The Presidential Library tells about the origins of the tricolor

On August 22, Russia celebrates the State Flag Day, which keeps the glory of many generations and is closely associated with the history of the development of the Russian fleet. Let us turn to the origins of the tricolor and recall the little-known "family" circumstances that accompanied the establishment of the first Russian flag by Peter the Great.

The need to have a single state flag appeared in the second half of the 17th century, during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Russia of that time did not have its own fleet, and this significantly narrowed trade relations with other states. Understanding this, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich "instructed to build ships for parcels", to build a flotilla. In order for Russian ships to be distinguished on the water from the ships of other states, their own flag was needed. Thus, in 1668 the first flag of the Tsar of Moscow was raised on the first Russian ship Oryol named after the Russian coat of arms - the double-headed eagle. It is known that the colors of the flag were red, white and blue. However, it is impossible to explain for certain why these colors were chosen, and in what order they were located. It is likely that the main identifying feature of the nationality of the flag on the ship Oryol was not the colors of the flag, but the image of the double-headed eagle itself.

“Thus, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich established red, white and blue as the state colors for the courts of the Moscow state, these colors have survived to this day as the colors of the national flag”, - says the book of the Russian scientist, naval officer Pyotr Belavenets Flag of the Tsar of Moscow (1910), which is available in the Presidential Library’s electronic reading room.

A few years after the death of Alexei Mikhailovich, the "case of the Russian flag" was taken over by his son Peter I, who by this time was barely 21 years old. Filled with love for the water element, Peter I lights up with the thought of traveling through the "big" water. “With his great mind, Pyotr Alekseevich understood how important the sea was for the state, both in trade and in military terms. And besides, he loved sailing. Peter I wanted to look at the sea, swim in its boundless space. At that time, the Russians did not have their own sea, except for the White Sea, near the city of Arkhangelsk”, - we read in the book Peter the Great in the North (1909). Peter I informs his mother Natalya Naryshkina about his desire to visit the White Sea. It should be said that the relationship of Peter I with his mother was always caring and trusting. She calls him "darlingly beloved son of Petrushenka". He addresses her with deep respect in his letters, asking for parental blessings for every business: “To my dearest mother, unworthy Petrushka, asking for a blessing, I beat with my forehead”.

Upon learning of her son's intention, Natalya Kirillovna became agitated and began to dissuade him. She wished that there was “solid ground” under her son’s feet and that he would not go far from home.

In the preface to the Maritime Regulations, which is located in the electronic reading room of the Presidential Library, one has an opportunity to read the entry of Peter I: “I decided to see the sea and asked permission to go to Arkhangelsk to my mother. She repeatedly forbade me such a dangerous path, but seeing my great desire and incessant hunting, she reluctantly agreed, taking a promise from me not to go to the sea, but to look at it only from the shore”.

However, it was not in the nature of Peter I to look at the events from the shore, and he breaks the promise given to his mother. In 1693, having arrived on the shores of the North, Peter I "admires the new joy at the sight of the open sea and many foreign ships" that came to Arkhangelsk from abroad. He not only sets foot on the “big ship” from the shore, but “travels through the stormy elements” of the White Sea, learns to sail a ship and is so carried away that he goes three hundred miles from Arkhangelsk and returns to land only after five days.

The trip to the open sea was marked by the fact that during this trip, Peter I raised the Flag of the Tsar of Moscow as a standard, on which a double-headed eagle shone with gold against the background of three longitudinal stripes - white, blue and red.

In memory of his first visit to the North, Peter I presents this flag to Archbishop Athanasius, who “went on a yacht to send the Emperor's farewell blessing on the sea voyage”. “The flag of the Tsar of Moscow, kept in Arkhangelsk, is, according to today’s standards, the standard of the Russian sovereign and the first flag of the Russian autocrat ever raised on a ship”, - writes Pyotr Belavenets.

In 1705, Peter I issued a Decree “On Flags on Merchant Ships”, according to which the white-blue-red flag was installed “on all kinds of merchant ships that sail along the Moscow River, and along the Volga, and along the Dvina, and along all other rivers and rivers for trade.

According to Pyotr Belavenets  in the preface to Karl Alyard's Book of Flags, the white-blue-red flag, which did not have a heraldic beginning, became the common national flag of the Russian state from the first days of the reign of Peter the Great. These colors have become a symbol of all Slavs and for over two centuries have been the only colors of all military and commercial flags of the Russian nation.

The “family” circumstances accompanying the hoisting of the Russian flag in 1693 on the White Sea testify to how the son’s disobedience and enduring parental devotion, personal aspiration and the common good interact in history.

The history of the tricolor developed in the future is available in the video lecture and in the materials posted on the Presidential Library’s portal.

The flag of the Tsar of Moscow, set by Peter I during the "unauthorized" navigation on the White Sea, was delivered from Arkhangelsk to St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 20th century and is now available in the Emperor Peter the Great Central Naval Museum.