Moldova

Republic of Moldova

Last modified: 2024-08-24 by rob raeside
Keywords: moldova | ox | eagle | auroch | bison |
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  1:2      images by Alex Danes, 20 December 2010

• History of Moldova
• Design and use of the flag
• Construction sheet
• Colors of the flag
• Flag designs from the 1980s
• Alternative flag proposals
• Arms of Moldova

See also:

• Moldova: Index of all pages
• Flag Law

History of Moldova

This region, historically known as Bessarabia, has changed hands many times. After being Turkish (Ottoman) for many years it became Russian in 1810. In 1917 it proclaimed independence before joining Romania in 1918. In 1940, under the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, it once more became Soviet. The territory was joined to the pre-existing Moldavian ASSR, a Soviet fiction carved out of Ukraine which in fact had very few Moldavians living there (this is the origin of the dispute between the modern Republic of Moldova and the self-styled Dniestr Republic, the largely Slavic-populated eastern region) and became the Moldavian SSR on 2 August 1940. From 1941 until 1944 Romania, allied to the Axis powers, once again ruled Bessarabia.

Post war, the Soviets created a Moldavian language (largely accomplished by transcribing Romanian from the Latin alphabet into Cyrillic) and sought to encourage the creation of a separate Moldavian nation. This could not disguise the fact that the Moldavians are essentially Romanian, and although Moldova's initially expressed aspiration of union with Romania is now much more muted, the Moldovan flag is basically that of Romania with the addition of the national coat of arms on the yellow stripe.

Stuart Notholt, 5 October 1995

Romania/Moldova adopted a flag in the three colours during the revolutions of 1848 which drew inspiration (and vexillology) from the French revolution.
Stuart Notholt, 10 October 1995

Just to give a brief history. Bessarabia has long been a part of Principality of Moldova located between Carpathian mountains and the Dniestr. After the Ottoman invasion, Moldova lost its independence and became a sort of self-ruled province and its rulers (Gospodars) were appointed by Ottomans. Bessarabia became part of Russia according to the terms of peace treaty signed by Russia and Turkey in 1812. Autonomy was granted to Valakhia (Wallachia) and the rest of Moldova according to the Adrianopol Russian-Turkish treaty signed in 1829. In 1859 Valakhia and Moldova united as Principality of Romania which got formal independence in 1878 after another Russian-Turkish war when Romanians were Russian allies.

Bessarabia went back to Romania in 1918, when Romania signed a separate treaty with Austro-Germans (in fact, there was no other choice for Romania). Soviet Russia and later USSR did not recognise this transition. In 1924 Moldovan autonomy within the Ukrainian SSR was proclaimed (now Transdniestr). Probably the Soviet authorities wished to use it as a core for a future "Soviet Romania". In 1940, USSR forced Romania to withdraw from Bessarabia which became Moldavian SSR. But some territories where Romanians (or Moldavians, actually it is a matter of self-determination of people of Moldova) had been minority were passed to Ukraine (South Bessarabia and Khotin). Simultaneously the largest part of Moldavian autonomy was transmitted to Moldavian SSR.

In 1941, after the Nazi invasion, Romania took back Bessarabia, annexed Trandniestr and all Ukrainian territories between the Dniestr and the Bug (including Odessa). After the war, the borders of 1940 were restored.

The current flag of Moldova was established in 1990 and symbolised both the Romanian origin and a wish for reunification (at the time most of non-communist Moldovan politicians wanted to reunite). But it is turned out that most part of Moldovan population do not support these aspirations. Now Moldova is a fully independent state and has no intentions to become part of Romania.
Alexei Arkhipov, 20 March 1999

The old medieval principality of Moldavia had a red military flag with a bison's (not ox's, as you think) head in the center. The bison is a symbol of Moldova and as old chronicles said means "power, independence and pride". This head you can see on our coat of arms. The three colors of Romanian and Moldavian flags were proposed in 1848 and represented three part of Romania:

• Red - Moldavia,
• Blue - Oltenia (east Wallachia, Great Wallachia)
• Yellow - Muntenia (west Wallachia, Lesser Wallachia)

The link below has some info and a smaller-than-thumbnail-sized flag but no sources for a Moldavian flag from the period 1917-1918:
http://www.batsweb.org/Cultura/Geografia/Geopolitica/eurasia.htm. The flag is a dark blue over red bicolour.
Michael K. Renalds, 20 January 2004

Design and use of the flag

The regulation on flag of Moldova was adopted on 27 April, 1990. This date is official birthday of the state flag.
Victor Lomantsov, 21 December 2001

Znamierowski (1999) states that the flag is 2:3 and the image is 2:3 [Note: This is incorrect, see Bibliography: Corrections and comments on [zna99].]
M Schmöger, 21 August 2001, 8 September 2001

