What flag was there under Tsar Nicholas 2. How did the imperial flag compete with the white-blue-red one in the history of Russia? What is the meaning of the flag

In 2014, State Duma deputy, Member of the Supreme Council of the LDPR Mikhail Degtyarev prepared a bill to amend the federal constitutional law “On the State Flag of the Russian Federation,” Izvestia reported. The amendment provided for changing the existing official flag of Russia from a white-blue-red tricolor to a black-yellow-white standard.
According to the legislator, reunification with Crimea, the creation of the Customs Union and the growth of patriotic sentiments should take place under the banner of a victorious era in Russian history. In the explanatory note to the bill, the parliamentarian notes that during the period of widespread use of the black-yellow-white imperial flag, the territory of Russia increased significantly. It was then that the Crimea peninsula and the territory of East Prussia, Alaska, the Caucasus, Poland, the Baltic states, Central Asia and Finland.
– Under the imperial flag we won brilliant victories, it is still capable of uniting all citizens of Russia today. The modern tricolor, which Boris Yeltsin returned in turmoil, was not discussed with the people, no research was carried out,” Degtyarev said. – We say: Russia is 1152 years old, not 23 years old, the symbols of the state should personify its great history and great future, spiritual health determines material well-being, and not vice versa. At the same time, according to financial and economic justification, it is necessary to replace flags on state institutions and It is expected to spend 15.5 million rubles on the cars of diplomatic missions and officials of the country. The two tricolors themselves are indeed a matter of long-standing disputes between different political forces.
First mention of the flag date back to the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna. In 1731, in dragoon and infantry regiments, scarves were ordered to be made “according to the Russian coat of arms” from black silk with gold threads.
And someone is looking in even earlier and claims that the first two Russian state colors appeared in our Fatherland in 1472 after the marriage of Ivan the Third to Princess Sophia Paleologus, along with the adoption of the coat of arms from the Byzantine Empire, which fell under the blows of the Turks. The Byzantine imperial banner - a golden canvas with a black eagle crowned with two crowns - becomes the state banner of Russia.
Even before the Troubles began The state banner receives the final detail - the eagle's chest is covered with a large coat of arms with the image of St. George the Victorious. A white rider on a white horse subsequently gave legal basis to the third color of the flag - white. The black-yellow-white flag combined the colors of national heraldic emblems and during the reign of Emperor Nicholas I established itself as a national symbol. For the first time in Russia, the black-yellow-white flag began to be flown on special days after 1815, following the end of the Patriotic War with Napoleonic France.

In 1815 to commemorate the victory over Napoleon (and subsequently on all holidays), solemn tricolor banners began to be hung on buildings; in addition, army symbols (order ribbons, banners, and cockades, which also spread among civilian officials) acquired similar colors.
In 1819 a Zholner badge appeared with the number of the battalion in the regiment, made in the form of three horizontal stripes - black, yellow, white. The “imperial banner” served as the official state flag from 1858 to 1883.
Really, During this period, the Caucasus was finally conquered, and the Balkan campaign was successfully carried out. The Russian Empire did not suffer any major defeats. The flag, which is important for its supporters today, was never used by collaborators during the Great Patriotic War, unlike the white-blue-red banner. But there is one thing... It was during the official period that the black-yellow-white tricolor was killed for the first time in Russian history Russian Tsar - Emperor Alexander II.
“And your flag is wrong” Why Alexander II decided to carry out a “color reset” is still an open question. There is a version that the tsar, after the unsuccessful Crimean War and the inglorious death of his father Nicholas I, decided to shake up the empire and began by changing the flag. But, in my opinion, everything is much more banal...
Just how often happened in Russian history, one day a “scientific German” appeared... In 1857, the armorial department of the heraldry department of the empire had a new boss - Bernhard Karl (aka Boris Vasilyevich) Köhne, a famous numismatist and collector. Boris Vasilyevich, the son of a Berlin archivist, by that time had a dynamic career abroad: being a protégé of the Duke of Leuchtenberg who settled in Russia, Köhne was among the founders of the Russian Archaeological Society and received the position of curator of the numismatic department of the Hermitage.
Taking office by Köhne noted that he popularly explained to responsible government officials that the flag of the Russian Empire is incorrect. It's all about the combination of colors: according to the German heraldic school, the colors of the flag should correspond to the dominant colors of the coat of arms. And where, pray tell, is the color blue in your coat of arms?

