The developing St. Andrew's flag. Why St. Andrew's flag became a symbol of the Russian fleet
The main ship's stern flag of the Russian fleet is considered to be the St. Andrew's flag. It represents the intersection of two blue stripes on a white background. The intersection of these two stripes is called St. Andrew's Cross, hence the name of the flag.
The history of the St. Andrew's flag, as the main flag of the Russian fleet, and the history of the creation of this symbolism is very long: since the reign of Tsar Peter I. According to a long-standing Biblical legend, Tsar Peter had his own divine patrons - the brothers Apostle Andrei and the Apostles patronized maritime trade, because They fished in the Sea of Galilee. One day the brothers were called by Christ to himself. The first of them was Andrei, which is why he was called Andrei the First-Called. Also, Apostle Andrew, according to ancient legends, is considered the patron saint of Slavic lands and the people inhabiting these lands. Nowadays, in a village called Gruzino there is a temple named after St. Andrew the First-Called (previously it was the city of Volkhovo). The temple was erected in honor of the fact that Saint Andrew visited the city and left his pectoral cross as a sign of this. Also, according to legend, the Apostle visited the lands of the cities of Novgorod and Kyiv and also left a pectoral cross there. On his journey, the Apostle tirelessly preached Christianity and a humble way of life, and he also accepted martyrdom - crucifixion.
For the first time in Russia in 1698, Tsar Peter I accepted the order. They were awarded for good public service and various military exploits. This order is a gold cross with a blue ribbon. All this was attached to a gold chain. On the cross is made of silver, in the center of the star there is a small eagle, and on the chest of the eagle there is a ribbon in the form of St. Andrew's cross.
For the first time, the symbolism of St. Andrew's flag was used not by his father, Alexei Mikhailovich. He came up with a flag designed specifically for the first military ship in Russia. This ship was called "Eagle".
Tsar Peter paid a lot of attention to flags. He personally designed and designed flags for the navy. Almost all flags used the theme of St. Andrew's Cross. When designing flags, the Tsar most often used blue, white and red colors. All the flags he created were accepted by the fleet. And one of them, which consisted of vertical stripes of white, blue and red, began to be considered and was even drawn in the atlases of that time.
Well, the most final version of the flag is considered to be the St. Andrew’s flag (blue St. Andrew’s cross on a white background). It became the main ship symbol of the Russian fleet. This flag in this form existed in the Russian Navy until November 1917.
And in 1992, on January 17, the Russian government decided to return the St. Andrew's flag and make it again to Russia. The return of an old naval comrade was received by the fleet with great joy. St. Andrew's flag was illuminated in St. Petersburg in the St. Nicholas Cathedral. We can see it on Russian ships, both military and civilian.
St. Andrew's cross and St. Andrew's flag, a photo of which you saw in the presented article, can be considered very widespread, significant, recognizable symbols.
Connected with the construction in 1669 of the first Russian warship "Eagle". According to surviving evidence, a flag was made for the “Eagle” in 1668, consisting of white, blue and red colors (and an equal amount of fabric of each color was required to make the flag), the exact arrangement of the colors is not known, Russian was ordered to be “written” on the flag National emblem. There are several reconstructions of this flag. According to one of the reconstructions (author P.I. Belavenets), the “Eagle” flag was divided by a blue cross into 2 red and 2 white fields according to the Streltsy pattern (similar flags are depicted in the engraving of Adrian Schonebeck “The Siege of Azov in 1696” (ca. 1700). A similar flag, along with other variants, is depicted in one of the first books about flags by the Dutchman Karl Alyard (1695). The publication date of Alyard’s book (1695) should not confuse the reader; at that time the books took a very long time to be printed, and corrections and additions were made during the printing process. In reality, this version of the flag could have appeared in the book no earlier than 1698.
Other historians believed that already on the “Eagle” a flag of three horizontal stripes appeared: white, blue and red. Probably, this idea was first expressed by naval historian F.F. Veselago
Peter I, carried away by the idea of creating a Russian fleet, himself studied maritime affairs, he sailed on a boat on Lake Pereyaslavl, Prosyanoy Pond in Izmailovo. Nowadays the boat of Peter I is kept in the Navy Museum. On the surviving engravings, the boat is depicted with the imperial standard on the mast and the flag of the admiral general on the stern.
