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In the 19th century, the area inhabited by Ruthenians, as the Ukrainians were then known, was divided between Russia and the Austrian Empire. Austria got Galicia after the partition of Poland in 1772. Territory was later added, including the Duchy of Bukovina. From 1815, the former Polish possessions of Austria were known as the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Ukrainians were a majority only in the eastern parts of this kingdom. As a kingdom, Galicia had three flags.
The origins of Ukraine's flag can be traced back to the convention of the Supreme Ruthenian Council, meeting in Lviv in October 1848. At this meeting, an emblem (coat of arms) for the Ukrainians was adopted. This was a golden rampant lion on blue [Encyclopedia Ukraine, Flag Bulletin, 1992]. At the same time, (light) blue and yellow was accepted as the national colours of the Ukrainians. For flags, both the golden crowned lion on a (light) blue field, and the yellow over (light) blue, were used [Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia]. The Ukrainian colours became popular throughout Ukrainian lands, including those under Russia, but the order of the colours was not stable.
The first opportunity for Ukrainians to adopt the blue and yellow as a national flag came with the break up of the Austrian and Russian empires as a result of World War I. The Ukrainian National Republic (UNR) was proclaimed on 20 November 1917. This was planned as a republic within a (future) Russian federation. However, because of the Bolshevik takeover in Russia and the war launched into Ukraine, independence was declared 22 January 1918. On the same day, the national flag of yellow over light blue was adopted 22 March 1918. A naval ensign with a trident had been adopted a few days earlier, on 18 January 1918 [Encyclopedia Ukraine].
On 29 April 1918, a coup overthrew the UNR government. General Pavlo Skoropadsky set up the 'Hetmanate of Ukraine' ('Hetman' is an old title used by certain military leaders). The flag was now changed to light blue over yellow. At the same time, a new naval ensign and 'several dozen' flags for various government services were introduced. The Hetmanate lasted until 14 December 1919, when Hetman Skoropadsky stepped down and the UNR was restored. Under the restored UNR, the national flag of light blue over yellow was not changed again and the other flags from the Hetman regime were used with only 'minor changes' [6]. Independence was soon lost to the Bolsheviks and Ukraine eventually became a union republic of the USSR.
In the Austrian parts of Ukraine, in Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia, a Western Ukrainian National Republic (WUNR) was declared in October 1918. A flag, blue over yellow, was adopted by this republic on 13 November 1918 [Encyclopedia Ukraine]. Union between the UNR and WUNR was declared 22 January 1919, but was never properly implemented because of the war that broke out with the Poles. Poland took control of Galicia, and kept it until the area became part of Ukraine and the USSR after World War II.
Another territory populated by Ukrainians, Transcarparthia, became a province of Czechoslovakia in 1919, where it was named Subcarpathian Ruthenia. On 20 March 1920 a provincial flag of blue over yellow was adopted [Encyclopedia Ukraine]. In 1938, Hungary started occupying the province step by step. Despite the Hungarian occupation (which lasted until the end of World War II), the provincial assembly proclaimed the territory independent as Carpatho-Ukraine on 15 March 1939. The national flag of Carpatho-Ukraine was also blue over yellow [Encyclopedia Ukraine]. After World War II, Carpatho-Ukraine was incorporated into Ukraine.
In 1919 the Zaporoge Cossacks took power in several territories in Ukraine. The flag was green and black.
Under Communism, the light blue and yellow flag of Ukraine was
almost forgotten in the Eastern and Central parts of the country,
the parts that belonged to the USSR from the time this union was
formed. In Western Ukraine, which was part of Poland, the flag
was used for a longer period and memory of it survived. Despite
persecution of nationalists under Stalin, there were a few
instances (heavily punished) of the light blue and yellow flag
being displayed as acts of demonstration. It was in Lviv and
Western Ukraine that the use of the flag was revived in the
Spring of 1989, mostly by nationalist and human rights
organizations, such as 'Rukh', 'Ukrainian Helsinki Union' and
others [Krawchenko, 1990]. Two and a half
years later, the flag became the national flag of independent
Ukraine. The other national symbol, the 'tryzub',
is now finally also found on the new Ukrainian kopeck coins,
introduced on 2 September 1996. It is here surrounded by a wreath
of wheat and oak leaves [Numismatics].
