Символика русского знамени: Общественная дискуссия о значении цветов национального флага во второй половине XIX – начале XX века
Symbolism of the Russian banner: Public debate on the meaning of the national flag’s colors in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries

Summary/Abstract: This article explores the debate over the significance of the colors of the state (national) flag in Russian society in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Numerous examples from the materials of Special Conferences, studies, and periodicals illustrate various interpretations of the colors of the Russian flags (white-blue-red and black-yellow-white), and presents contemporary arguments in favor of certain color combinations and their justifications. Particular attention is paid to the aesthetic, ethnographic, historical, and political motives that influenced the semantic content of the colors of the Russian tricolor. It is noted that while one segment of Russian society viewed the black-yellow-white «heraldic» or «royal» banner as more distinctive, evoking, in their view, the Byzantine tradition, another perceived this combination as «official», «Romanovian», or «German». In turn, if supporters of the white-blue-red flag saw in its colors an expression of Russian national tastes, a symbol of Slavism and the legacy of Peter the Great, then critics of this combination of colors considered such a flag to be unoriginal, imitative, and lacking historical justification for being considered nationally Russian. The article introduces into scientific circulation a significantnumber of materials from the periodical press of the Russian Empire, previously unknown to researchers («Russkiy vestnik», «Russkiy invalid», «Novoye vremya», «Rossiya», «Grazhdanin», «Syn Otechestva», «Sankt-Peterburgskiye vedomosti», «Mirnyy trud», «Yuzhnyy kray», «Priroda i lyudi», «Svet», «Russkoye znamya», «Groza», «Kurskaya byl’», etc.), concerning the public debate about the colors of the national Russian flag and allowing us to significantly expand our understanding of the opinions that existed in prerevolutionary society on the issue under consideration.

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