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The history of the flag is connected with the heroic struggle of Slavic peoples against Osman yoke in the Balkans. In the summer of 1875 an anti-Turkish rebellion broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in April of the next year Bulgaria followed suit, and two months later Serbia and Montenegro started the war with Turkey. These events received a live response in orthodox Russia. Thousands of Russian volunteers went to the Balkans to support the Slavs in their fight for independence.
The members of the Samara Duma came up with an idea to create a flag in order to present it to the Slavs fighting against Turks. A prominent public leader, member of the Duma, Pyotr Vladimirovich Alabin and his wife Varvara Vasilyevna took an active part in that. The artist Nickolai Efstafyevich Simakov made the sketch of an extraordinary gift. On one side of the red, white and blue canvas on a black cross, decorated with golden ornament, he showed the first Slavic teachers Kiril and Mephody.
On the other side, he showed the icon of the Iverskaya God Mother, which gave the name to the nunnery later founded in Samara. It were the nuns who for free embroidered the flag.
It is considered that the flag was for the Bulgarian rebels. But by the time it was ready, the Turks had suppressed the rebellion. In April 1877, Russia declared war to Turkey. Volunteers started to form units and the Duma members decided to pass the flag on to the Bulgarian troops.
On May 1(13) the flag was in Kishinyov and on May 6 (18) it was handed over to the third unit of the Bulgarian militia somewhere close to Ploeshti. On July 19 (31), 1887, the flag was “baptized” in a tough fight near the Bulgarian city Stara Zagora. Several flag-holders got killed in that fight. Among them was the Commander of the unit lieutenant – colonel P.P. Kalitin. But nonetheless the militiamen defended the sacred flag.
The Samara flag has become a historic relic for Bulgarians. The flag was given the highest military award “For Courage”.
On September 22, 1981, Bulgarians presented the exact copy of the flag to our city. Today it is in the Museum of the History of the Privolzhsky Military District.
The Samara flag made Samara famous far beyond Russia. Scientific works and fiction, postal stamps and table medals are devoted to the legendary gift of Samara.
On December 30, 1998, the Duma endorsed the Regulation “On the City’s Flag”. The colors of the Samara flag were taken from the old flag and the Samara arms are placed in its center, and above it, on the blue stripe it has “Samara” written with golden letters.
The colors of the oblast flag are preserved as a historic relic of Samara, Russia and Bulgaria.
The Samara Oblast Arms are put on the red, white and blue flag and it makes the Samara flag unique.
In Russia the white color symbolizes generosity and frankness; blue – loyalty, honesty, faultlessness, wisdom; red – courage, magnanimity, love.
The Russian tradition may have the following interpretation as well: red color is associated with Russian people, blue – with the Ukrainians, and white – with the Belo Russians. So, the use of these three colors has a long history in Slavic states, mean the sacred union of the Slavs with a unique cultural heritage of each nation.
After a substantial decision of the flag project, it was decided that the Samara Oblast flag is a rectangular red-white-blue canvas, 2:3 size, with the arms in the center.