Jan Oskar Engene, 7 September 1996
From <ukrainet.org>:
THE PRINCELY ERA. Some information about the flags of the
Princely era in Ukraine can be gleaned from the written sources
and the art of the time: the chronicles; biographies such as the Life
of Borys and Hlib; epics such as Slovo o polku Ihorevi
(The Tale of Ihor's Campaign); foreign works, particularly
Byzantine and Bulgarian (Manasses's chronicle, etc); Queen
Gertrude's kilim; the seal of King Yurii I of Galicia;
Novgorodian and Muscovite miniatures; and so on. The earliest
banners were triangular and were attached to a staff either
directly along one side or perpendicularly to a cross-staff. At
the close of the 13th century square flags with pennants along
the free side appeared. Red was the most common color, followed
by white and azure; yellow was rare. Parti-colored flags were not
uncommon. The most common symbols that appeared on Rags were the
cross, the celestial bodies, and the emblems of the princely
dynasties – the trident and the bident. Old Ukrainian flags can
be divided into princely-dynastic and military banners; the
latter were completely red. The standard of Kyivan Rus' was a
predominantly red flag with a golden trident or bident, the
emblem of the individual grand prince. Later the standard of the
Rus' kingdom of the Galician-Volhynian period displayed a golden
lion on an azure background.
LITHUANIAN-POLISH PERIOD. All Ukrainian territories the
principalities and provinces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and
the voivodeships of the Polish Kingdom with their lands and
counties – had their own banners, which were usually the same as
their coats of arms. The Peremyshl land, for example, had a flag
and coat of arms consisting of a golden two-headed eagle on an
azure background. Sometimes the emblem of a territory was placed
on a different background in the flag; for example, the flag of
Kyiv voivodeship was green, displaying on the right side a silver
Archangel Michael on a red shield and on the left side a black
bear on a silver shield. Local flags were quite common: municipal
banners (the famous 'Golden Banner' of Kyiv), guild flags,
military standards, etc. The Renaissance left its mark on the
flags of the period: The flags of magnates and landowners and
state and church authorities were modeled on their family or
personal coats of armsand displayed a variety of forms and
colors.
In the 15th century the flag of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
continued the Old Ukrainian tradition and was red with a golden
tridentlike emblem (kolona) of the Gediminas dynasty.
Later it was red and displayed a white horse in gold harness on
which sat a white knight holding a sword in his right hand and an
azure shield with a two-barred golden cross against his left
shoulder (known in Lithuanian as vytis, in Polish as pogon,
and in Ukrainian as pohonia; this was also claimed by
the Belorussians as their national emblem).
THE COSSACK PERIOD. The most common banners were rectangular or
oblique (skosheni), that is, right-angled trapeziums
with angular upward or downward cuts. Triangular pennants were
used on the lances of cavalrymen and as standards of small
military units. The most important state emblems were the two
hetman standards: the first was red with a white figure of the
Archangel Michael; the second had a representation of the coat of
arms of the individual hetman. The flags were in the charge of
the *general standard-bearer. The flags of the Hetman state in
the 17th century were of many colors, but red was predominant.
There were company, regimental, and kurin standards, banners, and
pennants. In the 18th century azure flags with golden or yellow
crosses and sometimes other devices (celestial bodies, weapons,
saints) began to predominate. The right side of regimental and
company flags displayed the national emblem – a Cossack with a
musket on a golden or yellow shield – on an azure background. The
left side displayed the regimental or company emblem. The
Zaporozhian Sich had its own flags. The great banner of the Sich
was red with a white Archangel Michael on the right side and a
white Greek cross surrounded by a golden sun, crescent, and stars
on the left side. The flags of the kurins and palankas were
usually crimson with representations of the Archangel Michael or
white cross. The ensign used in sea campaigns was white and
contained a depiction of St Nicholas. In the 17th and I8th
centuries, not only military units, but also so-called privileged
cities and their guilds had their own flags.
19TH-20TH CENTURY. With the downfall of the Hetman state and the
annexation of central and Western Ukraine by Russia and Austria,
Ukrainian state, territorial, military, and other flags
disappeared. In Ukraine within the Russian Empire, only the
vertically striped white-blue-red imperial flag and the official
government flags based on it were used. The flag of the Austrian
Empire was at first yellow with a black, two-headed eagle and
then a black and yellow vertically striped flag. There were no
territorial flags in the Russian Empire. Under Austria, only two
flags of Ukrainian territories were official: the flag of the
Kingdom of Galicia, which was changed three times
(azure-red-yellow, azure-red, and red-azure) and the azure-red
flag of the Duchy of Bukovyna. The Supreme Ruthenian Council in
Lviv adopted the coat of arms of the Romanovych princely dynasty
– a golden lion on an azure background – as the emblem of the
Ukrainian people in October 1848. Standards of independent
military formations and civic organizations appeared. They were
either azure flags with a golden lion or horizontally striped
yellow-azure or azure-yellow flags. The modern Ukrainian flag
spread quickly under the Austro-Hungarian regime and at the
beginning of this century in Russian-ruled Ukraine. The order of
colors was not fixed, but publications on this question at the
beginning of the 20th century argued for the yellow-azure flag.