And really – where? The eagle is black, in gold, St. George is white... It didn’t take long to persuade the sovereign, and in the summer of 1858, Alexander II signed a fateful decree: “Description of the highest approved design of the arrangement of the emblem colors of the Empire on banners, flags and other items used for decoration during ceremonial occasions.” cases. The arrangement of these colors is horizontal, the top stripe is black, the middle stripe is yellow (or gold), and the bottom stripe is white (or silver). The first stripes correspond to the black state eagle in a yellow field, and the cockade of these two colors was founded by Emperor Paul I, while banners and other decorations of these colors were already used during the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna. The lower stripe, white or silver, corresponds to the cockade of Peter the Great and Empress Catherine II; Emperor Alexander I, after the capture of Paris in 1814, combined the correct armorial cockade with the ancient one of Peter the Great, which corresponds to the white or silver horseman (St. George) in the Moscow coat of arms.”
What does Austria have to do with it? The Senate approved the decree, but on the political sidelines there was some confusion: “Does this flag remind you of anything? It seems that the Austrians have the same…” And in fact, there was a similarity with the standard of the Austrian Empire. Fortunately, Austrian heraldists divided their coat of arms into only two colors - black and yellow. If he was still white, there could be an embarrassment.
Besides, The Kingdom of Saxony had exactly the same flag (black and yellow). On the contrary, the yellow and white state standard of the Kingdom of Hanover coincided with the new Russian tricolor at the bottom. Flag of Saxony All these coincidences gave rise to unnecessary conspiracy theories in Russian society.
The thing is, that Saxony and Hanover were the patrimony of two branches of the Welf-Wettin family (from which, by the way, the current Windsor dynasty ruling in Britain comes), and legends began to emerge among the people that the Romanovs secretly became vassals of these clans - they swore allegiance to the Germans after the unsuccessful Crimean War.
But statesmen Still, they decided to explain why they didn’t like the previous tricolor. Thus, the minister of the imperial court by the name of Adlerberg complained that the time had come to cleanse himself of “foreignness,” hinting that the former tricolor had Dutch roots. And the sovereign himself more than once advised to draw inspiration from pre-Petrine times, or even from Byzantium itself - and the Second Rome also had a yellow-black flag. At this time, many “scientific” articles were published that explained the “natural selection” of the yellow-black-white flag: they talked about the Byzantine rule of John III, who gave Russia a two-headed eagle, about Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who allegedly, under threat of execution, punished the use of yellow-black colors in the state seal..
Consolation flag


After the death of Alexander II The “standard problem” was inherited by Emperor Alexander III. All this was aggravated by the fact that the German Empire, which absorbed Hanover and Saxony, and Austria, together with Italy, concluded the Triple Alliance in 1882, which was not the most friendly to the Russian Empire. It was necessary to do something with the state banner. In 1883, the tsar dismissed Koehne, who by that time had already created the Great Coat of Arms of the Russian Empire, the coat of arms of the Romanovs and formulated new laws in domestic heraldry. In April of the same year, the emperor returned as official former tricolor. In the “Austrian” flag, Alexander III changes the alternation of colors to white-yellow-black and gives it the status of the flag of the Romanov dynasty. For that, To resolve the issue with the official flag of the empire, on the eve of the coronation of Nicholas II in April 1896, a special meeting was convened. It was decided that “the white-blue-red flag has every right to be called Russian or national, and its colors: white, blue and red are called state; the flag is black-orange-white and has no heraldic or historical basis.” As arguments, in particular, the following were given: “If, to determine the national colors of Russia, we turn to folk taste and folk customs, to the peculiarities of the nature of Russia, then in this way the same national colors will be determined for our fatherland: white, blue, red.
Great Russian peasant on holidays he wears a red or blue shirt, Little Russians and Belarusians wear a white one; Russian women dress in sundresses, also red and blue. In general, in the concepts of a Russian person, what is red is good and beautiful... If we add to this the white color of the snow cover, in which all of Russia is clothed for more than six months, then, based on these signs, for the emblematic expression of Russia, for the Russian folk or the state flag, the most characteristic are the colors established by the Great Peter.”
Emperor's decision society greets with joy. But the fact that the “Kenev tricolor”, albeit in a modified form, has still been preserved, gives new food to home-grown conspiracy theorists - “Still, the Romanovs sold Mother Rus' to the Welf-Wettins...” In modern Russian symbols, the black-yellow-white flag can be found only in the Kursk region - it is an element of the provincial flag.

At first I thought that maybe it was a white-blue-red flag? But then I read that: “The WFTU had its own party flag. According to Regulation No. 71 “On the Party Flag of the W.F.P.”, it was a banner with a black swastika on a yellow background of a diamond in a white rectangle.” Therefore, most likely in the photo on the left it is the white-gold-black flag. But this is just a guess.

What is beyond doubt?

Recently, one of my close comrades, monarchists by conviction, stubbornly argued that it is impossible for nationalists, and especially monarchists, to use a flag with white at the top, this violates the Laws of the Russian Empire. My logical arguments are that using the Nationalist Organizations, essentially an association of private individuals, the state flag as their own, the flag of the Organizations, is the same as starting to rivet and issue, for example, St. George’s crosses in their own name, i.e. profanation. The state flag should be owned by the STATE, and not by organizations, even if they strive to restore this state. But all my arguments were in vain, I was branded a scoundrel. My call to look at the photographs and make sure that WHITE UP is the flag of the RUSSIAN MILITARY in the Russian Empire, and the flag of the RUSSIAN NATIONALISTS both in the Russian Empire and after - went unheard. And the person is still confident that everyone who overturns the state. flag of the Republic of Ingushetia - they are scoundrels, almost criminals, and perhaps unconscious agents of the Judeo-Masons.

