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From this video which appears genuine:

enter image description here enter image description here

I'm miffed at why the Russian soldiers are flying the flag of the USSR. And why would the Russian Ministry of Defense advertise this?

A little more search finds additional images, from other sources

enter image description here

Also, commentary like:

A Soviet flag was even spotted on an armoured vehicle in a video from the Russian Ministry of Defence and broadcast on their television channel Zvezda, identified by the red star logo in the top right of the video.

James K
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the gods from engineering
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  • The flag is way too colorful, way too red to be real under the war conditions. A real flag in this dust gets dirty pretty quickly. The video was definitely changed a posteriori. Most likely, a fake. –  Sep 28 '22 at 23:04

3 Answers3

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I see it as antagonistic by local vehicle crews, particularly those who look up to the myth of the old Soviet Empire.

Bit like you might see in other countries where they might fly the old flags of past era (Confederate flag comes to mind, but only because I can't think of others off the top of my head).

As other might say it is a morale booster.

Nothing more than that and given Russia's official voice (Russian Embassy on Twitter until very recently for example) I would think that they see it as not a negative to promote it.

The red flag on the tank was seen on February 25 in the push towards Kherson, and has been repeated many times.

And the other vehicles (APCs and trucks) flying it are from around 3-4 days ago.

Considering how hard the propaganda machine at home on Russian soil is working, a flying Soviet flag is like flipping the bird at the rest of the (sanction-flinging) world.

Also, ever since the Soviet Union collapse I see the old Soviet flag on a fairly frequent basis, usually with old timers who have good memories (or old Soviet patriots) and with new young Russians too. It reminds me of the campaign to bring back the old Soviet anthem, and the old flag was never far behind...

So, tbh, its nothing new and I was expecting it..

(See other tank formations flying Orthodox flags, and of course the Novorossiya/New Russia confederation battle flags too)

Additional side note, related to the above:

enter image description here

Following Putin's statement in an interview in 2014 that the territories of Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odessa were part of what was called Novorossiya (New Russia), self-proclaimed DPR and LPR proclaimed the confederation of Novorossiya and their desire to enlarge this across southern Ukraine.

The above image appeared in 2015 during DPR and LPR exercises.

Maybe there needs to be more context given to the source of the Russian Defense video. What if they are not Russian troops but rather DPR/LPR troops instead. many would lump them together but I think the differences are important.

Additional:

Given that it seems (without confirming) that much of the footage is of only a few vehicles and seems to be all from the south of Ukraine (for example the tank at Kherson dominates a lot of the reports) it is likely that the footage is of DPR / LPR forces or at least Russian sympathizers / supporters of them (more likely) - the Soviet flag has been seen most often in these parts:

Donbass and Donetsk:

enter image description here enter image description hereenter image description here

Not sure if this is a great source but should show the romanticism for past Soviet days in these southern regions:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pro-russian-protestors-in-ukraine-dream-of-soviet-glory-days

For many of the people here the Berlin Wall never came down, or at least it shouldn’t have done. .. At pro-Russian demonstrations ... in different cities the modern day Russian flag, while popular, always takes a clear second place to the flags of the USSR and of the Russian Empire before it. The yearning for a vague idea of “glory” that will come with being part of a greater Russian “whole” runs through everything.

https://www.ft.com/content/1425647c-297f-11e6-8ba3-cdd781d02d89

Brandishing a chest pin of Joseph Stalin, Eduard Basurin, deputy defence minister for the local pro-Russian militants, defends the former Soviet leader for raising the “USSR to a level when it was respected in the entire world”

