​Back in 1668, during the reign of Alexis Romanov, the white-blue-red banner was raised on the "Eagle", the first Russian ship. Historical accounts have not kept for us anything but the flag's color, so the researchers have since come up with several possible patterns and juxtapositions of stripes that could be used for it.

In 1693, the tricolor, already with horizontal stripes, became the personal banner of Peter the Great. Since 1705, this flag would also be raised "on all kinds of merchant ships."

Since the 18th century, this flag would also be the tell-tale sign of the oversea territories belonging to the Russian Empire – for example, it was used by Russian sea expeditions and colonists in America.

Since 1883, the white-blue-red flag was used on par with the black-yellow-white banner (and, by decree of Alexander III, had to be hanged on buildings on solemn occasions for decorative purposes), and since 1896 it has become the official flag of the Russian Empire. "White-blue-red, and no other"!

In 1991, "a rectangular panel with three equal horizontal stripes: the white top stripe, the azure middle one and the scarlet bottom one" was officially adopted by the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR.

It was in this form, that the flag remained after the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic transformed into the Russian Federation. It was only the official wording that was changed in the official documents (the "azure" was replaced with "blue", and the "scarlet" with "red"), and the ratio of the flag's width to its length became 2:3.