I was able to track down the Romanian version of the Constitution at the Moldovan President's website ("Simbolurile statului") and at the Moldovan Parliament's website and both say nothing about proportions. I did a little more digging and found the President's website has a page on the "State Flag of the Republic of Moldova" confirming the proportions at 1:2 complete with schematics. There's also a page on the "State Coat of Arms".
Brian Ellis, 31 January 2008

According to the Romanian president's web site and Wikipedia, the reverse of the Moldovan flag does not have the arms.
James Dignan and Alex Danes, 13 August 2008

I have ferreted on the internet for photographs of the reverse of the Moldovan flag and found the following: www.moldova-suverana.md (1), www.moldova-suverana.md (2), diaspora.ablog.ro, www.ablog.ro, www.mai.md (1), www.mai.md (2), www.flux.md (1), www.flux.md (2), www.sis.md (1), www.sis.md (2), www.sis.md (3). All of them (including a few in quite official context) show the arms on both sides. So I'd rather conclude it is one of the (not infrequent) mistakes in flag legislation, rather than a question of correct/incorrect flag...
Marcus E.V. Schmöger, 23 August 2008

...or one of those occasions (also - regrettably - not infrequent) where a Government body ignores its own legislation?
Christopher Southworth, 23 August 2008

Album des Pavillons (2000) reports this flag as the national flag on land and civil ensign. No mention is made of the state or war ensign usage. It is shown there as 2:3 ratio.
Željko Heimer, 20 June 2002

According to "Flottes de Combat 2002", there is no Moldovan Navy.
Armand Noel du Payrat, 21 June 2002

Construction Sheet

image by Alex Danes

A larger version of this black and white construction sheet can be found here. The arms are placed on both sides on the flag (mirrored on the backside) and the construction sheet is very detailed, enough to precisely place the coat of arms on the flag. Also the colours are defined in various systems, including Pantone.
Antonio Gutiérrez, 19 December 2010

Colors of the flag

Constitution of Moldova defines the flag (Article 12):
https://www.constcourt.md/public/files/file/Actele%20Curtii/acte_en/MDA_Constitution_EN.pdf

Law no. 217 from 17 September 2010 regarding the State Flag of the Republic of Moldova:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200920235436/http://lex.justice.md/viewdoc.php?action=view&view=doc&id=336791&lang=1
Annex 1 illustrates the flag in proper colors, while Annex 2 gives color values in various color systems. (https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/md.html#color)
Zoltan Horvath, 16 July 2024

From here:

Scheme	Blue	Yellow	Red	Brown	Green
Dye/Pigment	Berlin blue	chrome yellow	vermillon red
Pantone®	293c	109c	186c	4645c	3415c
CMYK	97-81-0-0	1-15-100-0	13-100-90-4	28-15-68-7	100-26-86-14
RGB	0-70-174	255-210-0	204-9-47	176-126-91	0-122-80
Web	#0046AE	#FFD200	#CC092F	#B07E5B	#007A50

The protocol manual for the London 2012 Olympics (Flags and Anthems Manual London 2012) provides recommendations for national flag designs. Each NOC was sent an image of the flag, including the PMS shades, for their approval by LOCOG. Once this was obtained, LOCOG produced a 60 x 90 cm version of the flag for further approval. So, while these specs may not be the official, government, version of each flag, they are certainly what the NOC believed the flag to be.
For Moldova, PMS 293 blue, 109 yellow, 186 red, 4645 brown, 3415 green and black. The vertical flag is simply the horizontal version turned 90 degrees clockwise
Ian Sumner, 11 October 2012

Other sources for colors:

The Flag Manual - Beijing 2008 gives Pantone color: PMS 032 (red), PMD 123 (yellow), PMS 157 (dark yellow), PMS 292 (blue), PMS 355 (green), and PMS Black.

The Album des Pavillons 2000 [pay00] (Corr. No. 6.) gives approximate colors in Pantone and CMYK systems:
Blue: Pantone 293c, CMYK 97-81-0-0
Yellow: Pantone 109c, CMYK 1-15-100-0
Red: Pantone 186c, CMYK 13-100-90-4
Brown: Pantone 4645c, CMYK 28-15-68-7
Green: Pantone 3415c, CMYK 100-26-86-14

Flags and Anthems Manual London 2012 [loc12] gives Pantone colors: PMS 293 (blue), PMS 109 (yellow), PMS 186 (red), PMS 4645 (brown), PMS 3415 (green) and PMS Black.

