The Samara Flag

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.
The Samara flag has become a historic relic for Bulgarians. The flag was given the highest military award “For Courage” and is currently treasured in Bulgaria’s National Museum of Military History.