Belarusian Flag

Belarus Flag PNG

The flag of Belarus is an unequal red-green bicolor. At the top, there is a thick vertical red stripe, while the thinner green stripe is below. What makes the design stand out is the white and red pattern along the hoist, which was inspired by traditional embroidery patterns. The width-to-length ratio is 1:2.

Opposition groups and the Belarusian diaspora have used a different flag, with three horizontal stripes (red in the middle, white at the top and at the bottom). The display of this flag is restricted by the country’s government.

History of the Flag

The territory that is now Belarus was in the past controlled by Prussia, Poland, Lithuania, and Russia. According to vexillologist Whitney Smith, that’s why the Slavic peoples who lived there didn’t officially have national symbols – they weren’t developed until the 20th century, when the country gained independence for the first time.

1918

Following the breakup of the Russian Empire near the end of World War I, the Belarusian People’s Republic (the Belarusian Democratic Republic) was proclaimed on 9 March 1918. It was declared as an independent republic despite the occupation of contemporary Belarus by the Imperial German Army.

The government of the republic never managed to gain control over the whole territory of Belarus, but it was during that brief period that the white-red-white flag was introduced, which is now widely used by the forces opposed to the regime of Lukashenko.

The original flag of the state proclaimed after the breakup of the Russian Empire was just white. It was inspired by the name of the nation, which means “White Russia.” Soon, a red stripe was added in the middle. The color combination was derived from the traditional coat of arms featuring a red shield with a white horse and knight. The shield was used by Belarus under Lithuanian rule. The ratio was 1:2. The flag was supposedly designed before 1917 by Klawdziy Duzh-Dushewski, a Belarusian civil engineer, architect, diplomat, and journalist.

1919 – 1925

Due to the military advances of the Red Army, the German army left the territory of modern Belarus in December 1918. The Red Army took over and established the Lithuanian-Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Council of the Belarusian People’s Republic relocated to Hrodna in the Republic of Lithuania, de-facto going into exile.

The Council used two flags. In addition to the standard white-red-white triband described above, they adopted a version where the red stripe was supplemented by two thin black stripes from above and below. The black was there to symbolize mourning.

1919

The newly-formed Lithuanian-Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic used a simple red flag inspired by that of the Russian Soviet Republic.

1919 – 1927

Following the creation of the Byelorussian SSR, the flag was modified to better identify the country it belonged to. At the top left corner, the lettering “ССРБ” was added. In the Cyrillic alphabet, it represented the abbreviated name of the state (the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia). The letters were rather large and took up almost half of the flag’s height. They were separated from the flag by two gold lines.

1927 – 1937

The flag was slightly tweaked. The modification, which was reflected in the 1927 Constitution, affected both the meaning and the artistic qualities of the design.

The lettering now was “БССР.” It represents the new name of the country, the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was adopted after its incorporation into the Soviet Union in 1922.

The letters grew smaller and lighter. They also lost their border. As a result, the design became cleaner and more visually appealing. By comparison, the glyphs in the previous version created a lot of weight making the design needlessly disproportional.

1937 – 1951

At the top left corner, two symbols of the Soviet Union were added: a star and the combination of a hammer and sickle. The latter is a communist icon representing proletarian solidarity between agricultural and industrial workers. The combination of a hammer and sickle can be interpreted as a secular replacement of the patriarchal cross, a version of the Christian cross. For instance, David Lempert presents this view in his “Daily Life in a Crumbling Empire.”

The letters “БССР” were still present, but they now moved lower. The serif typeface replaced the previous sans serif one, and the glyphs grew bolder. While the design lost its minimalistic appeal, the serif font better fit the hammer and sickle symbol.

Additionally, in 1937, the ratio was officially declared as 1:2 for the first time.

We should also point out that during the Nazi occupation of Belarus between 1942 and 1944, the historic triband with white and red stripes was extensively used as a symbol of resistance.

