In 1698,
Peter I the Great established the first Russian medal, the
Order of St. Andrew, which is to be awarded for military exploits and public service. When he became
tsar, he started to devise a flag for the
Russian Navy. The symbolism of the flag is a tribute to his father,
Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, who established a special flag for the first Russian
naval ship, the three-masted
sailing frigate . In 1699, on the draft of the tsar's instruction to
Yemelyan Ukraintsev concerning protocol issues of the Russian
embassy to the
Ottoman Empire there is a white-blue-red three-striped flag crossed by a diagonal blue
St. Andrew's cross. In 1700, the flags of
admiral (white),
vice admiral (blue) and
counter admiral (red) were introduced; in the
canton (the shaft's upper corner) placed the image of St. Andrew's flag on a three-striped background. Officially, the right of Russian
warships to fly St. Andrew's flag was announced after the occupation of
Kotlin Island in 1703. Since then, the flag with St. Andrew's cross has been used as a symbol of Russia's access to the four seas—the
White,
Baltic,
Azov and
Caspian. In 1705, a drawing of a three-striped St. Andrew's flag was placed in a book by , published in
Holland. Since 1709 St. Andrew's cross on a white field was placed in the cantons of naval flags. In 1712, the final version of the
ensign for the fleet's main forces (the middle part of the
squadron) and ships in solo voyage—St. Andrew's flag of white colour with a blue (cyan) cross reaching to the cloth's corners was adopted. From 1692 to 1712 Peter I personally drew eight proposed flags that have consistently been taken into the
Navy. Description of the flag's final version by Peter I:
Original text (
orthography and are also original): Modern Russian: Blue and red flags with St. Andrew's flag in the cantons were abolished in , (finally abolished in 1865). In 1819, was established as a reward flag—St. Andrew's flag with the image of St. George placed on a red shield in the centre. It was awarded to the ship of the line (1827) and the brig (1829). In 1837, St. George's
warflag—St. George's ensign measuring —was introduced to reward distinguished naval depots. It was awarded to the 12th Naval Depot, to which the ship of the line
Azov was assigned. In 1856, from the 29th to the 45th Naval Depots were awarded St. George's warflags with the inscription "For the
Defence of Sevastopol from 13 September 1854 to 27 August 1855." St. Andrew's flag was cancelled by the decree of the All-Russian Congress of the Navy of . During the
Russian Civil War St. Andrew's flag was hoisted on the ships. After the
October Revolution in Russia, the Russian naval ensign was changed, but it was used by
Whites' naval vessels up to 1924. The flag of St. Andrew was reintroduced in the Russian Navy in 1992 by the decree of
Boris Yeltsin from 21 July, and is still used today. == See also==