Why Do All SLAVIC Countries Have Similar Flags?

▶ In this video I talk about Slavic Flags and how they are similar. Attempting to provide an historical context, I explain how all of these flags share the red, white and blue colours with the pan-slavic flag created at the Congress of 1848, which was itself inspired in the Russian flag. The Russian flag was, in turn, influenced by the Dutch flag - due to Peter The Great's desire to turn Russia into a European Power, as well as his passion for all things Dutch due to his visits to the country. After understanding who the Slavs are, which countries are considered Slavic, and which of these effectively use the slavic tricolor(s). Finally I go through the 7 countries (Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czechia, Bulgaria, and Russia) that do use them and look into when they were put into use, as well as how these colours often reflect not only the slavic heritage but also a connection to the banners and coats of arms of the local medieval predecessors.

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
00:57 Who are the Slavs / Slavic Countries?
01:46 Which of them use Slavic flags?
01:57 Why the red, white and blue colours?
03:13 Russian influence on the Pan-Slavic flag
03:30 Dutch influence on the Russian flag
04:51 Serbia's flag
06:00 Croatia's flag
06:42 Czechia's flag
08:02 Slovakia's flag
09:57 Slovenia's flag
10:03 Etymology of 'Slav'
10:32 Slovenia's flag
11:52 Bulgaria's flag
13:08 Other Slavic flags today
13:20 Summary

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[General.Knowledge]

YES I KNOW *TRANSNISTRIA IS IN MOLDOVA* AND NOT ROMANIA, my mistake!
Also, obviously not *all* Slavic countries use the pan-slavic colors, as is pointed out in the video - I apologize if the title seemed misleading in that aspect.

[pitlordmike]

I think Slav comes from the word Slovo. In Polish “Slavs” is słowianie, which means “people of the word” or “people who know words”. By contrast Polish word for Germans is “Niemcy” which could’ve came from the word “niemy” which means “someone who doesn’t speak”

[michals]

As you pointed out correctly, Bohemia's original flag was white-and-red. And when Czechoslovakia was created they added the blue triangle to represent Slovakia. But you missed here a fun fact that is worth telling. When the two countries split again in 1993, Czechia could not come back to their original white-and-red flag simply because in the meanwhile it had been stolen by Poland. And Poland's historical flag was actually red-white-red, but that one was in turn stolen by the Austrians.

[МихаилБогомолов-бу]

Want to add some information about Peter the Great. In 1697-1698 Peter I visited Netherlands during the "Great Embassy" in order to look for some allies against Ottoman Empire. In Netherlands he tried to hide that he was the Russian tsar, because it would be bizarre that the ruler of the big country works at docks and helps Netherlands build ships. So yes, Russian future emperor worked as a builder of ships. There is even a small house in Netherlands, wherr Peter the first lived, i believe

[crystalbluepersuasion]

I am from Croatia and we were always taught that the colors represent the georaphical area where slavs live. White as in mountains of Ural, blue as in Baltic and Adriatic sea and the Red as brotherly blood that connects all us slavs.

[AhimtarHoN]

Fun fact, when Czechoslovakia split up, there was an agreement that neither state will continue to use the Czechoslovak flag. Which Czechia blatantly ignored.
Ever since then, Czechia was cursed by slavic Gods and Czech tourists keep getting tragically lost in Slovak mountains every year

[gagetolinwrites]

Fun fact: Bulgaria almost had a different flag. King Ferdinand, who reigned until 1908, proposed a horizontal tricolor of black, white, and dark blue. Each color representing a different coast (Black sea, Aegean, Adriatic)

[skipthebg]

In bulgarian schools they teach, that in the bulgarian flag the white represents peace, the green is for the nature and the red is for the blood of the people who fought for the country.

[Czekytcze]

I iam from czech republic and iam very proud of our slavic culture.

[comradeplayer]

The story with the Russian flag is a little more complicated. For the first time, the tricolor flag appeared under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich on the ship "Oryol". Before it was created, the ruler studied the flags of Great Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden. As a result, there are several versions of the original flag in the form of variations of tricolors and a banner with a blue cross on a white-red background.