According to the information of the historian P.I. Belavenets, on August 6, 1693, in Arkhangelsk, on the armed yacht “St. Peter”, Peter I used the striped white-blue-red “flag of the Tsar of Moscow” with a golden double-headed eagle on the middle stripe. In the book of flags by Carlus Alyard, this flag was described as follows:
“The flag of His Royal Majesty of Moscow is divided into three, the upper stripe is white, the middle blue, the lower red. On the blue stripe, gold with the royal karuna, is crowned with a double-headed eagle, having a red mark in the heart, with a silver Saint George without a serpent.”
Now this flag is kept in the Maritime Museum of St. Petersburg. He got there from Arkhangelsk, where he stayed for many years, having been presented by Peter I to Archbishop Athanasius of Arkhangelsk.
Some historians are inclined to believe that the white-blue-red flag was borrowed by Peter from Holland (the Dutch flag is almost the same, only the order of the stripes is different). Maybe it is so. But, as we see, the use of white, blue and red colors on the flag was recorded under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Peter’s father, long before Peter Alekseevich’s Western European voyage. The “Dutch” version is also associated with the leader of the construction of the “Eagle”, the Dutch captain O. Butler. He is credited with the idea of making the flag of a Russian ship modeled on the flags of his homeland.
In 1695, Peter I started a war with Turkey. This served as a powerful impetus for the creation of a navy. Many warships were built. Russian sailors penetrated into the Black Sea and then into the Baltic Sea.
In 1697, Peter I established a new model of the Russian naval flag, which consisted of horizontal white, blue, and red stripes. In October-November 1699, the first versions of the St. Andrew's flag appeared. In 1699, when the ship "Fortress" set sail for Constantinople, Peter I, in instructions to the Russian envoy Emelyan Ukraintsev, drew a three-sheet flag with an oblique cross crossing it.
Peter I especially emphasized that he chose the St. Andrew’s flag in honor of St. Andrew the First-Called “for the sake of the fact that Russia received holy baptism from this apostle.” Additionally, according to Peter I, the St. Andrew's flag showed that Russia has access to four seas. It is very likely that Peter’s choice was influenced by the flag of Scotland he saw in Europe (blue with a white St. Andrew’s Cross). Saint Andrew was considered the patron saint of Scotland long before the introduction of his cult in Russia. The Scottish Order of St. Andrew is famous. Peter copied the order and perhaps decided to transfer the St. Andrew’s flag to Russian soil, only changing its colors.
In engravings with images of ships of that time you can see various options for transitional types of naval flags(some of them are possibly true, some are most likely an erroneous reconstruction of the engraver). For example, in the engraving depicting the ship Predistination, flags of 9 horizontal stripes are depicted on the bow, on the topmast and on the stern; white, blue and red (a similar practice was widespread in Holland). The frigate "Dumkart" is depicted with a "hybrid" flag - the St. Andrew's cross is framed at the top and bottom with stripes of national colors.
In the engraving with the image of "Poltava" a white flag with an St. Andrew's cross flies at the stern of the ship, the ends of which do not reach the corners of the flag, and on the topmast there is an imperial standard. However, the engraving of “Poltava” raises certain criticisms. The fact is that on the bow of the ship there is a red flag with the St. Andrew's cross in the canton, and on the stern there is a flag with the St. Andrew's cross in the entire panel. This practice is highly questionable. In the Russian fleet, the huys (bow flag) first repeated the stern flag, and then a single huys was introduced. If there is a “colored” flag at the bow, then there must also be one at the stern. Apparently the author of the engraving somewhat “approximated” the information he had.
St. Andrew's flag is the main ship's stern flag of the Russian Navy. It is a white panel crossed diagonally by two blue stripes, which form an inclined cross, which is called St. Andrew's. This cross gave the name to the flag.
St. Andrew's flag
The symbolism of the St. Andrew's flag goes back to ancient times. Apostle Andrew was the brother of Apostle Peter - Guardian Peter. And Tsar Peter I also considered him his divine patron. Both brothers fished in the Sea of Galilee, which led to their patronage of maritime trade. Andrew was the first to be called to himself by Christ. Because of this, he was called the First Called. According to Biblical legend, Apostle Andrew is also the patron saint of the lands inhabited by the Slavs. In Kyiv, he left a pectoral cross, after which, when he visited Novgorod and nearby Volkhov, he also left a pectoral cross (now this is the village of Gruzino, where the Church of St. Andrew the First-Called was built). The Apostle Andrew became famous after tirelessly preaching Christianity on his journey and accepting martyrdom on the cross.
