August 22 – The National Flag Day of Russia

Today, on August 22, Russia celebrates Russia’s National Flag Day, one of the country’s three main symbols along with its anthem and emblem, informs RIA VladNews.

On August 22, 1991, the tricolor was brought back as the official flag of the new Russian Federation in accordance with the resolution of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Though not considered a public holiday, the day was established by Boris Yeltsin’s presidential executive order "On National Flag Day in the Russian Federation", dated August 20, 1994.

The modern tricolor is a panel with equal horizontal stripes – white at the top, azure in the middle and crimson at the bottom. The ratio of the flag's width to its length is 2:3. The three colors of the national flag have different interpretations. According to one of the versions, white represents freedom, blue stands for the color of the Holy Mother who protects Russia, and red is the colour of great power. Another version describes white as the colour of nobility; blue as the colour of integrity and loyalty; and red as the colour of courage of the Russians.

The white, blue and red flag was raised for the first time on the first Russian warship, the Oryol, in 1667, during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov.  Yet Peter the Great is recognized as the legitimate "father" of the Russian tricolor flag. In the beginning of 1705 he issued a decree that stated that "all merchant ships" should raise white, blue and red flags, and personally drew a design of the flag and specified the order of its horizontal stripes. Officially, the tricolor was approved as the state flag of Russia in the run-up to the coronation of Nicholas II in 1896, when the Ministry of Justice stated that the national colours should be "white, blue and red and no other".

https://vladnews.ru/2016/08/22/111388/22-avgusta-den-gosudarstvennogo-flaga-rossii.html