But I hope you, my reader, are not blind, and can see what you see below.

Let's look at the flag from the museum, in the photo - the flag of one of the military units of the Russian Empire ( " And they had exactly the same banner as in all the regiments of the Russian Empire") , pay attention to the year:

As one researcher writes:

"To summarize...Whether the flag is placed black or white up depends on whether the flag you raise is the flag of a military unit or a government agency."

What is closer to nationalists who fight for their Motherland? The answer is obvious.

I refer the most distrustful to the elder the white-emigrant monarchist newspaper of the Russian Abroad “Our Country”, which on its website arranges the colors (from top to bottom): white-yellow-black and states: “That’s right - a white stripe at the top, black at the bottom, gold in the middle. But on the contrary, this is a distortion. " http://nashastrana.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/NS-2963-M.pdf (at the end of the last page).

I will also quote another author:

"For people who do not know the history of the Russian flag, I suggest they go to the Museum of Modern History and see with their own eyes what flag was used by the Black Hundred, monarchist and Russian national organizations in the Russian Empire. A short excursion for those who doubt it:

But by the way, the banner of the UNION OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE is not black, gold and white at all...

Museum address:
125009, Russia, Moscow, Tverskaya st., building 21."
But I have to return to this topic again, because... Until now, the truthful information about the legality of “WHITE UP” has not yet been realized by everyone.

Those who doubt it, be sure to read it.

The following interesting fact should be added to what is stated there:

"And so, “for a comprehensive and, if possible, final clarification of the issue of state Russian national colors,” a new Special Meeting was formed at the Ministry of Justice in May 1910, chaired by Comrade (Deputy) Minister of Justice A. N. Verevkin. In addition to officials from various departments, it was attended by specialists in heraldry, numismatics, and archival affairs: ....

Each of the scientists, to the best of their professional knowledge and based on their own political convictions, left their opinion on this issue in published form. In 1915, its active participant P.I. Belavenets reported the following about the results of the Special Meeting: the votes of the meeting participants were divided; the majority was in favor of introducing a “new flag according to the coat of arms” as a common flag, but “upside down, that is, the result would be a white-yellow-black flag.” P.I. Belavenets himself and a number of members of the Conference who joined him categorically insisted on a white-blue-red flag. The arguments of both sides seemed so convincing that “the conclusion reached was not worthy of the Highest final decision.” The conclusion was transferred to the Council of Ministers, the latter handed it over to the “Special Interdepartmental Commission at the Ministry of the Navy” for additional consideration." That is, the choice was between white-gold-black and white-blue-red. They did not have time to resolve this issue. The Russian Empire ceased to exist."

The conclusions are clear to anyone who takes 10 minutes to read it.

Those who use it with a black stripe up are right, and those who use it with a white stripe up are also right.

“WHITE UP” is a combat version of the Russian flag (it did not manage to become the state flag), and in my humble opinion, it is more relevant for those who believe, like Russian nationalists of the past and White emigrants, that the Russian war for their country is not over and continues.

Vladimir Basmanov

The three-color black-yellow-white cloth was approved by Emperor Alexander II on June 11 (23), 1858 as the National Arms Flag. This state symbol, introduced during the difficult era for the Russian Empire of the beginning of the “Great Reforms” and overcoming the consequences of the lost Crimean War, became a symbol of the rise of the Russian national spirit, marking a new flourishing, revival and greatness of the Russian state.

The description of the flag stated that the upper black and middle golden (yellow) stripes symbolize the State Emblem of the Russian Empire - a black eagle on a golden background, and the lower white stripe is the symbol of St. George the Victorious, depicted on the Moscow coat of arms as a horseman slaying a serpent with a spear. Moreover, the Imperial Decree contains a reference to the historical past of these flowers. Thus, the description states that the cockade made of black and gold colors was founded by Emperor Paul I, while banners and other decorations made of these colors were used even under Empress Anna Ioannovna. The white or silver stripe corresponds to the cockade of Peter the Great and Catherine II.

Emperor Alexander I, after the capture of Paris in 1814, combined the correct armorial cockade with the ancient one of Peter the Great, which corresponds to the white or silver horseman (St. George) in the Moscow coat of arms,”

This is the Highest Approved Description of the Imperial Flag.

