carpets...
Željko Heimer, 2 March 2003
I would agree. One of my more obscure heraldic objects is a
pamphlet about Latvian national costumes, which has a similar
ornament on the front page (as well as on the front wrap) and
also shows several costumes with similar ornaments as ribbons or
as bordures on skirts and shirts. Taking a look at the web, I
found <www.latinst.lv>
which shows such ornaments.
Ole Andersen, 2 March 2003
Latvia and Belarus being neighbouring countries seem to have
much in common in the appearance of their folkloristic national
costumes. I came to the following sites <www.belarusguide.com>
and <www.belarusguide.com>
which proved beyond a doubt that the pattern displayed along
the hoist of the Belarus National Flag is derived from
folkloristic decorations on items of clothing in the Belarus
national costume. These decorations can be found on belts or
waist-bands worn over the clothing, edgings on skirts
and cuffs and other trimmings to give the festive costumes a
bright and cheerful appearance.
Andre van de Loo, 3 March 2003
The Byelorussian ornament shown on the flag was made in 1917
by Matrena Markevich. I don`t sure but I think it is ornament for
embroidered belt of national costume.
Victor Lomantsov, 3 March 2003
It should be noted that the hoist stripe is the exact opposite
of the Soviet version of the flag. In my opinion, the stripe is
actually Polish being an embroidery ornament. And was, among
other things, used as embroidery for shirts, vests, trousers,
dresses, belts, but its usage even reached house decorating,
being used as differently coloured bricks. The symbol can often
be seen in Belarus, as its central and western parts are the
Polish Eastends (lost after the WWII), and many Poles didn't give
in to the Soviet Vistula Plan (to resettle Poles to Poland's
western "recovered lands"), and remained there (my
great-grandparents, for example, as well as my grandmother's
sister and her children). Thus, especially from Minsk region west
and specifically in the Grodno, Slonim, Brest and Pinsk regions,
there are very many people of Polish origin.
Marek Kaszycki, 19 May 2003
Same design, but the colors were reversed. BySSr used
white design over a red background, BY uses right now a red
design on a white background.
Zach Harden, 19 May 2003
image by Zach Harden, 31 January 2004
The finial that tops the Belarus flag.
Zach Harden, 31 January 2004
