Georgia

The 5 Cross Flag

საქართველოს სახელმწიფო დროშა

Georgia brought back a historic flag as the national flag in 2004, after a gap of over 400 years. The first time a red cross on white flag was used by the Georgian King, Vakhtang Gorgasali in the 5th century. Then, during the "Golden Age," 4 small red crosses where added into each of the flags cantons. According to one scholar, Giorgi Gabeskiria, They where added during the reign of George V. The addition of the smaller crosses was similar to the Jerusalem Cross, designed to represent the 5 wounds of Jesus Christ. 

This flag then fell out of use during the Medieval ages, and with the collapse of the Russian Empire, Georgia found itself able to declare independence, and a competition was undertaken to find a new flag. The winner was Jacob Nikoladze, and he created a new wine-red banner for the new nation. In the upper canton, 2 small bars of black and white. The red represents the good times of the past and the future, the black represents Russian rule, and white represents peace.

From 1918 to 1920, Georgia was under British protection. However, in 1921 the protection ended, and the Soviet Union marched back in, overthrowing the Georgian government, and establishing Soviet rule once more. The first flag of the Georgian SSR was plain red, with the initials for the Georgian SSR in gold in the upper hoist canton, written in Georgian script. 

The final flag saw a red banner, with the hammer and sickle in the upper hoist canton. Round the hammer and sickle where blue and red rays, and a thin blue line extends from the hammer and sickle across the top of the flag.

Finally, upon independence from the Soviet Union in 1990, the wine-red banner was re-adopted. This time, its dimensions being altered from the previous 1:2 to 3:5.

However, in 2004, the United National Movement led by Mikhail Saakashvili adopted the earlier 5 cross flag as its symbol. With Saakashvili finally elected as president, he signed a dgree in 2004 adopting the 5 cross flag as the new flag for the nation. It was not without controversy as many where uncomfortable with the adoption of a party's emblem as the national flag!