However, the historical past of the official national colors of the imperial tricolor goes back much deeper than the era of Peter the Great, Anna Ioannovna and Catherine II. Back in 1497, on the charters of the Sovereign of All Rus' Ivan III, the symbolic imperial coat of arms of Byzantium appears, depicting a black double-headed eagle in a golden field, and it is combined with the coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, depicting the white horseman of St. George. It is worth recalling that the Russian Tsar Ivan III was married to the niece of the last Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI, Sophia Paleologus. And the combination of the imperial coat of arms of Byzantium with the symbols of the Grand Duchy of Moscow was the personification of the idea of ​​the Third Rome, expressed at the beginning of the 16th century by the abbot of the Pskov Spaso-Eleazarov Monastery Philotheus: “Two Romes have fallen, the third stands, and the fourth will not exist.”

Thus, black, gold (yellow) and silver (white) colors in their combination became the coat of arms colors of the Russian state. According to the Council Code of 1649 and the General Regulations of 1720, forgery of the official image of the royal seal was classified as a crime against the Sovereign himself and was punishable by death.

Under Peter I, the first Russian Imperial standard was also established in accordance with the coat of arms colors and was a panel depicting a black double-headed eagle in a golden field with St. George the Victorious in white and on a white horse. This order continued in the future. Russian coat of arms colors were preserved on Russian battle banners and cockades. Even the sentry boxes and rifle stands were painted black and yellow. And under Empress Catherine the Great, black, yellow and white colors began to be used for the ribbon and the Order of St. George - the highest sign of military distinction.

Coat of arms of the Russian Empire. Photo: Aleksey Stemmer / Shutterstock.com

The period of the reign of Alexander II, when the black-yellow-white tricolor became the Russian national and state flag, was marked by great reforms in all areas and spheres of public life: the liberation of peasants, the modernization of the Russian army. Under this flag, the conquest of the Caucasus was completed and Central Asia was annexed, a glorious victory was won in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, which marked the beginning of the liberation of the Balkan Slavs from Ottoman oppression.

Soon after the assassination of Alexander II by terrorists and the accession of his son Alexander III to the throne, the Highest Order was issued, according to which on special occasions it was prescribed to hang the white-blue-red flag, which appeared in the 17th century and was established by Peter the Great as a commercial flag. Despite this, the black-yellow-white flag remained a national Russian symbol and was solemnly raised during important state events - for example, during the meeting of the Emperors of Russia and Austria-Hungary Alexander III and Franz Joseph in Kremsier in August 1885.

In 1896, on the eve of the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II, the Highest Order established a Special Meeting headed by Adjutant General Konstantin Posyet, which decided that

the white-blue-red flag has every right to be called Russian or national and its colors: white, blue and red are called state; the flag is black-orange-white and has no heraldic or historical basis.”

At the same time, the discussion continued in Russian society about what the main state and national symbol should be. In 1910, a new Special Meeting was established under the chairmanship of Comrade Minister of Justice A.N. Verevkin, which was supposed to “clarify the issue of Russian state colors.”

In 1912, in the Russian city of Kharkov, the Orthodox publicist and missionary Evstafiy Voronets published a brochure entitled “How the black, yellow and white colors of Russian state symbolization came about and what they mean,” sharply criticizing the Posyet commission, describing its chairman as a “cosmopolitan.”

More pressing and urgent state affairs and the Japanese war with the foreign revolution prevented the correction of the illegality that occurred then,”

Voronets wrote, expressing the hope that the restoration of the use of the symbol of the original Russian state would soon take place in full.

Established in February 1913 in honor of the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov, the commemorative medal was on a ribbon of black, yellow and white. And the following year, 1914, in accordance with the circular of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire, a flag was introduced for use in private life, which was a white-red banner, in the upper left corner of which was placed a yellow square with a black double-headed eagle and St. George the Victorious on a white horse. The flag was supposed to signify the unity of the Sovereign and the people.

However, it was not possible to complete the restoration of the status of the black-yellow-white flag. The First World War broke out, and then the revolution, which brought down the Russian monarchy and the great Russian Empire. The black-yellow-white cloth returned to Russia again in the early 1990s. It was actively used and continues to be used by national-patriotic and monarchist movements. In 1993, the black-yellow-white tricolor (popularly known as the imperial flag) became, along with the state flag of the USSR, a symbol of resistance to the Yeltsin dictatorship. It was also actively used by supporters of the Russian Spring in the former Ukraine.

In Russia, over the past few years, discussions have continued about recognizing the black-yellow-white imperial flag as the official historical symbol of the Russian state and endowing it with the corresponding legal status. Making such a decision at the state level will undoubtedly be an act of respect for the great past of our country.

