![[Moldovan Flag, Proportions 1:2]](../images/m/md-12.gif)
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image by António Martins
Last modified: 2006-01-21 by zach harden
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Romania/Moldova adopted a flag in the three colours during the revolutions of 1848
which drew inspiration (and vexillology) from the French revolution.
Stuart Notholt, 10 October 1995
The regulation on flag of Moldova was adopted on 27 April, 1990. This date is
official birthday of the state flag.
Victor Lomantsov, 21 December 2001
Album des Pavillons (2000) reports this
flag as the national flag on land and civil ensign. No mention is made of the
state or war ensign usage. It is shown there as 2:3 ratio.
Željko Heimer, 20 June 2002
According to "Flottes de Combat 2002", there is no Moldovan Navy.
Armand Noel du Payrat, 21 June 2002
Znamierowski (1999) states that the flag is 2:3 and the image is 2:3 [Note: This is incorrect, see Bibliography: Corrections and comments on [zna99].]
Marcus Schmöger, 21 August 2001, 8 September 2001
The old medieval principality of Moldavia had a red military flag with a bison's (not ox's, as you think) head in the center. The bison is a symbol of Moldova and as old chronicles said means "power, independence and pride". This head you can see on our coat of arms. The three colors of Romanian and Moldavian flags were proposed in 1848 and represented three part of Romania:
I have been led to believe that the bull-like emblem is actually that of an Aurochs, a
large beast of pre-historic descent that survived in the remoter regions of eastern Europe
until the eighteenth century, before it was hunted to extinction. The story attributes the use of the aurochs head to the fact that the founding price of Moldavia (who I think was a noble possibly of Hungarian descent) encountered one of these beasts on his travels from the Mountains of northern Romania (either the Marmourous
region or Bucovina) and that the animal attacked, killing the noble's wife who was thrown into the river Moldova, which subsequently became the Romanian name for the territory east of the Carpathian mountains. I am not sure if this legend is true, but the same scene is displayed in statue form in Sucevita in northern Romania.
Rob Courtney, 26 October 1999
Just to give a brief history. Bessarabia has long been a part of Principality of Moldova located between Carpathian mountains and the Dniestr. After the Ottoman invasion, Moldova lost its independence and became a sort of self-ruled province and its rulers (Gospodars) were appointed by Ottomans. Bessarabia became part of Russia according to the terms of peace treaty signed by Russia and Turkey in 1812. Autonomy was granted to Valakhia (Wallachia) and the rest of Moldova according to the Adrianopol Russian-Turkish treaty signed in 1829. In 1859 Valakhia and Moldova united as Principality of Romania which got formal independence in 1878 after another Russian-Turkish war when Romanians were Russian allies.
Bessarabia went back to Romania in 1918, when Romania signed a separate treaty with Austro-Germans (in fact, there was no other choice for Romania). Soviet Russia and later USSR did not recognise this transition. In 1924 Moldovan autonomy within the Ukrainian SSR was proclaimed (now Transdniestr). Probably the Soviet authorities wished to use it as a core for a future "Soviet Romania". In 1940, USSR forced Romania to withdraw from Bessarabia which became Moldavian SSR. But some territories where Romanians (or Moldavians, actually it is a matter of self-determination of people of Moldova) had been minority were passed to Ukraine (South Bessarabia and Khotin). Simultaneously the largest part of Moldavian autonomy was transmitted to Moldavian SSR.
In 1941, after the Nazi invasion, Romania took back Bessarabia, annexed Trandniestr and all Ukrainian territories between the Dniestr and the Bug (including Odessa). After the war, the borders of 1940 were restored.
The current flag of Moldova was established in 1990 and symbolised both the Romanian
origin and a wish for reunification (at the time most of non-communist Moldovan
politicians wanted to reunite). But it is turned out that most part of Moldovan
population do not support these aspirations. Now Moldova is a fully independent state
and has no intentions to become part of Romania.
Alexei Arkhipov, 20 March 1999
M. Lupant, in his travel notes published in Vexillacta #10 (December 2000), reported two Moldavian flags he saw in the National History Museum of Chisinau.
The first is a Romanian flag charged with a black aurochs head, which was used during the nationalist demonstrations of 1989/1990.
The second is the Moldavian national flag which bears the signatures of the personalities who took part to the proclamation of the Republic (27 August 1991). Note that the flag is a 2:3 Romanian flag on which a yellow rectangle bearing the Moldavian arms was applied. The yellow rectangle of the arms is significantly darker than the yellow stripe of the flag.
Ivan Sache, 27 July 2001
![[Moldovan flag]](../images/m/md'.gif)
image based on
http://presedinte.md/simb.php?lang=eng&page=702
The Moldovan flag was established by Regulation No. 17-XII of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova dated 12 May 1990 (prior to independence on 27 August 1991), with the opening Article (not numbered) reading as follows:
"The National Flag of the Republic of Moldova - the tricolour - is the official symbol of the Republic of Moldova. It symbolizes the past, present and future of the state, reflects its democratic roots, its historical tradition, equality of rights, and (the) friendship and solidarity of all citizens of the Republic. The national flag of the Republic of Moldova - the tricolour - is a rectangular panel consisting of three equal, vertical stripes arranged in the following sequence from the pole: dark-blue (azure), yellow and red. In the centre (of the flag) on the yellow stripe is placed the state coat of arms of the Republic of Moldova. The width of the coat of arms is equal to one-fifth of the length of flag, (and) the relationship between the width and the length of the flag is 1:2."
Christopher Southworth, 20 June 2004
The law concerning the flag was restated in the Constitution, adopted July 29, 1994 (note without any mention of the dimensions):
Article 12. National Symbols
(1) The Republic of Moldova has her own flag, coat of arms and anthem.
