No state exists without rituals and symbols. Ukraine has gained independence several times in its history. The last time this happened was in 1991. Four months later, the small coat of arms and the flag of Ukraine, a stylized trident and a two-color canvas consisting of horizontal fields, blue and yellow, were approved. According to historians describing the events associated with the collapse of the USSR, the age-old dream of the majority of the population of that part of the Union that lived on the territory of the former Ukrainian SSR came true.
Historical contradictions between the East and West of this country have caused many dramatic events, conflicts have arisen and continue to flare, including armed ones. After the “Maidan”, the opinion of the citizens of the South-East was no longer taken into account by the government of the “square”. In turn, residents of some regions refuse to positively perceive the attributes of the state, including the flag of Ukraine. Photos from the scene of the tragic events that caused casu alties in Odessa, Mariupol, Zaporozhye and other cities provide an explanation for such rebelliousness. For a large percentage of the population, yellow and blue colors have become a symbolviolence and cruelty. This is not forgotten.
Yellow-blue origins
The origins of the history of the flag of Ukraine rests on those times when geographical names were completely different. In pre-Christian Russia, yellow and its shades symbolized the fiery element. Blue represented water, the endless source of life. The pagan holiday of Ivan Kupala traditionally took place in this scale: with a fiery wheel rolling into the water, lights floating along rivers and streams and other ancient attributes.
While the Slavs did not have flags, the role of combat symbols was played by banners, which were bundles of various bright and visible objects from afar, from bird feathers to grassy colors. Starting from the fourteenth century, there was a delimitation of spheres of influence between the European West (represented by the Commonwe alth, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) and the Russian lands. The front border region (it was still too early to talk about state borders) became part of Kievan Rus, hence the future name of the country.
As part of the Commonwe alth
For the first time the flag of Ukraine became known during the Battle of Grunwald (1410), however, then it did not personify an independent power. The units of the Polish army, recruited from the inhabitants of the Leopol (Lvov) land, opposed the crusaders under the banner with the image of a yellow lion on a bluish-azure field.
Ethnic symbols were further developed during the war for liberation from Polish oppression underthe leadership of Bogdan Khmelnitsky (1648-1654). However, the colors were different then, preference was given to crimson and red shades, as contemporaries described the hetman's Cossack banners.
National symbols in one form or another remained applied to military attributes and coats of arms of Little Russian cities throughout the entire existence of the Russian Empire and after the February Revolution. So, there is a case when General Brusilov welcomed in May 1917 units of Ukrainian volunteers who arrived at the German front under the national flag.
Austrian Ukrainophiles and the presented flag
An interesting incident occurred after the suppression of the Austrian revolution of 1848 by the Russian army. The pro-Russian sympathies of the local population frightened the saved Habsburg government so much that it resigned in full force, and the governor Stadion took a rather non-standard political step. He expressed his readiness to support Ukrainians striving for autonomy if they did not consider themselves Russian, handing them a yellow and blue flag of Ukraine, allegedly sewn by the mother of the Austrian emperor (which was not true).
Revolutions
The events of the revolutions of 1917 led to a redrawing of borders and a reassessment of historical perspectives. After the proclamation of the UNR (Ukrainian People's Republic) in 1918, a temporary law was adopted, according to which the state flag of Ukraine was officially established for the first time, with the yellow color located on top. Then there was a coup, as a result of which hetman Skoropadsky seized power,who began by changing the places of the panels. This banner remained the national symbol of the supporters of independence, who operated underground in the territories occupied by Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia until 1939. Western Ukrainians greeted the Red Army with a yellow and blue ensign in 1939.
Flag of the Ukrainian SSR
After the 1917 revolution, the Soviet part of Ukraine refused to recognize the power of the Central Rada. Kharkiv adopted its own flag, of course, red, with the letters U. S. S. R., however, in places of residence of the Russian-speaking population, Russian was also allowed.
Decades later, the Soviet flag of Ukraine was changed again. The lower third of it was occupied by a blue cloth, and the rest, crowned with a hammer and sickle, remained red.
During the tragic period of the Nazi occupation, collaborators used national yellow and blue colors, however, until the German command forbade it. The Bandera underground used, in addition to the Petliurist one, another flag, black and red.
Modern flag of Ukraine
Photos and filming, which show the solemn entry into the meeting room of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR of a giant yellow-blue cloth, bypassed all the information channels of the world in 1991. This action was welcomed by a prominent communist party functionary L. M. Kravchuk, who became the first president of an independentUkraine. This event was accompanied by mass events painted in the same tone. Thus began the modern history of the flag of Ukraine. Patriotic citizens are tying yellow and blue ribbons in protest against the “seizure” of Crimea. Other ribbons, symbols of the Victory over Nazism, St. George's, are banned. They, according to the current leadership, are worn by "separatists", "quilted jackets" and "Colorados".
The colors of the flag of Ukraine are supposed to symbolize peacefulness and food abundance. The blue sky crowns the fields of golden wheat, which grows generously on the famous Ukrainian black soil - this is how the gamut of the main state symbol of the country is interpreted. How this dream will come true, time will tell…