BLACK-YELLOW-WHITE FLAG AS AN OFFICIAL (STATE) FLAGTHE RUSSIAN EMPIRE WAS ENTERED BY THE DECREE OF ALEXANDER II OF JUNE 11, 1858

The colors of the flag meant the following: Black color- the color of the Russian double-headed eagle - a symbol of the Great Power in the East, a symbol of sovereignty in general, state stability and strength, the inviolability of historical borders - this is the basis that for centuries and to this day has determined the very meaning of the existence of the Russian nation, which created a huge state from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean . Gold (yellow) color- once the color of the banner of Orthodox Byzantium, perceived as the state banner of Russia by Ivan the Third Vasilyevich, is generally a symbol of spirituality, aspiration for moral improvement and fortitude. For Russians, it is a symbol of continuity and preservation of the purity of the Christian Truth - the Orthodox faith. White color- the color of eternity and purity, which in this sense has no discrepancies among the Eurasian peoples. For Russians, this is the color of St. George the Victorious - a symbol of great, selfless and joyful sacrifice for the Fatherland, for “one's friends”, for the Russian Land - that main fundamental feature of the Russian national character, which from century to century, from generation to generation, has puzzled , delighted and frightened foreigners.

The first two Russian state colors appeared in our Fatherland in 1472 after the marriage of Ivan the Third to Princess Sophia Paleologus, along with the adoption of the coat of arms from the Byzantine Empire, which had fallen under the blows of the Turks. The Byzantine imperial banner - a golden canvas with a black eagle crowned with two crowns - becomes the state banner of Russia.

Even before the start of the Troubles, the state banner receives the final detail - the eagle’s chest is covered with a large coat of arms with the image of St. George the Victorious. A white rider on a white horse subsequently gave legal basis to the third color of the flag - white. The black-yellow-white flag combined the colors of national heraldic emblems and during the reign of Emperor Nicholas I established itself as a national symbol. For the first time in Russia, the black-yellow-white flag began to be flown on special days after 1815, following the end of the Patriotic War with Napoleonic France.

In 1819, our Army first adopted a battalion linear badge, consisting of three horizontal stripes: white (top), yellow-orange and black (Zholner badge). On June 11, 1858, Emperor Alexander II personally approved a design with the arrangement of the emblem black, yellow and white colors of the Empire on banners and flags for decoration on the streets on special occasions. The black-yellow-white flag was never legally abolished, just as the white-blue-red was never national, although under the Democrats it changed its status as a commercial, civil maritime flag to the status of a “state” one. Since the reign of Emperor Alexander III, the Russian national state flag has been particularly furiously attacked by the left-democratic public for its, as they wrote then, “emphatically monarchical and Germanophile character.” The same critics who did not see in the white-blue-red flag a complete analogy with the national colors of France and Holland, as well as with many third-rate countries such as Argentina, Haiti, Honduras, Chile, found “shameful Germanophile imitation” in one the only top stripe of the black, yellow and white flag.

On April 28, 1883 (May 7, 1883), Alexander III, with the “Decree on flags for decorating buildings on special occasions,” ordered the use of a white-blue-red flag as the state flag of the Russian Empire, instead of black-yellow-white.

There is only a reference to the highest approved decree No. 33289 of June 11, 1858 “On the arrangement of the coat of arms of the Empire on banners, flags and other objects used for decoration on special occasions.” But the circumstances under which the decree was adopted, the current state situation and who was the author of this document are not indicated.

So, until 1858 the flag was different. The order of the colors in it was as follows: starting with the top stripe - white, then yellow and black at the bottom. It existed in this form until its official adoption. Along with it, there was a white-blue-red one... But the white-yellow-black flag before Alexander II, and after that the black-yellow-white flag was perceived by society as an imperial, government flag, in contrast to the white-blue-red flag of the Russian merchant fleet. The imperial flag was associated in the minds of the people with ideas about the greatness and power of the state. This is understandable, what could be majestic in the trade flag, in its very colors, which were artificially tied to Russian culture by Peter the Great? Of course, one cannot deny all the merits of this Emperor, but here he clearly went too far (he simply copied the colors of the Dutch flag).

Coexistence of the two flags until the 70s. XIX century was not so noticeable, but the question of the “duality” of the most important state Russian symbol is gradually beginning to arise. This duality is perceived differently by the Russian public. Ardent defenders of the Russian autocracy believed that there could be no talk of any flag other than the imperial one, legalized by the emperor: the people and the government must be united. The opposition to the tsarist regime stood under trade flags of white, blue and red, which became a symbol of the anti-government political movements of those years. It was these colors that were defended by the so-called. liberal circles who shouted to the whole world that they were fighting “the despotism and reactionary nature of the tsarist government,” but, in fact, they were fighting against the greatness and prosperity of their own country.

During this heated controversy, Alexander II died at the hands of the revolutionaries. His son and successor Alexander the Third on April 28, 1883 gave the white-blue-red flag the status of a state flag, but without CANCELING the imperial one. Russia now has two official state flags, which further complicates the situation. And already on April 29, 1896, Emperor Nicholas II ordered that white-blue-red be considered the National and State flag, also indicating that “other flags should not be allowed.”

Black-yellow-white remained only with the imperial family. The emperor was believed to have been “persuaded,” since supposedly all Slavic peoples were assigned such colors - and this emphasizes their “unity.” And explaining this by the fact that the black-yellow-white flag “does not have heraldic historical foundations in Russia” to be considered a cloth bearing Russian national colors. This begs the question, what historical basis does the trade flag have?

