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Novgorod Region (Russia)

Novgorodskaya oblasth

Новгородская область

image by Jens Pattke, 21 Dec 2007

Presentation of Novgorod Region
About flag
Previous unoffical flag
Standard of the Governor
Coat of arms
Historical flags
Velikiy Novgorod city flag

See also:

Presentation of Novgorod Region

(Note: You need an Unicode-aware software and font to correctely view the cyrillic text on this page. See here transliteration details).

Name (english): Novgorod Region • (russian): Новгородская область | Novgorodskaâ oblasth
Capital (russian): Великий Новгород | Velikiĭ Novgorod • (english): Velikiy Novgorod • (former name): Novgorod | Новгород (< 199X)
Area: 55 300 km² (≅21 300 sq.mi.) • Population: 720 900 inhabitants in 2000
Status: Region (область | oblasth) within the Russian Federation
Federal District: Northwestern Region • Economic region: Northwestern Region
License plate code: 53 • Ham radio code: NV • ISO 3166-2 code: NGR
Flag adopted on 19 December 2007 • Coat of arms adopted on unkn. date

I’d like to once again stress the point that Novgorod and Niẑniĭ Novgorod are two completely different cities, both regional capitals. Novgorod was recently renamed Velikiĭ Novgorod; and Niẑniĭ Novgorod was named Gorhkiĭ | Горький (a.k.a. Gorky) from 1932 to approx. 1992.
António Martins, 21 Feb 1999

"Niẑni | Нижний" means "Lower", "Veliki | Велики" means "Great".
Gvido Pētersons, 22 Feb 1999

About the flag

On December, 19 2007 at the last session the Novgorod Regional Parliament (Duma) has accepted the regional law " About a flag of the Novgorod Region".
Sources:

http://www.velikiynovgorod.ru/news/20-12-2007.htm?15301 (in Russian, with image)
http://www.regnum.ru/news/934570.html (in Russian)

Jens Pattke, 21 Dec 2007

Previous unofficial flag

image by Pascal Gross, 31 May 1999

I have received information from Mr. Kopyl about flag of Novgorod oblast (regional) government. Novgorod oblast have not official flag. The Novgorod oblast have arms only. But you can use the flag with white-blue-white stripes with coat of arms at the center, as informal flag of Novgorod oblast.
Anatoly Nikiforov, by way of Pascal Gross, 31 May 1999

Standard of the Governor

At the end of 90 acceptance of standart the governor was extended. Such standarts were accepted in the Novgorod area.
Sergey Filatov, 10 Oct 2005

Most of these flags are squarish (about 11:12), rigid and fringed variants of the region (Governors) or Republic (Presidents) flags with the regional emblem over all.
António Martins, 02 Oct 2005

Coat of arms

Argent a throne with three candles on chief and a sceptre and episcopal cross in saltire all proper, dexter and sinister two bears respectant sable, on a base azure two fish naiant respectant argent.
Santiago Dotor, 04 Dec 1998

Historical flags

16th cent. military flag

image by António Martins, 15 Nov 1999

At the Novgorod city history museum I did saw a battle flag carried in the wars against Sweden in the early 1600’ies: It was a square canvas banner with a saltire and border, no fringe, and over all a much smaller red saltire. This latter element might have been added later, since it was rather coarsely stiched (while the other stich lines were impeccable) and it’s color wasn’t faded out. The saltire and the border seemed to have the same color, while the backgrond (four triangles) were of a second color: I reconstructed them as white and blue, but in the actual flag they are faded to two shades of very whitish brown. The explanation text wasn’t conclusive about all this.
António Martins, 15 Nov 1999

Historical flag of Novgorod

image by António Martins, 28 Feb 1999

The historical flag of Novgorod is blue triangle with yellow vertical stripe in the hoist. Then the colors of Novgorod are historically yellow and blue, but in the current flag is white-blue-white.
Jaume Ollé, 07 Nov 1997

I was in the city history museum and I saw no evidence about this flag.
António Martins, 15 Nov 1999

Vyelikiy Novgorod city
(Velikiĭ Novgorod | Великий Новгород, a county-status city)

image by Pascal Gross and António Martins, 10 Nov 2000

It is horizontaly white-blue-white, with the coat of arms.
Jordi Pérez, 05 Nov 1997

The flag of Great Novgorod city was officially authorized by Decision of the Chapter of Administration of city of Novgorod from 14.04.1994 N 57 About the flag of Novgorod city. The author is architect Yuri Matvienko. Official symbolism:

White: symbol of cleanliness, colour of walls of the Novgorod orthodox temples;
Azur (light-blue): symbol of the River of Volkhov, on which coast was based and there is the city;
Red: fragment of a wall of Novgorod Kremlin

Michail Revnivtsev, 21 Feb 2002

This flag uses in the central stripe and on the coat of arms the same shade of (medium) blue used on the russian national flag (and not light blue) and the three stripes are of equal width (and not “spanish style”). The embattlements of the mural crown are "M" shaped and red (maybe with something yellow on them in some variations), simulating the looks of the local kremlh (citadel) walls. Please note the way the white field of the coat of arms fits on the central blue stripe.
António Martins, 15 Nov 1999

It looks like this coat of arms has lost the imperial crown, ribbon of the Order of St.Andrew and oak leaves wreath and has incorporated two more fish.
Santiago Dotor, 17 Dec 1998

The city flag is moderately used — I saw it in two locations on the city, flown along with the russian flag (but it seemed to me that it was more decoration of turistic spots rather than ofiicial facilities), and also in tabletop small size, in the receptions of two hotels.
António Martins, 15 Nov 1999

Other sites:

Page showing the City flag of Novgorod
reported by Dov Gutterman, 28 Jan 2002