Last Soviet-era (before 1991) flag was adopted by the Russian SFSR in 1954. The constitution stipulated:
- The state flag of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic presents itself as a red rectangular sheet with a light-blue stripe at the pole extending all the width which constitutes one eighth length of the flag.
Between 1937 and the adoption of the flag to the right, the flag was red with the gold Cyrillic characters РСФСР (RSFSR) in the top-left corner, in a traditional viaz' style of ornamental Cyrillic calligraphy.
The flag of RSFSR is a defacement of the flag of the Soviet Union.
Like the flag of the Soviet Union, the hammer and sickle represents the working class and more specifically, the hammer represents the urban industrial workers and the sickle represents the rural and agricultural peasants. The red in the flag represents the Russian revolution and revolution in general.
Famous quotes containing the words flag of, flag, russian, soviet, socialist and/or republic:
“Swift blazing flag of the regiment,
Eagle with crest of red and gold,
These men were born to drill and die.
Point for them the virtue of slaughter,
Make plain to them the excellence of killing
And a field where a thousand corpses lie.”
—Stephen Crane (1871–1900)
“—Here, the flag snaps in the glare and silence
Of the unbroken ice. I stand here,
The dogs bark, my beard is black, and I stare
At the North Pole. . .
And now what? Why, go back.
Turn as I please, my step is to the south.”
—Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)
“Now comes this Russian diversion. If it is more than just that it will mean the liberation of Europe from Nazi domination—and at the same time I do not think we need to worry about the possibility of any Russian domination.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“Today he plays jazz; tomorrow he betrays his country.”
—Stalinist slogan in the Soviet Union (1920s)
“Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.”
—Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931)
“No republic is more real than that of letters, and I am the last in principles, as I am the least in pretensions to any dictatorship in it.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)