But let's return to the white-yellow-black banner. That is, then, before adoption, the white-yellow-black flag was simply turned over.

The “coup” can also be traced to its author - Bernhard Karl Köhne (he will be discussed at the end of the article in order to fully understand what kind of person got involved in “correcting” Russian heraldry). Upon his accession to the throne, Alexander II decided, among other things, to put the state symbols in order - and to bring them into line with pan-European heraldic standards.

This was to be done by Baron Bernhard-Karl Köhne, who was appointed head of the stamp department in 1857. He (Köhne) was born into the family of a secret state archivist, a Berlin Jew, a heretic who converted to the Reformed religion. He came to Russia under the patronage. In heraldic historiography he earned a sharp negative assessment, despite his vigorous activity.

But be that as it may, the flag was accepted and in this form it existed until 1910, when monarchists raised the question of the “correctness” of the flag, since the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov was approaching.

A special meeting was formed to clarify the issue “about the state Russian national colors.” It worked for 5 years, and the majority of participants voted for the return of the imperial white-yellow-black flag with the “correct” arrangement of colors as the main, state flag.

For some reason and why - it is not clear, but they made a compromise - the result was a symbiosis of two competing flags: an eclectic white-blue-red flag had a yellow square with a black double-headed eagle in the upper corner.

We fought a little with this in that world war. Further, the history of the imperial flag ends for a well-known reason...

In heraldry, an inverted flag means mourning, Köhne knew this very well, heading the heraldic department of the Empire. The death of the Russian emperors confirmed this. In maritime practice, an inverted flag means that the ship is in distress.
It is clear that colors are still confused and flags are hung upside down, consciously and unconsciously, but for this to happen at the state level and with many years of struggle - it takes special efforts from special people.

The existence of the white-yellow-black flag is confirmed by newsreels, but they are treated differently due to the black and white film. Supporters of the black-yellow-white flag explain that on the set of the white-blue-red flag, without being embarrassed by the simple experience of comparing colors, when converting colored flags into black and white mode using any well-known graphic editor. Given this experience, the similarity of the white-yellow-black flag to newsreel footage is greater than the white-blue-red one.

Also, the tricolor in the white-yellow-black arrangement can be seen in artists’ paintings.
.

1878 Vasnetsov V.M. "Kars was taken" (sketch)

[There is an assumption that this is the flag (blue-yellow-red) of the United Principality of Wallachia and Moldavia, an ally of the Russian Empire in the Russian-Turkish War (1877-1878). There is also an opinion that this is a Pan-Slavic (common Slavic) flag (if the flag wears blue-white-red colors. It is difficult to judge from the reproduction the color of the middle zone). In 1848, at the Pan-Slavic Congress in Prague, the Slavic peoples adopted a common Pan-Slavic flag, repeating the colors of the Russian (white-blue-red) flag.]

Rozanov's painting "Fair on Arbat Square".

And here is Rozanov’s painting “Fair on Arbat Square”.

White, yellow and black flags can be seen waving on the roofs of buildings. And along with them are white, blue and red. The picture was painted just during the coexistence of the two flags.

No matter how they explain the location of the black stripe at the top: this is the incomprehensibility of God (how is God light?), and the greatness of the Empire, and the color of Spirituality (referring to the monastic robe).

Also interpreted as: black - monasticism, yellow - gold of icons, white - purity of the soul. But all this is from the category of popular interpretations. Who will come up with something.
It is difficult to guess for yourself the meaning of the colors in this arrangement (black-yellow-white). A logical explanation just doesn't come to mind. But for us, someone “kind” does it himself and slips in his own interpretation, so that no one has even a shadow of doubt about the “correctness” of the arrangement of colors. And if anyone thinks otherwise, they rebuke him: how dare he doubt? The principle “everyone thinks so” or “this is how it is accepted” is in full effect here. They are not looking for the truth, but for public opinion, which, alas, almost never has anything to do with the truth.

But the most important point is missed, that the colors of the imperial flag should be identical to the words that express our entire Slavic essence: Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality. Or to put it another way: Church, King, Kingdom. What color goes with each of these words? I think the answer is obvious.

Also, along with the flag, the state emblem also underwent changes in 1858. Koehne created it the way we are used to seeing it. Although under Nicholas the First he was different.

Coat of arms of Köhne, 1858.

For example, the Coat of Arms depicted on coins. Here are the Nikolaev coins, 1858.

But the 1859 coin of Alexander the Second (the reign of this Sovereign, whose years were nicknamed the “era of great reforms”, for Russian Jews, as well as for the country as a whole, was a sharp contrast to the previous one. Reforms in the economy, relative political freedoms, rapid development of industry - all this, like a century earlier in Prussia, created the conditions for Jewish assimilation, which never happened). Here you can clearly see how accurately the eagle was “licked” from the Habsburg coat of arms. A particularly striking detail is the eagle’s tail. And all this in one year with the change of the flag. Also appeared on coins magendovids(six-pointed stars). Since the Masons are great symbolists, they just wanted to add at least a drop of tar to our heraldry.

