Siberia Flag

Siberia is a geographical area in Eastern Russia. It has  never been united into one administrative or governmental district and, as a result, there is no single Siberian flag.

The article below discusses the historical flags of Siberia, and has pictures of two of the most commonly recognised flags. You can also read more in our article about the Russian Flag.

There are varying definitions of Siberia.  The broadest definition is to say that it covers all of Russia east of the Urals, a vast swathe of land that makes up 77% of Russia’s territory and contains about 1/4 of Russia’s people.

Today, Russia is divided into eight federal districts, three of which cover ‘Siberia’ – the Urals Federal District, the Siberian Federal District, and the Urals Federal District.  Because these federal districts are not constituent units of Russia, none of them have a flag of their own.

There are some historical and unofficial flags that could be said to be Siberian flags, though, and through these we can see that they all share a fairly common theme of a white block over a green block, both seen as traditional Siberian colors.  This format for the Siberian flag was started during the Russian Civil War, when short lived states were springing up left, right and centre all over Russia.

Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia Flag

The earliest historical example of a Siberia flag is the Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia flag.  It is reported to have been a white rectangular block immediately over a green rectangular block.  The Provisional Government of Siberia (PGAS) was founded in late January 1918, during the Russian Civil War, and was opposed to the Soviet government, which at the time had a very shaky hold on power in Russia, and later became the Provisional Siberian Government.

Siberian Republic Flag

The next Siberian flag was the Siberian Republic flag – a variation on the same theme which is constructed of a white diagonal block above a green diagonal block.  The Siberian Republic was a short-lived state formed during the Russian Civil War, and which laid claim to all of Siberia, from the Urals to the Pacific Ocean.  The Siberian Republic was very short lived, however – formed in June 1918, it was dissolved in November of that year, when it merged with the Ufa Director, to for the All-Russian Government, also very short lived.

Thanks to the brilliant site Flags of the World for inspiring this article.