(2) The State flag of the Republic of Moldova is a tricolour. The colours are
arranged vertically in the following order from the flagpole: blue, yellow,
red. The coat of arms is printed on the central yellow stripe of the
tricolour.
(3) Moldova's coat of arms consists of a shield divided horizontally into two
parts: the upper part is red, and the lower part is blue with a superimposed
aurochs head showing between its horns an eight-pointed star. On its right the
aurochs head is flanked by a five-petalled rose, and on its left by a slightly
rotated crescent. All heraldic elements present on the shield are of golden
(yellow) colour. The shield is laid on the breast of a natural eagle holding
in its beak a golden cross, in its right claw a green olive-tree branch and in
its left claw a golden sceptre.
(4) Moldova's State anthem shall be established by organic law.
(5) The flag, the coat of arms and the anthem are State symbols of the
Republic of Moldova, and are protected by law as such.
Found on
http://www.richmond.edu/~jpjones/confinder/moldova3.htm
Jérôme Sterkers, 5 February 2002
![[Moldovan Flag, late 80's design]](../images/m/md-vers.gif)
image by Victor Lomantsov
In the late 1980s (about 1989) nationalists in Moldova used many types of
hand-made blue-yellow-red flags. Usually they had some kind of Moldavian coat of
arms items in the centre. I saw flags with the ox head, a rose, crescent and
star. The star was eight- or five-pointed. All figures were black or dark-brown.
Victor Lomantsov, 22 December 2001
This region, historically known as Bessarabia, has changed hands many times. After being Turkish (Ottoman) for many years it became Russian in 1810. In 1917 it proclaimed independence before joining Romania in 1918. In 1940, under the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, it once more became Soviet. The territory was joined to the pre-existing Moldavian ASSR, a Soviet fiction carved out of Ukraine which in fact had very few Moldavians living there (this is the origin of the dispute between the modern Republic of Moldova and the self-styled Dniestr Republic, the largely Slavic-populated eastern region) and became the Moldavian SSR on 2 August 1940. From 1941 until 1944 Romania, allied to the Axis powers, once again ruled Bessarabia.
Post war, the Soviets created a Moldavian language (largely accomplished by transcribing Romanian from the Latin alphabet into Cyrillic) and sought to encourage the creation of a separate Moldavian nation. This could not disguise the fact that the Moldavians are essentially Romanian, and although Moldova's initially expressed aspiration of union with Romania is now much more muted, the Moldovan flag is basically that of Romania with the addition of the national coat of arms on the yellow stripe.
Stuart Notholt, 5 October 1995
The link below has some info and a smaller-than-thumbnail-sized flag but no
sources for a Moldavian flag from the period 1917-1918:
http://www.batsweb.org/Cultura/Geografia/Geopolitica/eurasia.htm. The flag
is a dark blue over red bicolour.
Michael K. Renalds, 20 January 2004
![[Coat of arms of Moldova]](../misc/md).gif)
image by António Martins
From what I have read (an Encyclopedia Americana flag article written by Whitney
Smith) the coat of arms is an eagle holding a cross in its beak and an olive branch and
sceptre in its claws. On top of the eagle is a shield "per fess" (split in half
horizontally) red on top and blue below, with a stylized ox head over all between a rose
and a crescent. The eagle is from the old Romanian coat of arms and ultimately from
Byzantium; the ox head represents the old province of Bessarabia; the cross is obviously
Christian; the sceptre and olive branch are probably for sovereignty and peace; as for the
flower and crescent, I have no idea.
James Dignan
Near the bison's head are situated, not a rose and a crescent.
Why such strange design? Because, as I know, this is an astral symbol of the sun and
the moon taken from Dacian coins (Daci were ancestors of the Moldovans and Romanians in
ancient times). Also, the octagonal star above the bison's head is the Dacian symbol of
wisdom. The three parts of the eagle's tail represent three part of the Republic of
Moldova: Gagauzia (or Gagauz Eri as it calls itself) in the south, the central
region as the biggest part, and the breakaway Dniestr region (Transnistria in
Romanian or Pridnestrov'e in Russian). And if you compare our coat of arms and
the Romanian coat of arms you can see that the Romanian eagle has a
sword but our eagle has an olive branch (it's also a difference between the two nations).
Vladislav Zarayskiy
This story was reported in the Romanian newspaper "Romania Libera" (3 October 2000, article by Camelia Varvara).
In summary:
During the plenary session of the Parliament of Moldavia held on 29 September 2000, there was a harsh debate on the use of the Romanian language in the media. The deputy Sergiu Burca
invoked the communist media of the 1988-1991 period, which called the Moldavian tricolor flag "fastchiskii flag" (fascist flag). The deputy Vladimir Voronin, president of the Moldavian Communist Party, immediately shouted "And they were right!".
Voronin was a former Minister of the Interior in the 1980's, when demonstrations for resurrection of the national spirit, promotion of the Romanian language and
the tricolor flag were repressed.
Several deputees have sued the communist leader for "serious insults against the national flag of Moldavia". Voronin answered he had not intended to insult the Moldavian flag, but another blue-yellow-red tricolor (evidently the Romanian flag).
Article 203/2 of the Penal Code of Moldavia says that desecration of national symbols of the Moldavian state or other states by people having official positions shall be punished by destitution, 3 to 7 years in jail or a fine equivalent to 80 average salaries.
The Romanian Foreign Office has reacted moderately to Voronin's words and asked the Moldavian authorities to take appropriate action against Voronin, although his insults shall not endanger the relationships between both countries.