A few more coins for comparison:

Back in 1959, a commemorative coin and medal “Monument of Emperor Nicholas I on Horseback” was issued. Magendavids are now so small that they can only be seen under a magnifying glass.

The copper coins have been updated, the design has changed radically, the stars are “Soviet” - pentacles.

The image below shows the similarity of the coat of arms that Koehne “composed” with the coat of arms of the Habsburgs. Habsburg coat of arms:

And here is a comparison of individual elements of the two coats of arms:

What we get:

1) The crown acquired a ribbon (although, in my opinion, it looks more like a snake); before this, this ribbon had never been used in Russian heraldry.

2) The wings have fallen off, previously on all eagles, the wings were fluffy, but now they are absolutely licked off from the Habsburgs, even in design, between the large feathers and here and there, there are small feathers. The only thing is that our eagle has 6 feathers, versus 7.

3) The combination of the coat of arms and the chain, although this arrangement was used previously, but on all previous coins, the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called was clearly visible, now it is just a chain, like the Habsburgs themselves.

4) Main Tail. This is clear without comment.

***

For reference:

He became interested in numismatics early on and published his first work in this field ("Coinage of the City of Berlin") at the age of 20, while still a student at a Berlin gymnasium. He also became one of the active figures, and then the secretary of the Berlin Numismatic Society, and in 1841-1846. supervised the publication of a journal on numismatics, sphragistics and heraldry.

Köhne met Russia in absentia back in the early 1840s. The famous numismatist Yakov Yakovlevich Reichel, who served in the Expedition for the Procurement of State Papers, the owner of one of the largest numismatic collections, drew attention to the young man, who soon became his assistant in collecting and “representative” in German numismatic circles. After completing his university course, Koehne came to St. Petersburg for the first time.

He returned to Berlin with a firm desire to enter the Russian service and applied for the then vacant chair of archeology at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (which never happened). As a result of Reichel’s patronage, on March 27, 1845, Koehne was appointed assistant to the head of the First Department of the Imperial Hermitage (the First Department included collections of antiquities and coins, it was headed by the major numismatist Florian Antonovich Gilles) with the rank of collegiate assessor [by the end of his life, Koehne had risen to the rank of Privy Councilor (1876 )]. In St. Petersburg, Koehne developed a vigorous activity.

The persistent desire to get into the Academy of Sciences, and in the archaeological “direction”, stimulated not only his active study of archeology, but also his no less active organizational work. In an effort to gain the necessary weight in scientific circles, Koehne initiated the creation of a special numismatic society in Russia, but since archeology inevitably attracted him, he combined these two sciences under one “administrative” name - this is how the Archaeological-Numismatic Society in St. Petersburg (later the Russian Archaeological Society) appeared ).

Köhne sought to promote himself and society on a European scale. It contained all the correspondence with foreign scientists. And foreign scientific societies invariably accepted him as their members, so that by the end of his life he was a member of 30 foreign societies and academies (he never got into the St. Petersburg one). By the way, the orientation towards the West led to the fact that Koehne tried not to allow reports in Russian at meetings (only in French and German), and only after the ethnographer and archaeologist Ivan Petrovich Sakharov (1807-1863) joined the society, the Russian language was restored to his rights.

The second half of the 1850s is Koehne’s triumph in Heraldry, when in 1856 he creates the Great State Emblem of the Empire, and in June 1857 he becomes the manager of the Armal Department at the department (with retention in office for the Hermitage). Having headed all practical work in the field of Russian heraldry, Koehne over the next years began a large-scale heraldic reform, trying to unify and give consistency to the body of Russian family and territorial coats of arms by bringing them into line with the rules of European heraldry (for example, turning the figures to the right heraldic side; replacing some that Koehne thought were not suitable for heraldry, figures for others, etc.) and the introduction of new principles and elements (placement of the provincial coat of arms in the free part of the city coat of arms, a system of emblems of the external part of territorial and city coats of arms, reflecting their status, etc. ).

Koene, however, is also the author of the black-yellow(gold)-white state Russian flag, designed in the colors of the main figure and the field of the shield of the Russian state emblem (a black eagle in a golden field).

Köhne’s career in the Russian Archaeological Society ended with the arrival of the new august leader, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. He did not approve the election of Koehne as secretary of the third department of the society (the only case in the entire history of the society), as a result of which at the beginning of 1853 Koehne left its ranks. Konstantin Nikolaevich, apparently, generally had a persistent dislike for Koena. In particular, he disapproved of the draft state emblem of 1856-1857.
On October 15, 1862, Köhne was allowed to accept the baronial title, granted on May 12/24 of the same year by the ruler (during the minority of Prince Henry XXII) of the Principality of Reuss-Greiz, Caroline Amalie. In the literature one can find a statement that Koehne owes this title to the state emblem of the Russian Empire he created, but this data needs confirmation. Most likely, the enterprising numismatist simply bought the rights to this title and thus became, probably, the only Baron “Reuss-Greizsky” in Russia.