[TerezatheTeacher]

Lol, we speak Czech, we're definitely a Slavic nation. The fact that we stole the Czechoslovakia flag doesn't mean we're not Slavs. Czech and Slovak are very similar languages. My videos are almost always in Czech but 20% of my viewers are Slovak - they have no problem understanding Czech. Russian is considered the lazy option when kids choose their second foreign language at school because learning another Slavic language is easier for Czechs. I've also read about a third of a novel in Croatian (silly me, didn't bring enough books on the trip), I understood a lot, it felt like reading very weird Slovak.

[andrewhennis]

I’d absolutely love a video on the history of the Czech flag! I’m currently in the process of learning Czech and think that interesting history will boost my motivation to learn!

[Beckford]

Title says "all" Slavic flags, yet completely ignores the existence of Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, North Macedonia & Montenegro. If you're going to exclude half the Slavic nations because they don't fit into your idea, don't use the word "all". This is why YouTubers are guilty of making hyperbolic statements that people think are reliable.

[andrereis_]

The best part of this channel is that it has no limit of content, there's always something to talk about. Nice work!

You are the first one that I saw on Internet mentioning "slovo" ("word") as the root of word "slav". Actually, this is my understanding too. "Sloveni" are the people who can speak understandable words, while "Nemci" (Germans) are the people who are "nemi" ("mute") - who, from Slavic perspective, can't speak understandable words.

[Duececoupe]

Scandinavian Cross next then....😉
Excellent video, love these flag videos!
Keep 'em coming my friend! 🤜🏻🤛🏻🍻

[LosowyLogin]

Word „slavs” come from the word „slovo”, which means „word”. So slavs means all those who can speak words. This is opposite to „niemcy” (germans is slavic), which literally means „mute”, „dumb”, which describes the ones who cannot speak

[Hand-in-Shot_Productions]

I've read a bit about the pan-Slavic colors, but I've learned a lot more about them from here! It's interesting how many medieval flags and coats of arms happened to use these colors centuries before they became "pan-Slavic"! Thanks for the video!

[AhjtadyHanka]

You forgot to mention that Slovakian "waves" under the cross on the flag are representing the 3 highest peaks of the country just like the slovene flag :)
Btw. I don't think the pan-slavic colours are that new, for example traditional costumes called "kroj" in czechia and slovakia are in a lot of times blue, red and white. And I think in other slav countries it is like this too, and these krojs are old as far as 17. century at least.. I just think these colours were not just chosen but were chosen because they get along with the historic symbols and traditions.

[mojaslovenija]

There is a misuderstanding of the origin of Slovene national flag. It was acctually the firs slavic flag using the combination of white (top), blue (middle) and red (bottom). The flag originates from the coat of the arms of the Land of Carniola. The Book of Coats of Arms from 1370 describes that the coat of arms of the Land of Carniola is a heraldic blue eagle (in takeoff) on a white (heraldically silver) background, with a right-facing head (according to heraldic standards), which has a white-red painted and downward-facing crescent on its chest . In 1463, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. he allowed the Carniolan provincial estates (the Carniolan army saved his empire and also his life in the battle) to use yellow (gold) in their coat of arms instead of white (silver), and place a golden imperial crown on the eagle's head.
In his numerous writings, heraldry researcher Dr. Šavli states that the regional coat of arms was created even before the elevation of Carniola to a duchy in 1364, according to some sources, the years 1156 and 1161 are mentioned.

The nowadays Russian flag was first used as an ensign for Russian merchant ships in 1696 It remained as a merchands flag in use until 1858, when the first official flag of the Russian Empire was decreed by Alexander II, which was a tricolour consisting of three horizontal fields: black on the top, yellow in the middle, and white on the bottom. A decree in 1896 reinstated the white, blue, and red tricolour as the official flag of the Russian Empire until 1917.

So Slovenian flag is with over 500 years older origins and the colour similar to Dutch flag and later to Russian flag is just a coincidence. The modern Russian flag as the national flag was declared in 1993 as the Slovenian flag was in 1945 as the flag of the Republic of Slovenia part of the Yugoslav federation. The Slovenian national flag was adopted by the Slovenian Assembly on June 24, 1991, when it adopted an amendment to the 1974 constitution, replacing the old flag shortly before Slovenia gained independence. So no "copy-pasting", but opposite ;)