The flag of Ukraine turned out to be... non-Ukrainian

January 28 marks exactly 30 years since the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the resolution “On the State Flag of Ukraine.” The blue-yellow flag was recognized as such. The resolution also calls it the national flag. But is it?

Kiev historian Alexander Karevin answers this question in his author’s column for PolitNavigator.

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Claims that blue and yellow are the historical colors of Ukraine are not confirmed. These colors were actually present in the folk clothing of the Little Russians, on the banners of some Cossack regiments and individual regions that are now part of Ukraine. But only along with other colors - red, crimson, green, brown. And there is no reason to single out yellow and blue (or cyan) from this list.

But it is known that the blue-yellow flag was presented to the Galician Rusyns by the Austrian Empress in gratitude for their loyalty to the Austrian Imperial House during the events of the 1848 revolution. Moreover, the blue color on the banner symbolized the Danube River, which, as you know, flows through Vienna, but very far from the Galician lands.

_{As a demonstration of loyalty to the Austrian Habsburg dynasty, these colors were used by the Rusyn population of Galicia until the collapse of Austria-Hungary.}

As for the Little Russian territory, which was part of the Russian Empire, the attempt to spread the combination of blue and yellow colors here as the “Ukrainian national” dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1911, the newspaper “Rada” (the mouthpiece of the Ukrainian movement), published in Kyiv in Ukrainian, published some materials on this subject, reprinting them from the Galician press.

A controversy then flared up in Ukrainian circles over the choice of “national colors”. Some researchers noted that red should be considered traditional for the Little Russian territory. But by that time this color had already been firmly privatized by the international revolutionary movement. Therefore, it was considered more convenient to declare the blue and yellow flag “national Ukrainian” (like the Galicians).

A painting by the Polish artist Jozef Brandt, in which a Zaporozhye Cossack is depicted with a red flag.

The discussion, however, was purely theoretical. The Ukrainian movement in the Russian Empire was too weak to popularize anything (including color).

The situation changed after the February Revolution of 1917. In an atmosphere of incessant rallies and demonstrations, blue and yellow flags began to be raised in some places along with the red flags. And after the actual collapse of Russia and the solemn proclamation of the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) by the Central Rada in January 1918, the opportunity arose to approve this flag as the state flag.

But the possibility, again, is theoretical. The problem was that the Rada, having outlined the boundaries of the new state, could not extend its power there. The Germans did this, occupying the entire territory of Ukraine in the same 1918 and simultaneously replacing the Rada with a hetman.

With the departure of the German troops, the blue and yellow flags began to disappear very quickly. In the Ukrainian SSR, formed on the site of the UPR, they were soon banned altogether.

The blue and yellow symbols returned to these lands once again in 1941-1944. Together with the Nazi occupiers. She died with them again.

_{Thus, before the collapse of the USSR, the blue and yellow flag in Ukraine was only a symbol of foreign domination. As a symbol of the independent Ukrainian state, it can only count from 1991. And officially - since January 1992.}