Main conclusions

The handwriting of Freemasonry is clearly visible in Russian heraldry, just as the authorship of these “creations” is well known.

Russia is an Orthodox country, regardless of how many churchgoers and true believers there are currently. Orthodoxy is the foundation on which Rus' was built and stands to this day. This means that there cannot be anything in its symbolism that contradicts Orthodox spirituality.
Based on this statement, then the imperial flag of Russia should be white-yellow-black, and not vice versa. And that's why. From Orthodoxy:

1. White color is God. White color symbolizes the Divine uncreated (uncreated) light.

On the great holidays of the Nativity of Christ, Epiphany, Ascension, Transfiguration, Annunciation, they serve in white vestments. White vestments are worn during baptisms and burials. The holiday of Easter (the Resurrection of Christ) begins in white vestments as a sign of the Light that shone from the Tomb of the risen Savior, although the main Easter color is red and gold. In icon painting, white color means the radiance of eternal life and purity.

2. Yellow (golden) - King. These are the colors of glory, royal and episcopal greatness and dignity.

They wear vestments of this color on Sundays—the days of remembrance of the Lord, the King of Glory. In golden (yellow) colored vestments, the days of God’s special anointed ones are celebrated: prophets, apostles and saints. In icon painting, gold symbolizes Divine light.

3. Black people are God's people (see below about Black Hundreds).

This color also symbolizes crying and repentance. Accepted during the days of Great Lent, it symbolizes renunciation of worldly vanity.

For Vera! (God - Orthodoxy) - White color. King! (Autocracy) - Yellow color. Fatherland! (Russian Land, People) - Black color.

Brothers and sisters, what do you think should be the colors on the imperial flag of Russia? From top to bottom white-yellow-black, i.e. GOD-KING-PEOPLE or vice versa, black-yellow-white, i.e. PEOPLE-KING-GOD?

The last option is the symbol of liberals, when an insane crowd of people, eager to live according to their passions, rises above the Tsar and God. In our opinion, the black-yellow-white flag is a symbol of the revolution, which took place in Russia several decades after the adoption of this flag.

In addition, we all remember from the Holy Gospel that the Magi offered the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ: “and entering the house, they saw the Child with Mary His Mother, and, falling down, they worshiped Him; and, opening their treasures, they brought Him gifts : gold, frankincense and myrrh." (Matt. 2:11). Incense, like God, is white. Gold, like the Tsar, is yellow. Smyrna, as a person, is black.

We will not blame our faithful Kings for this, since no one is guilty of our betrayal of God and the King, which is still happening today. These external signs are only a reflection of the spiritual state of the people.

It can be firmly stated that the Holy Great Martyr Tsar Nicholas II understood the problem of the state flag of the Russian Empire and intended to restore its colors to their original form, i.e. white-yellow-black. This is confirmed by the fact that the banner of the Livadia-Yalta amusement company named after Tsarevich Alexei consisted of white, yellow and black stripes.

This banner belonged to the Tsarevich's regiment. Therefore, there is no doubt that during his supposed future reign it was planned to use exactly this arrangement of colors on the imperial banner... In addition, for the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov, Tsar Nicholas II approved an anniversary medal using the colors: White-Yellow-Black.

Brothers and sisters, we urge all of you not to be divided among each other based on differences in the arrangement of colors on the imperial flag. And this issue, important for all of us, will undoubtedly be resolved one of the first with the accession to the throne of the coming and promised to the Russian people of the Anointed of God - the Tsar.

Strengthen and help us, Lord! Amen.

* * *

Black Hundreds
For a long time, these names were given an extremely negative character, but the phrase “Black Hundred” has been found in Russian chronicles since the 12th century. and played a primary role until the Petrine era. In medieval Rus', “black people” were called “people of the earth” - “zemskiy” (citizens and villagers), in contrast to “servicemen”, whose life was inextricably linked with the institutions of the state. Thus, the “Black Hundred” is an association of zemstvo people, and calling their organizations Ch.S. - ideologists of the early 20th century. thereby sought to emphasize that in a difficult time for the country, the unification of the “zemstvo people” - Ch.S. - are called upon to save and protect its main foundations...

The founder of the organized “Black Hundreds” V. A. Gringmut in his already mentioned “Manual of the Monarchist Black Hundreds” (1906) wrote: “The enemies of the Autocracy called the “Black Hundred” the simple, black Russian people who, during the armed rebellion of 1905, stood up in defense of the Autocratic Tsar. Is this an honorable name, “Black Hundred”? Yes, very honorable. The Nizhny Novgorod Black Hundred, gathered around Minin, saved Moscow and all of Russia from the Poles and Russian traitors."

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