In 1698, Peter I established the first order in Russia - the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called - to reward military exploits and public service. The order consisted of a gold cross, a blue ribbon, a silver eight-pointed star and a gold chain. In the center of the star, in a rosette covered with red enamel and gold stripes in the form of a wreath, there is a double-headed eagle crowned with three crowns; on the chest of the eagle there is an oblique blue cross.
Badges of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called
The symbolism of the St. Andrew's flag was also a tribute to the memory of Peter I and his father, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who first established a special flag for the first Russian military vessel - the three-masted galliot "Eagle".
Having become tsar, Peter I paid a lot of attention to the development of flag projects. In 1692 he personally drew two designs. One of them had three parallel stripes with the inscription "white", "blue", "red", the second had the same colors with a St. Andrew's cross on top of them. In 1693 and 1695, the second design was included in some international atlases as the flag of "Muscovy". From 1692 to 1712, Peter I drew eight more flag projects, which were successively adopted by the Navy. The last (eighth) and final version was described by Peter I as follows: “The flag is white, across it there is a blue St. Andrew’s cross, with which he christened Russia.”
In this form, the St. Andrew's flag existed in the Russian Navy until November 1917.
January 17, 1992 Russian Government adopted a resolution regarding the return of the St. Andrew's flag to the status of the Russian Naval flag. On Saturday, February 15, 1992, the St. Andrew's flag was consecrated in St. Petersburg in the St. Nicholas Cathedral.
“God and St. Andrew’s flag are with us” - these were the words the captains of Russian warships uttered when they addressed the sailors before the battle. For sailors of tsarist times, the St. Andrew's flag in the form of a white cloth crossed diagonally by two crossed blue stripes was considered a shrine and a symbol of their military glory. In its entire history, the flag was lowered voluntarily only twice. However, why did this particular banner become a symbol of the Russian fleet?
Saint Andrew and Rus'
Before becoming an apostle, Andrew and his brother Peter were simple fishermen. According to legend, after Jesus was crucified, Christ's disciples cast lots, which was supposed to indicate the place of their future preaching activity. Andrew fell to Scythia, which later became Russia, and then the Russian Empire. By order of Vladimir Monomakh, the legend about the journey of Andrew the First-Called across Rus' was included in the “Tale of Bygone Years”.
For many centuries, Andrei was considered the patron saint of Rus' and its first baptist. At the end of his life, the apostle was crucified on an X-shaped cross, which became one of the Christian symbols often used in European heraldry.
Patron of Peter
The first Emperor of Russia, Peter I, also considered Andrei his patron. Just as Andrei tore Rus' out of pagan savagery, so Peter led Russia out of feudal stagnation, turning it into a strong European state. In 1698, Peter established the first order in the history of Russia, which was called the Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called. The award was given for military and public service.
For his favorite brainchild - the navy - the emperor chose a banner with an X-shaped St. Andrew's cross. Thus, Peter not only sought the patronage of the saint, but also paid tribute to the memory and respect of his father - Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, under whom the first flag with an oblique St. Andrew's cross was approved - especially for the three-masted galleon "Eagle".
Peter I himself made sketches of the future flag; the drawings are still kept in the archive today. On December 11, 1699, the cross was officially included in the symbolism of the Russian Navy. In 1720, the banner acquired its modern appearance. The ship's charter of that era stated: “The flag is white, across it there is a blue St. Andrew’s Cross, with which he christened Russia.”
After the revolution of 1917, the St. Andrew's flag disappeared from the life of the Soviet fleet. In 1924, the last ships defending the White movement launched it in the ports of North Africa. In 1992, the St. Andrew's oblique cross was returned to the symbolism of the Navy Russian Federation.
Many people mistakenly believe that the St. Andrew's flag is the naval flag of the Russian Federation. This is a wrong opinion. The St. Andrew's flag is any flag whose elements include the St. Andrew's Cross. This misconception arises due to the fact that the classic St. Andrew’s flag is considered to be exactly the version of its image that is used on the naval flag. The recognizable flag of Great Britain, the flag of Scotland and many other flags, including the Russian Navy flag, also have this cross as the basis for the entire design. But in this context we will talk specifically about the naval flag of the Russian Federation.
History of the St. Andrew's flag as the basis for the naval flag of the Russian Federation.