Glorfindel
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blobbymcblobby
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    Yeah, I was thinking of exactly the Confederate flag, at least until the US Army would have the good sense to tell them to take it down. This flag is probably not all that well received by Ukrainians at all. But it's probably good for a certain segment of the Russian population. – Italian Philosophers 4 Monica Mar 11 '22 at 19:19
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    I agree, the US Army would know that it would be seen as insensitive and 'bad taste', by comparison I think the Russians have very little regard for sensitivity, especially at this stage in the invasion and given current politics - and given its probably limited to individual vehicle crew behavior they probably care even less. – blobbymcblobby Mar 11 '22 at 19:42
  • Yes, but that leaves aside why on earth Russian TV would choose to show it. – Italian Philosophers 4 Monica Mar 11 '22 at 19:46
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    The Confederates lost the war, tarnishing the flag a bit, and they were pro-slavery, tarnishing it worse. The Soviet battle flag on the other hand is easily associated with their victory over the Nazi Germany - it's certainly likely to help the troop morale. – Therac Mar 11 '22 at 20:38
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    @ZOMVID-21 You may want to read up Holodomor to see why Ukrainians may not view the USSR as much better than the Confederacy. Generally, no one did very well under the USSR, and that includes the Russians themselves. The only "good thing" they got out of it was respect and fear. The gradual rehabilitation of Stalin has been a distressing exercise in political duplicity and manipulation to watch. Remember that no Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact might very well have meant a very different WW2 or its absence. – Italian Philosophers 4 Monica Mar 11 '22 at 20:40
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    Do we have access to the original source along with article, commentary, etc that goes with it? Because without that we're on the backfoot guessing here. As a minor ex press peep, i would have shot it regardless because it stands out. I might've interviewed the crew for their reasons too.. – blobbymcblobby Mar 11 '22 at 20:43
  • If you look at the Belarus 1945 commemorations, they often fly the soviet flag as part of the victory celebration over nazi Germany - do we know the origin of the units? This special operation is to de nazify ukraine afterall... (Just a guess) – blobbymcblobby Mar 11 '22 at 20:48
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    @ItalianPhilosophers4Monica Aren't flags and insignia supposed to make their bearers feel good, not their opponents? – Therac Mar 11 '22 at 21:39
  • After a little bit I have noticed that if you see a flag of New Russia (the one that looks like a Confederate flag) you do see a Soviet flag somewhere nearby. Given the origins of New Russia, the older flag nearby is unsurprising. Perhaps the OP's source video, although shown on Russian outlets, is showing not so much Russian units but rather 'New Russia' confederation units instead.. – blobbymcblobby Mar 11 '22 at 21:54
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    @ItalianPhilosophers4Monica completely ahistorical nonsense. There was plenty to be lost from the dissolution of the USSR, as can be seen by the cratering of life expectancy in the post-soviet states. The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was only signed after the soviets tried and failed to find western allies against the nazis. War between them was inevitable as even Stalin knew despite all his intelligence failures and self-destructive purges, his goal was delaying it long enough to build up and modernise the red army – llama Mar 13 '22 at 20:18
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    @llama nice rewriting of history. How was Germany going to get to the USSR with Poland physically in the way? It had to attack Poland first and Poland had a defense pact with the Allies. Whatever else issues you may have with my post, justifying Molotov Ribbentrop is vile. As far as how the West, or rather, didn't help Russia post-1991, yes, we are reaping some of our shortsightedness and arrogance in not extending a helping hand, like was done with the Marshal Plan. – Italian Philosophers 4 Monica Mar 13 '22 at 20:24
  • FWIW I asked a question on what would have happened without that pact, because I have always been very curious about that - those 2 were odd bedfellows. Answers are nowhere as clearcut as you claim. – Italian Philosophers 4 Monica Mar 13 '22 at 20:42
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    @ItalianPhilosophers4Monica Rewriting? You're the one coming up with meaningless hypotheticals. The British & French refused to ally with the USSR because they saw them and communism as a greater threat than Germany and fascism. If they had done so they might have averted or at least shortened the war and potentially avoided the holocaust, if we're coming up with hypotheticals. As the accepted answer to your linked question says, Hitler was planning the invasion of Poland before even signing the pact. – llama Mar 13 '22 at 23:50
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    @ItalianPhilosophers4Monica and I'm not justifying the pact, I'm explaining why it happened. Obviously it shouldn't have, but the primary motive was delaying the inevitable war (though of course Stalin would take any land grab he could manage). You should read Glantz' When Titans Clashed if you haven't, unlike me he's far from a communist sympathiser but makes similar statements. – llama Mar 13 '22 at 23:54
  • The original post shows at least 2 separate vehicles flying the red banner, not one. One of them is a BMP and the other a main battle tank. – jwenting Mar 14 '22 at 09:47
  • @jwenting yes, that's right, and I have seen another totally different tank with a soviet flag on it too, also down in Kherson iirc. There's a few others running around with them too. – blobbymcblobby Mar 14 '22 at 09:54
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I don't think this is a frequent occurrence, but I've seen it in the footage once or twice.

Psychologically, it should work in the following fashion:

  • People who are loyal to Ukrainian state will likely be enraged by the Soviet flag, since a part of Ukrainian historiography is Soviet-blaming (well-deserved or not, a different question). But they are already enraged by the invasion so no damage here.
  • People who are not loyal to Ukrainian state / Russia sympathizers would likely also view the Soviet flag positively, since in the Soviet time there were no border between them and their Russian sympathy. So their spirits may be uplifted somehow.

