Flag of Russia |Use||Civil and state flag and ensign|
|Adopted||11 December 1993 (originally de jure from 11 May (29
April O.S.) 1896, de facto since around 1700 for vessels and
1883 for land use)| |Design||Rectangular tricolour with three
equal-size horizontal bands: the upper one is white, the middle
blue, and the lower red.| |Variant flag of Russian Federation
St. Andrew Flag |Adopted||1992 (originally adopted in 1720)|
|Design||White with a blue saltire.| The flag was first used as
an ensign for Russian merchant ships and only became official in
1896. The flag continued to be used by the Russian Provisional
Government after the Tsar was toppled in the February Revolution
and was not replaced until the October Revolution which
established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic -
the world's first constitutionally socialist state. From that
time period, a 1:2 red flag featuring the abbreviated name
"RSFSR" ("РСФСР") was used, until replaced in 1954 with the
universal design of the Soviet flag with