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Poland - Historical XX century flags

Last modified: 2004-11-27 by thorsten
Keywords: eagle | crown | ensign | war flag | state flag |
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History of XX century polish flags

To my knowledge, during the Communist era there were three variant flags of Poland: a plain bicolor (used on land), a bicolor with a shield (without a crown, used as a civil and state ensign), and a swallow-tailed bicolor with a shield (again with no crown, used as a naval ensign). In 1990 (or 1991?), the crowns have been added to both ensigns, and the bicolor with the shield has extended its usage also to land, as a state (and probably also war) flag. Jan Zrzavy, 14 August 1997

Since World War 1, Poland has had 3 main flag types (as well as a many specialized flags): the national flag (a plain white-red bicolor - the shade changed in 1928 and 1980), the civil ensign (with shield and eagle), the war flag (ditto, but swallow-tailed). Before and early in World War 2, the eagles were crowned (a redesign of the crown occurred in 1928). When the Russians installed the communist regime, the crowns were removed from all the eagles (arms, flags, military badges, etc.). The exile government in London continued using the crowns until 1990. After the collapse of communism, the crowns were restored, but not all at once: the arms in 1989, the civil ensign in 1990, but he war flag only in 1993. A very thorough treatment of all this (including all the history from medieval times) is in [zna95] (in Polish but with summary and captions in English).
Norman Martin, 16 August 1997

II Republic flag

[II Republic flag] by Dov Gutterman.

Flag of Poland constituted by Polish parliament August 1st, 1919. Flag and ratio (5 : 8) existing today. Since 1921 red colour was claimed as crimson.
Adam Kromer, translated by Peter 'Mikolaj' Mikolajski, 22 Sept 2000

II Republic Ensign (1918-1920)

[II Republic Ensign (1918-1920)] by Adam Kromer, from his website.

This banner has strong influence of Russian banners. It's almost identical to flag of Kingdom of Poland 1815-1930 except St. Andrew's cross which is red, not blue. I think that this flag was used in 1918-1920 only.
Adam Kromer, translated by Peter Mikolajski, 22 Sep 2000

Poland state flag 1920-1927

[Poland state flag 1920-1927] by Adam Kromer, from