It is rare and only for very important reasons that individual ships change their flag, even rarer - ships of the fleet, and very rarely - ships of the entire navy of the state. The latter is usually associated with a change in the country's political and social system, a revolution, and less often - for other reasons. And yet, in the history of our Fatherland, all the above-mentioned reasons have taken place. For example, in the days of the Great Patriotic War, civilian ships, becoming patrol ships and submarine hunters, changed the National Flag of the USSR to the Naval Flag, and icebreakers-to the flag of auxiliary fleet vessels... During the difficult days of the civil War, many ships of the Black Sea Fleet were forced to raise the red flag of the RSFSR, then the yellow-blue independent Ukraine, then the St. Andrew's Flag... After the October Revolution, during the search for and formation of new state and naval symbols in 1920, 1923, and 1935, our warships changed their flags more than once. Finally, in 1991 - 1992, during the collapse of the USSR, the St. Andrew's flag was returned to the Navy. How did the process of returning this Peter's relic take place? In early January 1992, at the All-Army Officers ' Meeting in connection with the collapse of the USSR and the abolition of the State Flag of the USSR, it was proposed to petition the highest authorities of the Russian Federation to replace the Naval flag of the USSR with the traditional flag of the Russian Fleet-St. Andrew's. Already on January 16, the following decision was made at the working meeting of the heads of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Moscow:: "In connection with the termination of the existence of the USSR and the need to bring the status of ships and vessels of the Navy in accordance with the requirements of international law and practice, it is advisable to replace the naval symbols. Please note that the historical Russian St. Andrew's Flag (a white flag with two blue diagona ... Читать далее