The Album des Pavillons 2023 already specifies the colors of the flags in three color systems:
Blue: Pantone 293c, CMYK 94-73-0-0, RGB 0-71-182
Red: Pantone 186c, CMYK 10-100-74-2, RGB 210-16-52
Brown: Pantone 4645c, CMYK 25-49-62-16, RGB 177-127-92
Yellow: Pantone 109c, CMYK 0-17-93-0, RGB 255-209-0
Green: Pantone 3415c, CMYK 88-27-82-15, RGB 0-119-75

Vexilla Mundi gives colors in Pantone system: PMS 293C (blue), PMS 116C (yellow), PMS 186C (red), PMS 3415C (green), PMS 4645C (brown), and PMS Black.

Wikipedia refers to Flag Law and its Annex 2, illustrates the flag, and gives the following color values:
Blue: Pantone 293c, CMYK 97-81-0-0, RGB 0-70-174, HTML #0046AE
Yellow: Pantone 109c, CMYK 1-15-100-0, RGB 255-210-0, HTML #FFD200
Red: Pantone 186c, CMYK 13-100-90-4, RGB 204-9-47, HTML #CC092F
Brown: Pantone 4645c, CMYK 0-28-48-30, RGB 176-126-91, HTML #B07E5B
Green: Pantone 3415c, CMYK 100-26-86-14, RGB 0-122-80, HTML #007A50

Flag Color Codes gives the following color values:
Blue: Hex #003DA5, RGB 0-61-165, CMYK 100-76-0-9, Pantone 293, RAL 5005
Yellow: Hex #FFD100, RGB 255-209-0, CMYK 0-5-100-0, Pantone 109, RAL 2007
Red: Hex #C8102E, RGB 200-16-46, CMYK 0-100-80-5, Pantone 186, RAL 3028
Brown: Hex #AD7C59, RGB 173-124-89, CMYK 14-44-59-18, Pantone 4645, RAL 1011
Green: Hex #007749, RGB 0-119-73, CMYK 100-0-85-29, Pantone 3415, RAL 6016
Black: Hex #000000, RGB 0-0-0, CMYK 0-0-0-100, Pantone Black, RAL 9005

Zoltan Horvath, 16 July 2024

Flag Design from the 1980s

image by Victor Lomantsov

M. Lupant, in his travel notes published in Vexillacta #10 (December 2000), reported two Moldavian flags he saw in the National History Museum of Chisinau. The first is a Romanian flag charged with a black aurochs head, which was used during the nationalist demonstrations of 1989/1990. The second is the Moldavian national flag which bears the signatures of the personalities who took part to the proclamation of the Republic (27 August 1991). Note that the flag is a 2:3 Romanian flag on which a yellow rectangle bearing the Moldavian arms was applied. The yellow rectangle of the arms is significantly darker than the yellow stripe of the flag.
Ivan Sache, 27 July 2001

In the late 1980s (about 1989) nationalists in Moldova used many types of hand-made blue-yellow-red flags. Usually they had some kind of Moldavian coat of arms items in the centre. I saw flags with the ox head, a rose, crescent and star. The star was eight- or five-pointed. All figures were black or dark-brown.
Victor Lomantsov, 22 December 2001

Alternative flag proposals

image by Denis Topal

Hello, I have found at www.vexillographia.ru one new proposal for Moldova Republic flag. Current blue-yellow-red tricolore is very similar to Romanian flag which is not very good for distinctivity and also at political respect (many people in Moldova do not want to be identified with Romania). Artist Denis Topal designed flag which is unique and it reminds medieval Moldavian Principality: it is horizontally red and blue divided with Coat of Arms at center: yellow bison's head surrounded with star, flower and crescent. At second picture you could see people holding this flag - so it is rather accepted...
Jakub Grombíř , 27 March 2011

image located by Jos Poels, 6 February 2017

Moldova's pro-Russia President Igor Dodon has proposed a new flag for his country that would eliminate similarities the current banner has with the flag and coat of arms of neighboring Romania. Dodon said on February 2, Moldova's statehood day, that he wants lawmakers and civil society to discuss the idea and come up with legislative proposals "in the weeks or months ahead." Legal experts conclude that changing Moldova's national flag would require parliamentary legislation that is unlikely to be approved by the current ruling coalition.