The classic St. Andrew's flag is a standard rectangular canvas, with St. Andrew's cross located from the center to the corners. The background color of the panel is usually blue, and the cross itself, as already mentioned, is diagonal, white. Inversion of colors is possible (this option is used on the flag of Scotland). St. Andrew's cross is an independent symbol that refers to the crucifixion of St. Andrew the First-Called. As it says New Testament, Apostle Andrew was crucified on two crossed and obliquely located boards in relation to the ground, which explains the fact that the cross design on the flags is also diagonal. What is interesting and noticeable by which organizations use the St. Andrew’s Cross on their flags is that all of them are somehow related to the sea and water in principle. This is the fleet of the Russian Empire and the Russian Federation, these are countries whose fleet has always been very powerful, and whose borders are protected by the sea - Jamaica, Great Britain. This feature is explained by the fact that Andrew the First-Called is considered the patron of maritime activities.
The first organization to use this symbol on its attributes was Scotland. At the time of the adoption of such symbols, Scotland was still a separate kingdom (832). Of course, this year is very approximate, since it is problematic to accurately verify this fact due to the lack of precise documentary evidence. According to legend, during the war with the English, the Scottish king, in despair, swore that if the Scots won, he would declare St. Andrew the First-Called the patron of his kingdom. At that same moment, the outlines of St. Andrew's Cross clearly appeared in the sky. In that battle, the Scots were victorious and fulfilled their promise, including by approving such a flag. But perhaps the most famous use of the cross in symbolism is the British flag. The way everyone knows it, it also owes its name to the flag of the Kingdom of Scotland. In the 17th century, the king, a Scot by origin, ascended to the English throne. A new flag was created to celebrate the unification of England and Scotland. Later, as you know, other lands joined this union, and ultimately the flag took on its modern appearance.
In Russia, flags with the St. Andrew's Cross existed during the times Russian Empire after their establishment by Peter the Great. These were guys, serf flags. The ruler adopted the cross from the symbolism of the Dutch fleet during his visit to Europe. During the USSR appearance The flag was completely changed, the St. Andrew's Cross was abandoned in favor of Soviet symbols. In 1992, after the collapse of the USSR and the creation of the Navy of the Russian Federation, the cross element was returned to use. Currently, the St. Andrew's Cross is depicted by the flag of the Russian Navy, the fortress flag, the flag of the Coast Guard of the Border Troops of the Russian Federation, and the naval flag of the Russian Federation. On these flags, except for the last one, the cross is not used in its classic form, which is manifested in other colors and proportions.
St. Andrew's flag as a naval ensign of the Russian Federation.
The very first Russian naval flag was not even the St. Andrew's flag. It was the flag of the ship "Eagle". The exact design of this flag is not known. Many assumptions have been put forward, most of which ultimately boil down to the fact that the flag most likely contained white, red and light blue (or blue) colors, its design was based on stripes. The location of the stripes relative to each other, their proportions are not precisely known. Before 1699, there were several other versions of the naval flag, the appearance of some of which is not thoroughly known. In this year, Peter the Great, by his decree, established the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, which already used the element of the St. Andrew's Cross. After this, the ruler decided to introduce it into other official symbols - the guy and the naval flag. Interesting fact: The naval flag was not always called as such. During the time of Peter the Great, for example, it was called the First Admiral's Flag.
The Russian Empire ceased to exist during civil war at the beginning of the twentieth century. From 1918 to 1924, the St. Andrew's Cross was still present on the naval ensign, sometimes with other elements (for example, a white deer in the center of the cross). In 1924, flags with a cross element finally ceased to exist due to the recognition of Soviet Russia by foreign states.
In 1992, the Russian Federation reintroduced elements of the St. Andrew's Cross into its symbolism. The stern flag of the ships of the Imperial Navy was taken as a model. However, the color of the cross was changed from deep blue to light blue. The flag existed in this form until 2001, when the color was changed again, this time to the original blue. The background of the flag is white. Preserved from the times of the Great Patriotic War and the Guards Naval Flag. It was worn by those ships and their formations that were awarded the title of guards. The flag was supplemented with a St. George ribbon, located just below the center of the flag from the outer edge of one stripe of the cross to the outer edge of the second along the entire length. There are also the Order Naval Flag and the Guards Order Naval Flag. These symbols are worn by those ships that were awarded the Order of the Russian Federation. In the upper left corner of a regular naval flag there is an image of the order itself. The Guards Order flag also has a St. George ribbon.
Of course, anyone who served in the Russian Navy is proud of it. And for any Russian person, in principle, the symbolism of St. Andrew’s Cross is to some extent sacred. Peter the Great extremely successfully combined the fleet and this symbol, which even modern legislators recognized, allowing the St. Andrew's flag to return as a naval flag almost 80 years after its abolition.