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Belarus in the Soviet Union

Last modified: 2006-09-30 by antónio martins
Keywords: byelorussian ssr | belarus | error | hammer and sickle (yellow) | hammer and sickle (black) | star: 5 points (fimbriated) | sun: rising | coat of arms | national ornament |
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Flag of Byelorussian SSR
image by Željko Heimer and Zach Harden, 17 Jul 2001
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Description of the flag

In all sources I saw the ornament has two thin white stripes at the fly part (Soviet Encyclopedia 1962; Basov and Kurkov’s Flags of Belarus yesterday and today [bku94]). Unfortunately, I have no official Regulations. The Decree of 25, December, 1951 says:

The flag consists of two horizontal stripes. Upper stripe is red (2/3 of flag-height), lower stripe is green (1/3 of flag-height). The gold hammer and sickle and red star with gold border in left upper corner of the red stripe. The belorussian national ornament is at the hoist part (white on red background). Width of the ornament is egual to 1/9 of flag-length.
Victor Lomantsov, 25 Jan 2001

RSFSR had the only SSR flag with only non-horizontal stripes, while Byelorussia had the only one with both.
Steve Stringfellow and António Martins, 12 and 13 Mar 2000


Reverse of the flag

Back of the flag
image by Željko Heimer and Zach Harden, 17 Jul 2001 | two-sided reverse

No hammer, sickle and star on the reverse side.
Mark Sensen, 25 May 1997


Coat of arms

CoA of Byelorrussian SSR
image by Marcus Schmöger, 02 Sep 2001 (source: [hzg80])

The emblem of the SSR was used until 10 December 1991, when the coat of arms with the horseman was introduced; Hesmer [hes92] does not mention the introduction date of the SSR coa. The current emblem (introduced 1995) is basically the same as the old SSR one, with only two changes.
Marcus Schmöger, 16 Sep 2001


Mistaken byelorussian flag

In the book A Day in the life of the Soviet Union which was made in 1987, there is a photo of Byelorussian schoolchildren exercizing under «The flag of the Soviet republic of Byelorussia». However, this is not the red and green flag that was adopted as the Soviet republic’s flag in 1951, nor is it the current flag of Belarus: Instead, this flag has a light green bar at the base that goes up about 1/4 the hoist.
C. C. C. P. Robert, 03 Aug 1998

It looks like a Lithuanian SSR flag. I bet that the photo was taken near the border line and the writer mixed up in which side of it he was…
António Mastins, 15 Dec 1999


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