Flag of Russia
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The national flag of Russia is a tricolour of three equal horizontal bands: white on the top, blue in the middle, and red on the bottom.
Flag sketches made by Peter the Great, 1699
National flags of Russia before and after 1896
Magazine cover of white émigré, 1932
President Boris Yeltsin waving the flag during the August Coup, 1991
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was the final period of the Russian monarchy. It spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in 1917. At its heigh
Flag of Russia
…the Great in 1693, and in 1705 it was adopted as the civil ensign of the Tsardom of Russia; the flag continued to be used as a civil ensign under the Russian Empire. In 1858, Emperor Alexander II declared the black-yellow-white tricolour as the national flag, and in 1896 it was replaced by the white-blue-red tricolour…
Peter the Great officially proclaimed the Russian Empire in 1721 and became its first emperor. He instituted sweeping reforms and oversaw the transformation of Russia into a major European power. Painting by Jean-Marc Nattier, 1717.
The Victory at Poltava, painted by Alexander von Kotzebue in 1862
Empress Catherine the Great, who reigned from 1762 to 1796, continued the empire's expansion and modernization. Considering herself an enlightened absolutist, she played a key role in the Russian Enlightenment (painted in the 1780s).
1764, Ruble Catherine II ММД, Krasny Mint