This flag was adopted by the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen in 19l4.
THE MODERN PERIOD. The flag of the first Ukrainian National
Republic (UNR) was yellow-azure. On 18 January 1918 a naval
ensign with a trident was adopted, and on 22 March 1918 the
national flag was approved. Under Hetman P. Skoropadsky's regime
the order of the horizontal colors was changed to azure-yellow,
and a new naval ensign as well as several dozen government flags
were designed on this basis. With minor changes these flags were
retained under the second UNR. The flags of military units and
partisan detachments were freely chosen – yellow-azure,
azure-yellow, or modeled on the old Cossack flags. In 1920 the
Directory of the UNR-approved battalion and brigade banners and
company flags. On 13 November 1918 the azure-yellow flag of the
Western Ukrainian National Republic was adopted. Two other state
flags were adopted that same year: the blue-crimson-green flag of
the Kuban and the Crimean flag, which was azure with a yellow
Crimean sign (tamga). On 20 March 1920 the provincial
azure-yellow flag of Subcarpathian Ruthenia, which was a part of
Czechoslovakia, was adopted. On 15 March 1939 this flag was
recognized officially as the national flag of Carpatho-Ukraine.
The All-Ukrainian National Rada in May 1920 and the Governmental
Constitutional Commission of the Ukrainian State on 1 October
1920 expressed their support for an azure-yellow flag. Between
1920 and 1939 only the yellow-azure flag was used in Galicia and
by some important Ukrainian organizations abroad, such as the
Plast youth association. This practice was based on vexillologic
studies. The same flag was used by Ukrainian military formations
– the Ukrainian Liberation Army and the Division Galizien
– in
1943–45. The controversy between the advocates of a yellow-azure
andthose of an azure-yellow flag was decided by the 27 June 1949
resolution of the Ukrainian National Council, which stated that
until the national emblems were defined by an independent
government of Ukraine, the azure-yellow flag would be the
Ukrainian national flag.
The first flag of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was
adopted in March 1919. This was a red flag with the Cyrillic
initials YPCP (for the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic) in
gold standing in a red, gold-bordered canton. When Ukraine became
part of the Soviet Union, it received a new flag: a red flag with
a crossed golden hammer and sickle, a red, gold-bordered, five
point star above them, and the Cyrillic initials YPCP at the
bottom (for the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic). The
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR approved a
new flag on 21 November 1949: the upper horizontal stripe,
constituting two-thirds of the flag, was red; the lower, azure.
The upper part displays the same golden sickle, hammer, and star.
The Ukrainian SSR does not have its own naval or merchant-marine
flag. Ships in Ukrainian ports fly the ensigns of the Soviet
Union. Hardly any territorial flags have been in use in recent
times. Only the more important cities in Western Ukraine, such as
Lviv and Chernivtsi, had their own flags before they came under
Soviet rule.
Dov Gutterman, 15 March 1999
I was reading about the history of the flag of Ukraine, and I
think I have yet another version. While taking a short course in
the history of Russia, I was informed that with the partition of
Poland, these large portions of Ukraine came under Austrian
control. Traditionally, the colors of Ukraine were yellow over
light blue. When the Austrians gained
the region, they began a rigorous propaganda campaign against the
Russians and the original flag of the Ukrainian people was
changed, to light blue over yellow. Information supporting this
lies in the flag of the Austrian Empire at the time (black over
yellow). The Ukrainian People's Republic that was delcared on the
16th of July in 1917, had the yellow over light blue flag.
Greg Walker, 10 September 2000
I have seen somewhere a photo of a flag presentation to
Ukrainian troops serving with the German forces on the Russian
front in World War II. That flag was yellow over blue, with the
white trident in centre. Also, the sleeve badge worn on the
otherwise German uniforms of these troops displayed the trident
on a shield of yellow over blue. I have often wondered about this
arrangement of the colours.
Devereaux D. Cannon Jr., 10 September 2000
Heraldists considered that "right" arrangement of
the colours on flag is:
upper stripe – colour of figure on the shield (gold trident);
lower stripe – colour of the shield (blue).
Ukrainians used both combinations of colours. But most popular is
blue over yellow.
Victor Lomantsov, 11 September 2000
The meaning of the colors on the Ukrainian flag:
Yellow for borderless wheat-fields and blue for clear and
peaceful sky is the famous unofficial meaning. Second version –
blue and yellow – colours of shield and trident of national Coat
of Arms; Third – colours of Coat of Arms of Rus vojevodship (with
Lviv city) in ancient Polonia.
Victor Lomantsov, 2 May 2005