1951 – 1991

While all the flag modifications that took place from 1919 to 1951 were mostly cosmetic, this time, the design went through a complete overhaul. The fact that Belarus was still a Soviet Republic remained clearly visible, but national symbolism made its way to the flag for the first time since 1919. The reason behind this modification was of a political quality – by the end of the 1940s, it became obvious that flags of the USSR republics should have more distinctive elements, especially those republics that were part of the UN.

In the case of the Byelorussian Republic, an intricate pattern in white and red was used. It was inspired by the embroidery created in 1917 by a peasant. Her name was Matrona Markyevich, she lived in the village Kastsilishcha of the Sennin region. The embroidery, which was discovered in the archives of the Belpramsavyet, was originally intended to be used as part of female clothing.

For the flag, the pattern was slightly tweaked, with a few new symbolic elements introduced to it.

1991 – 1995

After Belarus became independent from the USSR in 1991, it returned to the white-red-white triband used in 1918.

1995 – 2012

After the 1995 Belarusian referendum, the white and red triband was gone. Instead, a design similar to that from the Soviet era was readopted.

It looked pretty much the same, just the hammer and sickle had been dropped. Also, the embroidery was now red on a white background instead of the reverse. That’s because this combination is more in line with the traditions of the Belarussian embroidery technique, where the canvas is white, while the pattern is red.

2012 – present

The embroidery was made larger. It now occupies more space because the thin white stripe that had separated it from the rest of the flag is gone. All the parts of the pattern are now better visible and don’t merge as in the previous version, where they were a bit too small.

Meaning of Symbols and Colors

What makes the flag of Belarus stand out is the red and white pattern along its left side. Belarus is believed to be among the first countries that started using a national ornament as part of its flag. Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan added similar elements to their flags only after they gained independence.

The original pattern used for the BSSR flag had the following symbolic explanation:

• the rhombus in the center represents the rising sun (hence «The Rising Sun» nickname of the pattern);
• the white space inside the rhombus is interpreted as a good luck wish and is nicknamed the “key to happiness”;
• also, the two crisscrossed lines inside the rhombus are supposed to represent a field where seeds and crops have been planted;
• the “horns” stand for wealth and welfare;
• the two pairs of rhombuses, which are at the top and at the bottom of the pattern, are interpreted as a symbol of the renewal of life, more literally interpreted as the symbol of the renewal of the bread crops (these elements were added to the original embroidery later);
• between the pairs of rhombuses and the central shape, there are the so-called “votive signs,” which represent a wish for fulfillment of hopes.

Also, rhombuses have been used as the ancient symbols of agriculture. They were discovered on artifacts found throughout the territory of present-day Belarus.

Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus since 1994, explained in 1996 that the red color on the national flag reminds of the flags of the victorious troops at the Battle of Grunwald, who are the ancestors of the present-day Belarusians. He also said it was the color of the flags of the Red Army and Belarusian troops that won the victory over the Nazis. The green on the national flag represents hope, spring, and the renewal of life, it is the color of the forests and fields of Belarus. The white is used as the symbol of spiritual purity.

Use of the flag

The design described above is used both as the national flag and as a civil ensign. According to the law, the flag must be raised every day, in a number of state institutions, from the president’s residence and courts to military bases and military ships. The flag has to be used on a gold (ochre) staff with a diamond-shaped, yellow metal finial. In the finial, there should be a five-pointed star.

Coat of Arms

The country uses a Soviet-style coat of arms, which was preserved even when Belarus became independent from the Soviet Union. The coat of arms showcases an outline of Belarus against a sun rising behind a globe. All these are surrounded by wreaths of wheat ears, blue and pink flowers (clover and flax flowers) with a ribbon in the colors of the national flag, red and green. There’s also a red star at the top.

The emblem looks very close to the one created by Ivan Dubasov in 1950 for the Byelorussian SSR. Although it is used in the way that a coat of arms is used, strictly speaking, it doesn’t exactly respect the rules of conventional heraldry.

Also, in 1991-1995, the country used a different coat of arms. The emblem referred to as the Pahonia featured a knight on a horse inside a red shield. The Pahonia originated as an emblem of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which used to include the territory of modern-day Belarus.