Original Items: Only One Lot of 5 Available. The Flags of the Soviet Socialist Republics, Common European Homes were all defaced versions of the flag of the Soviet Union, which featured a golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star (the only exception being the Georgian SSR, which used a red hammer and sickle and a fully red star) on a red field.
The Flags Featured In This Lot:
– Flag of the Byelorussian SSR: 68” x 35” horizontal bicolor of red over green in a 2:1 ratio and the golden hammer and sickle with the bordered star on the canton, with a white ornamental pattern on a red vertical stripe at the hoist.
– Flag of the Georgian SSR: 68: x 35” plain red flag with the red hammer and sickle with a red star in a blue sun in canton, blue bar in the upper part of the flag.
– Flag of the Latvian SSR: 68” x 35” plain red flag with a golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton with the blue and white rippling water at the bottom.
– Flag of the Lithuanian SSR: 68” x 35” red flag with the golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton with the white thin stripe and green thick band on the bottom.
– Flag of the Tajik SSR: 68” x 35” red field with white and green stripes in the middle of the flag (pan-Iranian colors), with a golden hammer and sickle in the upper canton.
All flags are in lovely condition and are slightly faded to a red/orange color. There is no visible damage. All come ready to display!
History
When Byelorussia and Ukraine were the founding members of the United Nations in 1945, all of their flags were red with only small markings in upper left corners and needed distinct flags for each other.
In February 1947, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a resolution calling for the Soviet republics to adopt new flags, which each of its republics were recommended to develop and adopt new national flags. So they expressed the idea of a union state, asked to use the symbols of the State flag of the Soviet Union, such as the gold hammer and sickle and the red star, as well as maintain the predominance of red color on the flag of the Union republics. National, historical and cultural features of each republic was instructed to express the other colors and the order of their location, as well as the location based on the national emblem or coat of arms. After competitions for the best projects from 1949–1954 the new flags of the 16 republics were developed and adopted. The authorities in Ukraine and Belorussia were the first to adopt the flags on 5 July 1950, and 25 December 1951, respectively. All others followed suit between 1952 and 1953 with the last republic, the Russian SFSR, adopted the flag on 9 January 1954.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991, only Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan (without hammer and sickle), Turkmenistan and Ukraine retained their Soviet republic flags as independent states until the new official flags were adopted in 1992. Since 1995 (current version adopted in 2012) Belarus retains its old Soviet flag with only minor changes.