The flag of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted on March 10, 1919, to serve as the symbol of state of the Ukrainian SSR. Details of the official flag changed periodically before the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, but all were based on the red flag of the Bolshevik Revolution.
The first flag was red with the gold Cyrillic sans-serif letters У.С.С.Р. (USSR, acronym for Ukrayinskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Sovetskaya Respublika in the Russian language). In the 1930s, a gold border was added. In 1937, a new flag was adopted, with a small gold hammer and sickle added above the gold Cyrillic serif letters У.Р.С.Р. (URSR, for Ukrayins’ka Radyans’ka Sotsialistychna Respublika in the Ukrainian language).
The Soviet Union and two of its republics (Ukrainian SSR and Byelorussian SSR) were members of the United Nations (UN). Since all of their flags were red with only small markings in upper left corner, the UN demanded to change the flags in 1949. To comply, the lettering was dropped and a blue stripe (⅓ of width) was added. It was adopted as the official flag of the Ukrainian SSR on November 21, 1949. The other republics of the Soviet Union soon followed the suit and customized the bottom third of their flags.
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Flag of the Ukrainian SSR (1919–1929)
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Flag of the Ukrainian SSR (1929–1937)
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Flag of the Ukrainian SSR (1937–1949)
Famous quotes containing the words flag of, flag, 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)
““Justice” was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Æschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess. And the d’Urberville knights and dames slept on in their tombs unknowing. The two speechless gazers bent themselves down to the earth, as if in prayer, and remained thus a long time, absolutely motionless: the flag continued to wave silently. As soon as they had strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on.
The End”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“The tremendous outflow of intellectuals that formed such a prominent part of the general exodus from Soviet Russia in the first years of the Bolshevist Revolution seems today like the wanderings of some mythical tribe whose bird-signs and moon-signs I now retrieve from the desert dust.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Men conceive themselves as morally superior to those with whom they differ in opinion. A Socialist who thinks that the opinions of Mr. Gladstone on Socialism are unsound and his own sound, is within his rights; but a Socialist who thinks that his opinions are virtuous and Mr. Gladstone’s vicious, violates the first rule of morals and manners in a Democratic country; namely, that you must not treat your political opponent as a moral delinquent.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Our constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws, not of men.”
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)