Flag of Yugoslavia
The state flag of socialist Yugoslavia: horizontal stripes of blue, white and red with a red five-pointed star edged in gold in the centre. The constitution of 1946 set it, and it lasted until the federation broke up in the 1990s.
Meaning
Article 4 of the 1946 constitution of the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia gives the flag three colours, blue, white and red from the top, each a third of the flag’s width, with a red five-pointed star in the middle; the width is to the length as one to two. The star has a gold (yellow) border. Its centre is where the flag’s diagonals cross, and its top point reaches halfway up the blue. The Archives of Yugoslavia writes that the flag did not change until some of the Yugoslav republics seceded in the 1990s, when the flag kept its colours and lost the star.
Origin and history
The colours are older than the star. On 9/22 December 1918, the Archives of Yugoslavia records, the government of Stojan Protić decided that the state flag of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes would be a tricolour of three equal horizontal fields, blue at the top, white in the middle and red at the bottom; the Vidovdan (St Vitus’s Day) Constitution of 1921 confirmed the colours. After the Second World War the monarchy was abolished, and the constitution of 1946 kept the colours in the same order. The new authorities, the Archives writes, added the red five-pointed star in the centre, the symbol under which they had fought in the war.
Telling it from the Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian flags
The three peoples in the kingdom’s name had flags of their own in the same three colours, in other orders. The Archives of Yugoslavia lists them: the Serbian red, blue and white, the Croatian red, white and blue, and the Slovenian white, blue and red. Only the Yugoslav state flag had blue at the top, and only the flag of 1946 carried the star.
Where you’ll see it
In museums of the period. The Museum of Yugoslavia in Belgrade, formerly the Museum of 25 May or Tito’s museum, opened an exhibition called “Yugoslavia from Beginning to End” on 1 December 2012 as the basis of its permanent display, Radio Free Europe reported. Its curator pointed to one exhibit not shown before: the five-pointed star taken down from the Belgrade City Assembly on 5 October 2000, which Zoran Đinđić handed to the museum.
Where you’ll see it today
whatdoesthissymbolmean.comFlag of SerbiaSerbia’s red, blue and white, one of the three national flags of the kingdom alongside its blue, white and red state flag.Read next
- Next in Historical flagsFlag of East GermanyThe state flag of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany): black, red and gold horizontal stripes with the state emblem, a hammer and a pair of compasses in a wreath of grain, in the centre. A law of 1 October 1959 added the emblem; the flag went out of use at German unification on 3 October 1990.
- The same shape in Andean and Inca symbolsGateway of the Sun (the Staff God)A doorway cut from a single block of andesite at Tiwanaku, near Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, carved above the opening with a god holding a staff in each hand. Who the figure is remains open: Britannica lists a sun god, a thunder god and Viracocha among the readings.
See also
Jolly Roger, Blackbeard’s flag, Calico Jack’s flag, Bartholomew Roberts’s flag, Emanuel Wynne’s flag, Vexillum.
Sources
- Constitution of Yugoslavia (1946), Constitution of the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, 31 January 1946, English translation, Wikisource, Article I, Section 4
- State simbols (Archives of Yugoslavia), YU Lexicon, “State simbols”, text by Dragoš Petrović, The Archives of Yugoslavia, The flag
- “Jugoslavija od početka do kraja” u beogradskom muzeju (Radio Slobodna Evropa, 2012), Branka Mihajlović, Radio Slobodna Evropa, 29 November 2012, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, article text
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from lines, squares and rectangles or stars.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 14, 2026. How we research
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