Russia

2011
50 x 50 x 3,6 cm | 28 kg
Fused multilayer glass with inclusion of pigments

It was in 1699 that Tsar Peter I, known as Peter the Great, brought back from one of his trips to Europe the colors
of the national flag chosen on May 7, 1883.
The Dutch banner having seduced him, he simply changed the arrangement of the bands and gave meaning to the colors: white represented the tsar, blue the nobility, red the people. This colorful harmony was at the origin of the so-called “Pan-Slavic” colors used in many flags of Eastern Europe.
Before Peter the Great, Russia's emblem was Saint George slaying the dragon on a red background, or the medieval Russian flags, mainly religious and military. From the 18th to the 20th century, the flag changed several times.
When the Bolsheviks came to power and during the period of the union of Soviet socialist republics, from 1921 to 1991, it was replaced by a red flag with the hammer and sickle and inspired many communist countries, such as China, Korea, Yugoslavia and the GDR.
In 1990 the pan-Slavic colors reappeared, the Russian flag was again hoisted over Parliament on August 22, 1991 and officially adopted by decree on August 25.