Ukraine celebrates its Independence Day. On today's date in 1991, the Verkhovna Rada of the then Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic adopted a Declaration of Independence - thus Ukraine restored its sovereignty, breaking away from the Soviet Union.
Yesterday Ukrainians celebrated the day of their national flag.
His colors – blue and yellow, have been used as a state symbol back in the centuries and there are different variants of their beating. Today, it is accepted that blue represents the blue sky, and yellow – the wheat fields of the fertile Ukrainian land. But also much more than that.
"Today, yellow and blue mean courage, indomitability and the fight for freedom and democratic values - the fight to protect the future of the whole world from evil. And also – our victory. A tough but total victory." - said in a message from the Ukrainian Embassy.
Zaporozhian Cossacks used these colors between the 15th and 18th centuries – their flags depict yellow crosses, stars and arms on a blue background.
During the wave of European revolutions in 1848, often referred to as the "Spring of Nations", Ukrainians in western Ukraine, part of the 19th century Ukrainian National Revival, used the combination of blue and yellow as their unifying sign, reminds BGNES.
After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the Ukrainian People's Republic, which existed as an independent state from 1917 to 1921, again adopted the blue and yellow flag. This is the first time the flag has appeared publicly at the state level.
The next similar case was August 24, 1991, when after the failed coup in Moscow, a group of Ukrainian deputies brought a large blue-yellow flag into the meeting hall of the Verkhovna Rada - the Ukrainian parliament.
The choice of a blue and yellow flag after independence seems obvious, but it did not come without a struggle. After the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on August 24, 1991, a full month passed before the members of the Ukrainian parliament reached an agreement on the flag.
After two failed votes, then Speaker of Parliament Leonid Kravchuk (Ukraine's first president) threatened to resign if MPs did not vote to declare the blue-yellow flag as Ukraine's national flag. Throughout the month, the red flag of the Ukrainian SSR remains above the Verkhovna Rada.
The president's firm position paid off and the national blue-yellow flag was raised above the dome of the parliament, together with the flag of the Ukrainian SSR. The two flags next to each other cause outrage. Kravchuk ordered the Soviet flag to be taken down, and on September 4, 1991, the flag of the independent Ukrainian state was flown independently over the Verkhovna Rada for the first time, where it has been ever since.