So the display of the flag seems to be a small net morale booster.

They could also display the Imperial Standard flag (black/yellow/white) to roughly the same effect, which is paradoxal since its symbolic meaning in Russia is the opposite of that of Soviet flag.

alamar
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  • since in the Soviet time there were no border between them Hum, I seem to recall that back then any soviet citizen needed a lot of special authorisations and paperwork to be allowed to travel, even within their own country. – Bregalad Mar 11 '22 at 22:46
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    @Bregalad you must be confusing it with Albania or North Korea. In the USSR you needed paperwork if you wanted to move somewhere else and have a job there, but domestic travel was not restricted. Just get your hands on a ticket (not always as trivial) and you're good to go. – alamar Mar 11 '22 at 22:51
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    Possibly I don't know. This probably elvolved between the ~70 years of existance of the USSR, the Stalin years being most probably the most repressive, and the last years of Gorbachev probably the least. – Bregalad Mar 11 '22 at 22:56
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    Of course I'm talking about the post-1953 Soviet Union. – alamar Mar 11 '22 at 23:00
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    @alamar pre-1953 it was also not difficult to catch a train to a far-flung corner of the union. At least a one-way ticket to a surprise destination. –  Mar 12 '22 at 18:40
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While in the West this flag is only seen as a flag of USSR, in postsoviet countries, specially Russia this flag is more often called the flag of victory or Victory Banner.

Some opinion from Russia about fliing Victory Banner. Also an other article from Russia is tallking about Victory Banner.

And an other russian source tallking about the flag as Victory Banner. Here the translation of the article as it is:

The Banner of Victory was raised over the liberated Kherson

Residents of Kherson and the Kherson region of Ukraine waited for a peaceful life. Now this area is under the complete control of the Russian military, who are helping citizens return to their normal lives.

Head of News Front Konstantin Knyrik and a representative of Kherson raised the Banner of Victory over the liberated city.

“I am very proud that we managed to install the Banner of Victory today. Especially at a time when nationalists, fascist scum today in Kharkov demolished the monument to Marshal Georgy Zhukov, it is especially pleasant for me that we managed to do this on the banks of the Dnieper. My grandfather is a front-line soldier, and was buried in the Dnepropetrovsk region, and I really want to go to his grave, and I am sure that I will get there. It is especially symbolic, as for a Crimean, that this was done with a resident of Kherson,” Konstantin Knyrik said.

According to a resident of Kherson and the head of News Front, the Kherson region and Crimea remain one, and on May 9 there will be a Victory parade under the Banner of Victory with St. George ribbons.

From this article you can see how people from Russia or suporting Russia see this flag. Also it shows that Russian troops belive, they are liberating Ukraine from nazies the same way they were doing in Germany 1945.

And there is an official statement by Kremlin:

The Kremlin called the Victory Banner a sacred shrine for Russians

The Banner of Victory is a shrine for all generations of Russians, which has a sacred meaning. This was stated in an interview with reporters by the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the use of the red flag by Russian military personnel during a special operation in Ukraine.

“In our country, for all generations without exception, the Banner of Victory is a sacred thing. For many generations in many countries, especially the former Soviet Union, it is also a sacred thing that has a special meaning and literally sacred meaning,” the Kremlin spokesman said.

At the same time, Peskov noted that he had no information about the use of the imperial flag by the Russian military in Ukraine.

convert
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    The victory banner has some extra inscriptions. I don't exclude the plain USSR flag may have been used as a substitute though. – the gods from engineering Apr 08 '22 at 18:07
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    @Fizz There are more then 1 such banner: https://www.rbth.com/history/330867-soviet-victory-banner-reichstag-photo – convert Apr 08 '22 at 18:12
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    Not officially. Although the Victory Banner (the one with inscriptions) has been adopted as quasi-official by some Moscow-backed self-declared republics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Banner_(Soviet_Union)#Donetsk_and_Luhansk_People's_Republics – the gods from engineering Apr 08 '22 at 18:16
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    For the one downvoting, I just quoted an article, it is not my opinion. The question is Why would Russian troops in Ukraine fly the flag of the USSR? And why would the Russian MoD advertise this? This article explain the motivation of that Russian troops, shure the majority here, specially the downvoter, disagre with that motivation, but that don´t change the answer. – convert Apr 18 '22 at 11:08