The Czechoslovak flag, historic coat of arms of the Czechoslovak lands

by Czechoslovak National Council

THE CZECHOSLOVAK FLAG
HISTORIC COAT OF ARMS OF THE
CZECHOSLOVAK LANDS

ARMS AND FLAG OF THE
CZECHOSLOVAK NATIONAL COUNCIL

THE CZECHOSLOVAK FLAG

 

THE colors of the Czechoslovak flag are white and red, in two stripes, the white above the red. This, the historical flag of Bohemia, has been the flag of the Czech and Slovak revolutions against the Hapsburgs from the very beginning, and was used in the revolution of 1848 both by the Czechs and by the Slovaks. The Slovaks of Hungary have lately been using the so-called “Pan-Slavic” tricolor, which. however, is properly Russian. In the Manifesto of the Slovak Constituent Assembly (Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas May, May, 1848), the right to use the white and red as the national colors of Slovakia was made one of the chief demands.

The white-red flag is consecrated by its use in the Czechoslovak armies in the present revolution. Under this flag Czechs and Slovaks have shed their blood in France, Italy and Russia for the cause of the Allies and for their Independence. Hence the white-red flag is both the national and the battle flag of the Czechoslovaks.

 

FLAG OF THE CZECHOSLOVAK NATIONAL COUNCIL

 

The future Diet of the Czechoslovak State alone can adopt an official flag for the State. During this war the Czechoslovak National Council, the provisional government of the Czechoslovaks, has adopted as its official colors white and red in a blue field. In the center are the initials Č S, the insignia of the Czechoslovak armies in France and Italy. The blue field is taken from the color of the three mountains Tatra, Matra and Fatra on the Slovak coat of arms. Surmounting the staff of the flag are four interlaced rings, symbolic of the four component lands of the Czechoslovak State: Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Slovakia.

 

Czechoslovak National Council

WASHINGTON, D. C.

September, 1918

The Czechoslovak Flag

Kingdom of
Bohemia

Duchy of Silesia

Margravate of
Moravia

Slovakia

Moravia

Silesia

Upper
Lusatia

Lower
Lusatia

Bohemia

Coat of Arms of the Lands of the
Ancient Bohemian Crown.

Upper and Lower Lusatia, formerly part of the Bohemian Crown, have since become incorporated with Germany

Arms and Flag of the
Czechoslovak National Council

 

Bartlett Orr Press, New York