The Finnish flag

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs marks the 90th anniversary year of its establishment in 2008. During the jubilee year, the Ministry will present its history and treasures from its archives, among others in a series of articles. In this series Ministry has earlier published the articles:

• "Establishment of a mission and appointment of an envoy"
• "Åland - To Finland or to Sweden?"
• "Negotiating solo - Councillor of State Edvard Hjelt and Finland's first treaty with a foreign State"
• "Vying foreign services"
• "New Year’s Eve at Smolna, St Petersburg – Recognition of Finland’s independence on 31 December 1917"
• "The Declaration of Independence: 'Among free and independent nations"
• "Finland's independence is recognised by European states - vivat, floreat,crescat"

All the articles can be read on the website MFA 90.

Jussi Pekkarinen: The Finnish flag

Finland's state flag 1918

A flag is one of the symbols of an independent state. The Finnish Senate appointed a flag committee on 4 December 1917 to rapidly prepare a proposal for a national flag and a state flag. Two days later, Finland declared its independence and as soon as on 8 December the flag committee was ready to present its proposal. The matter was discussed in the Senate and the proposal was submitted to Parliament on 5 January 1918.

According to the proposal, the Finnish flag would have been ”of red material in a carmine-vermilion shade, featuring in the middle the lion of the Finnish coat of arms in golden and white, facing towards the flagpole”.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament managed to deal with the matter briefly in January 1918 prior to the eruption of the Civil War. The Foreign Affairs Committee was of the opinion that the national colours of the flag should have been changed into blue and white. When Parliament convened again after the Civil War in May 1918, the red colour was ruled out and the blue-and-white combination carried the day.

Three-pointed state flag 1918 (the Finnish Defence Forces use the three-pointed state flag)

The flag question had to be solved promptly by Parliament because foreign states' representatives wanted to inform their Foreign Ministries about the flag of the new state and therefore urged Finland to give a speedy answer. Accordingly, Parliament laid down an act on the Finnish flag on 29 May 1918. Section 1 of the act states that ”Finland's state flag is made of cloth and rectangular in shape with a sea-blue (ultra-marine) cross against a white background. The cross divides the flag into four rectangular fields of equal height. The coat of arms of Finland is inset in the square formed by the intersecting arms of the cross.”

Many foreign missions contacted the Ministry for Foreign Affairs after the law had been enacted, asking for exact models of the flag. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs got into a difficult situation because there were no models. For its part, it pressed the government seal committee, which replied that as soon as it had received the assignment, it had taken action in order to produce the official Finnish flags. However, its work had been hampered by the fact that the act on the Finnish flag did not specify the colours of the flag and the seal committee had had to start by establishing the precise colours of flag.

Finland's state flag as from 1920

As soon as the seal committee had almost completed its work in early 1920, it faced another ”backlash”. At this point, the Government decided to remove the crown from the head of the lion on the coat of arms. In summer 1918, a crown had seemed to be appropriate, because Finland was meant to be a kingdom but since in a republic, the crown did not appear befitting. This brought about changes also in the official flag of the state, but the removal of the crown was not possible in no time. The place of the coat of arms in the flag had to be raised for reasons of symmetry. Therefore the Ministry for Foreign Affairs was not able to deliver the official models of the Finnish flag to foreign missions until at the turn of 1920-21.

Text: Mr. Jussi Pekkarinen, Researcher, Ministry for Foreign Affairs