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Maritime Territory / Primorsky Kray (Russia)

Приморье, Primorhe

Last modified: 2020-02-23 by rob raeside
Keywords: propeller | dove | primorhe | primor’e | primorskiĭ | maritime | tiger | coat of arms (saltire: azure) | ussuri |
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Flag of Maritime Territory image by Tomislav Šipek, 22 December 2019

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Presentation of Maritime Territory

(Note: You need an Unicode-aware software and font to correctly view the Cyrillic text on this page. See here transliteration details).

  • Name (English): Maritime Territory • (Russian, short form): Приморье | Primorhe • (Russian, long form): Приморский край | Primorskiĭ kraĭ
  • Capital: Владивосток | Vladivostok
  • Area: 165 900 km2 (~64 000 sq. mi.) • Population: 2 157 700 inhabitants in 2000
  • Status: Territory (край | kraĭ) within the Russian Federation
  • Federal District: Far-East • Economic region: Far East
  • License plate code: 25 • Ham radio code: PK • ISO 3166-2 code: PRI
  • Flag adopted on 1995.02.22 • Coat of arms adopted on unkn. date

Description of the flag

There’s a curious thing about this flag: The law prescribes the shade of blue as «light blue (azure)» («голубого (лазоревого) | golubogo (lazorevogo)»), but at the same time says that the shades of blue and red should be identical to those of the russian national flag — whose law prescribes for blue simply plain «blue» (синий | siniĭ). I’m ready to bet that actual Maritime Territorry flags use this medium blue and not any supposed “light blue / azure”.
António Martins, 11 Apr 2000

The tiger only is also on the flag. The flag has the proportions 2:3. It is diagonally (bottom left to top right) divided by a white stripe. The upper field is red and the lower blue. The tiger of the arms appears in the canton in a 1 × 1,6 imaginary rectangle. To draw all this: Draw a 4 × 7,5 rectangle. From the upper right corner (A), count 1 unit on the fly towards the bottom (B). From the lower left corner (C) count 1 unit on the hoist towards the top (D). Make lines A-D and B-C. ABCD is all white. The tiger rectangle is at 0,6 units both from the upper and the left part of the flag. Black for the tiger is also used as well as white. This flag was adopted by resolution no. 25 of the assembly of the Territory of Primorsky on the 22nd of February 1995.
Pascal Vagnat, 18 Jun 1997

How does the reverse of these flags look like? Does the tiger keeps facing the hoist, or is it flipped to show passant dexter on both sides?
António Martins, 11 Apr 2000

This flag is remarkably similar to the reported unofficial flag of (neighbouring) Qabarovsk “Republic” of 1992-1993
António Martins, 11 Oct 2002

Flag of Maritime Territory image by Tomislav Šipek, 22 December 2019

Images based on:
https://rossaprimavera.ru/news/40ec2e2f
http://vvsu.ru//latest/article/2145019004/andrey_babenko_i_vera
Tomislav Šipek, 22 December 2019


Flag charged with the Coat of Arms

Flag of Maritime Territory image by Pascal Vagnat, Pascal Gross and António Martins, 11 Apr 2000

According to the Ordinance about the coat of arms of the Territory of Primorsky (22nd February 1995), the coat of arms of the territory can be put on the flag of the territory (article 4). Above is a supposition of what this flag might look like. There are two solutions: either the coat of arms is in the canton at the place of the tiger, or the coat of arms is in the centre of the flag. I have chosen the first solution, because I don’t think that there are two tigers on the flag. Sources: [cdd97c] and [cdd98]
Pascal Vagnat, 07 Apr 1999


Coat of arms of Maritime Territory

COA of Maritime Territory image by Pascal Vagnat, 07 Apr 1999

This coat of arms is described as "vert a cross in saltire azure, charged at the bottom with an Ussuri tiger or".
Pascal Vagnat, 07 Apr 1999

Cross in saltire azure has a fimbriation or, charged at the bottom with an Amur tiger proper. Tomorrow I’ll visit the author of this coat of arms (Vladimir Bazhenov) and try to know date of it’s adoption.
Ahat Nabiullin, 14 Dec 1999

The background of these arms is similar to the Russian Border Guard ensign — something intentional? And, if so, why?
António Martins, 11 Apr 2000

Panthera tigris altaica, if I recall correctly, is the Tiger subspecies that dwells north of the Gobi Desert, in an ever shrinking area from the Yenesei to the Pacific. Russians distinguish among this several “races” (and currently separated populations): Tigers of Altay, Amur and Ussuri.
Ussuri is an unofficial name for the area south of the Amur river in far east Russia: Primorsky (Maritime) Territory and the southern bit of Khabarovsk Territory, something like “Russian Manchuria”.
António Martins, 05 Apr 1999

Banner of the arms

Unofficial flag of 1992-1993 image by António Martins and Pascal Vagnat, 18 Apr 2000

Heraldic banner of the current regional arms, vert a saltire azure fimbriated or, charged at the bottom with an Ussuri tiger of the same.
António Martins, 18 Apr 2000

Unofficial flag of 1992-1993?

In 1992 or 1993 some regions self upgraded to constituent republics, and used ephemeral unofficial flags. One of the main republics was Primorsky Republic (Vladivostok region). Was proclaimed but must be ratified in referendum. Heraldic banners were in use by some people but republic was never ratified.
Jaume Ollé, 15 Apr 2000

I’m sure that this flag is a fiction. I don’t know who is author… It was adopted never and existed never.
Victor Lomantsov, 17 Apr 2000