The flags of the Soviet Socialist Republics were all defaced versions of the flag of the Soviet Union, which featured a golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star (the only exception being the Georgian SSR, which used a red hammer and sickle and a fully red star) on a red field.
History
When Byelorussia and Ukraine became the founding members of the United Nations in 1945, all of their flags were red with only small markings in upper left corners and needed distinct flags for each other.
In February 1947, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a resolution calling for the Soviet republics to adopt new flags, which each of its republics were recommended to develop and adopt new national flags. So they expressed the idea of a union state, asked to use the symbols of the State flag of the Soviet Union, such as the gold hammer and sickle and the red star, as well as maintain the predominance of red color on the flag of the Union republics. National, historical and cultural features of each republic was instructed to express the other colors and the order of their location, as well as the location based on the national emblem or coat of arms. After competitions for the best projects from 1949 to 1954 the new flags of the 16 republics were developed and adopted. The authorities in Ukraine and Byelorussia were the first to adopt the flags on 5 July 1950, and 25 December 1951, respectively. All others followed suit between 1952 and 1953 with the last republic, the Russian SFSR, adopted the flag on 9 January 1954. With the exception of Russia, all republics adopted at least one horizontal stripe in a non-red color, whereas the RSFSR chose a simple light-blue vertical stripe instead.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991, only Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan (without hammer and sickle), Turkmenistan, and Ukraine (with the blue and yellow flag already de facto restored as co-flag) retained their Soviet republic flags as independent states until the new official flags were adopted in 1992. Since 1995 (current version adopted in 2012) Belarus retains its old Soviet-era flag with only minor changes.
Their final versions prior to re-adoption of the non-Soviet national flags were as follows:
| Flag | Date adopted | Description | Present-day flag | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flag of the Russian SFSR | 7 January 1954 | A red rectangular sheet with a light-blue stripe at the pole extending all the width which constitutes one eighth length of the flag. | Flag of Russia | |
| Flag of the Ukrainian SSR | 5 July 1950 | A horizontal bicolor of red over azure (light blue) with the golden hammer and sickle and gold-bordered star on top of the canton. | Flag of Ukraine | |
Flag of the Byelorussian SSR | 25 December 1951 | A horizontal bicolor of red over green in a 2:1 ratio and the golden hammer and sickle with the bordered star on the canton, with a white ornamental pattern on a red vertical stripe at the hoist. | Flag of Belarus | |
Flag of the Uzbek SSR | 25 August 1952 | A triband flag with the colors (from top to bottom) red, blue, and red, with the blue band fimbriated in white, with a golden hammer and sickle in the upper canton. | Flag of Uzbekistan | |
| Flag of the Kazakh SSR | 24 January 1953 | A red flag with blue stripe and a golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton. | Flag of Kazakhstan | |
| Flag of the Georgian SSR | 11 April 1951 | A plain red flag with the red hammer and sickle with a red star in a blue sun in canton, blue bar in upper part of flag. | Flag of Georgia | |
Flag of the Azerbaijani SSR | 7 October 1952 | A plain red flag with a golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton and a horizontal blue band on the bottom fourth. | Flag of Azerbaijan | |
Flag of the Lithuanian SSR | 15 July 1953 | A red flag with the golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton with the white thin stripe and green thick band on the bottom. | Flag of Lithuania | |
Flag of the Moldavian SSR | 31 January 1952 | A plain red flag with the green horizontal stripe and the golden hammer and sickle with a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton. | Flag of Moldova | |
Flag of the Latvian SSR | 17 January 1953 | A plain red flag with a golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton with the blue and white rippling water at the bottom. | Flag of Latvia | |
Flag of the Kirghiz SSR | 22 December 1952 | A red field with a golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton with two navy blue bars and a white stripe in the middle of the flag. | Flag of Kyrgyzstan | |
Flag of the Tajik SSR | 20 March 1953 | A red field with white and green stripes in the middle of the flag (pan-Iranian colors), with a golden hammer and sickle in the upper canton. | Flag of Tajikistan | |
Flag of the Armenian SSR | 17 December 1952 | A plain red flag with the blue horizontal stripe and the golden hammer and sickle with a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton. | Flag of Armenia | |
Flag of the Turkmen SSR | 23 September 1974 | A plain red flag with a golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton with two blue bars in the middle of the flag. | Flag of Turkmenistan | |
Flag of the Estonian SSR | 6 February 1953 | A red flag with the golden hammer and sickle and outlined star above a band of blue water waves near the bottom. | Flag of Estonia | |
| 3 March 1953 | A plain red flag with the golden hammer and sickle with a red star with the blue and green stripes on the bottom. | |||
Flags of other republics
Other Union Republics and autonomous republics existed within the Soviet Union, mostly using flags on a similar pattern, or the flag of their "parent" Union Republic, further defaced. Today, the only former Soviet Union territories that use modified versions of their original Soviet flag are the republic of Transnistria (a state of limited recognition, formerly part of the Moldavian SSR) and Belarus (since 1995).
The official flags of the ASSRs were seldom used, and were generally the flag of the republic to which the ASSR belonged, defaced with the ASSR name in its own language(s) and the official language of the SSR; flags matching this pattern are not displayed in the gallery below:
- Flag of the SSR of Abkhazia (1921–1931)
- Flag of the Bukharan PSR (1920–1924)
- Flag of the Khorezm PSR (1920–1924)
- Flag of the Tajik ASSR (1924–1929)
- Flag of the Pridnestrovian PMSSR/Transnistria (1990–1991/present)
- Flag of the Turkestan ASSR (1918–1924)
Gallery
- 1954 poster featuring flags of the 16 republics at the time.
- Remaining uses of Soviet republic flags visible during the signing of the Alma-Ata Protocol.
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