Flag of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
The first flag of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted on 10 March 1919 to serve as the symbol of state of the Ukrainian SSR. Details of the official flag changed periodically before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but all had as their basis the communist red flag. According to the decree of the Presidium of Supreme Soviet of Ukrainian SSR on 21 November 1949, the blue in the bottom "symbolises the mightiness and beauty of the people, and the blue banner of Bohdan Khmelnytsky".
Color scheme
| Red | Azure | Gold | |
| RGB | 205/0/0 | 51/181/255 | 255/217/0 |
| Hexadecimal | #CD0000 | #33b5ff | #FFD900 |
| CMYK | 0/100/100/20 | 80/29/0/0 | 0/15/100/0 |
| Pantone | 3546 C | 638 U | Medium Yellow C |
History
Before this 1919 flag, a flag in 1918 was used with red and blue, with yellow stripes in the canton.The first flag was red with the gold Cyrillic sans-serif letters У.С.С.Р. . A decade later, the Ukrainian initials У.С.Р.Р. appeared. In the 1930s a gold border was added. In 1937, a new flag was adopted, with a small gold hammer and sickle added above the gold Cyrillic serif letters УРСР.
The Soviet Union and two of its republics all became members of the nascent United Nations in 1945. Since all of their flags were red with only small markings in the upper left corner, the UN demanded changes to the flags in 1949. To comply, the Ukrainian Soviet authorities dropped the lettering and added an azure horizontal stripe. The Ukrainian SSR adopted this new design as its official flag on 5 July 1950. Other constituent republics of the Soviet Union soon followed suit and customised the bottom third of their flags.
While the Soviet flag was flown in the later months of 1991, even after the failed coup d'état, the blue and yellow flag, even though it was a criminal offense under the Soviet law, was raised spontaneously throughout Ukraine by local activists between 14 March 1990 beginning at town of Stryi until the country's independence on 24 August 1991. The blue and yellow flag was provisionally adopted for official ceremonies in September 1991, although the Soviet-era flag officially remained until it was replaced on 28 January 1992.