That [current] banner -- which Dodon claims is based on a flag from Moldovan history -- features a solid red background instead of the current blue, yellow, and red tricolor shared by both the Moldovan and Romanian flags. Historians say the tricolors of the current flags of Moldova and Romania reflect a common heritage dating back long before the late 19th century when the lands of present-day Moldova formed part of the Kingdom of Romania. Dodon's proposal also would remove the eagle from Moldova's flag -- a symbol that is similar on the coat of arms of both Moldova and Romania. Instead, the new design suggested by Dodon would retain the head of an ox, a star, a flower, and a crescent from Moldova's coat of arms.
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/moldova-president-dodon-proposed-flag-romanian-symbols/28277972.html
Jos Poels, 6 February 2017

There are several projects of new national flags existed in Moldova from beg. of 2000s and used by different political wings.
For example see www.vexillographia.ru\moldova\projectf.htm
Victor Lomantsov, 6 February 2017

Arms of Moldova

image by António Martins

From what I have read (an Encyclopedia Americana flag article written by Whitney Smith) the coat of arms is an eagle holding a cross in its beak and an olive branch and sceptre in its claws. On top of the eagle is a shield "per fess" (split in half horizontally) red on top and blue below, with a stylized ox head over all between a rose and a crescent. The eagle is from the old Romanian coat of arms and ultimately from Byzantium; the ox head represents the old province of Bessarabia; the cross is obviously Christian; the sceptre and olive branch are probably for sovereignty and peace; as for the flower and crescent, I have no idea.
James Dignan

Near the bison's head are situated, not a rose and a crescent. Why such strange design? Because, as I know, this is an astral symbol of the sun and the moon taken from Dacian coins (Daci were ancestors of the Moldovans and Romanians in ancient times). Also, the octagonal star above the bison's head is the Dacian symbol of wisdom. The three parts of the eagle's tail represent three part of the Republic of Moldova: Gagauzia (or Gagauz Eri as it calls itself) in the south, the central region as the biggest part, and the breakaway Dniestr region (Transnistria in Romanian or Pridnestrov'e in Russian). And if you compare our coat of arms and the Romanian coat of arms you can see that the Romanian eagle has a sword but our eagle has an olive branch (it's also a difference between the two nations).
Vladislav Zarayskiy

I have been led to believe that the bull-like emblem is actually that of an aurochs, a large beast of pre-historic descent that survived in the remoter regions of eastern Europe until the eighteenth century, before it was hunted to extinction. The story attributes the use of the aurochs head to the fact that the founding price of Moldavia (who I think was a noble possibly of Hungarian descent) encountered one of these beasts on his travels from the Mountains of northern Romania (either the Marmourous region or Bucovina) and that the animal attacked, killing the noble's wife who was thrown into the river Moldova, which subsequently became the Romanian name for the territory east of the Carpathian mountains. I am not sure if this legend is true, but the same scene is displayed in statue form in Sucevita in northern Romania.
Rob Courtney, 26 October 1999

The law says: "The State Arms of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic represents a horizontally cut shield, in the superior side has red chromatic, and in the inferior side – blue chromatic, a head of a ureox [aurochs] who has between the horns a star with eight rays. The head of the ureox is flanked in the right side by a rose with five petals, and in the left side by a contoured half-moon [crescent]. All elements represented in the shield are of gold (yellow). The shield is placed on the chest of a natural eagle carrying in the beak a gold cross (the eagle crusader [improper translation of "acvila cruciata", which means "crossed aquila", "aquila holding a cross") and holding in the right claw a green branch of olive, in the left a gold sceptre."

I will give you a short fragment regarding this problem, published by Moldavian heraldist Silviu Andries-Tabac in his book, "Heraldica teritoriala a Basarabiei si Transnistriei" (Land heraldry of Bessarabia and Transnistria), Chisinau, 1998, p. 151:

The color of the aquila is unacceptable. It was meant to be a Roman aquila [...], so we should have had a golden one. It is the traditional color of the Roman aquila in Romanian heraldry. With certain reserves, a black (sable) aquila - the imperial symbol in Europe - would have been unacceptable too. This poor aquila cannot be natural, or brownish, as we have it, because this type of tincture has a special meaning. J.N. Manescu [Romanian heraldist] believes brown was adopted as follows: during the discussion regarding Vrabie's [Gheorghe Vrabie, author] and Mudrea's [Andrei Mudrea, author of another proposal] projects [of coat of arms] in the National Commission of Heraldry, Genealogy and Sigiliography of Romania, the problem of confounding colors of the aquila and yellow stripe of the flag arose. At this point, J.N. Manescu proposed a browner shade of gold for the aquila, distinguishable of the yellow stripe of the flag. The painter [Vrabie] most likely misunderstood the phrase and painted a dark brown aquila. Not only this didn't serve the purpose of having a Roman aquila, but natural colors are usually used for chanting arms - which would mean, for example, this could be the coat of arms of Aquila City - or for supporters, who have an auxiliary purpose. Thus, our aquila is a second-degree charge and therefore it can be replaced anytime with a different one. This is the worst heraldic mistake regarding the state coat of arms of Republic of Moldova, and it must be amended.