The
Samara flag is one of the most important military symbols of the
Bulgarian ArmyThe Bulgarian Army represents the Armed Forces of the Republic of Bulgaria. The Commander-in-Chief is the President of Bulgaria Georgi Parvanov. The Ministry of Defense is in charge of political leadership while military command remains in the hands of the General Staff, headed by the Chief of Staff...
. Sewed by local nuns and given to the
Bulgarian volunteersOpalchentsi were Bulgarian voluntary army units, who took part in the Serbo-Turkish War of 1876 and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878...
in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 by the citizens of the
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n city of
SamaraSamara is one of the largest cities in Russia. It is situated in the southeastern part of European Russia, the Volga Federal District. Samara is the capital of Samara Oblast. Population: . The metropolitan area of Samara-Togliatti-Syzran within Samara Region constitutes the population of more...
on 18 May 1877, it became famous when it was heroically prevented from being captured by the
OttomanThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
forces in the Battle of Stara Zagora, with many soldiers perishing while protecting it from the enemy.
The flag, a
tricolourA tricolour or tricolor is a flag or banner more-or-less equally divided into three bands of differing colors...
1.85 × 1.90 m in size, was sewed from thin
silkSilk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
cloth and has the
pan-Slavic coloursThe Pan-Slavic colors, red, blue and white, are colors used on the flags of some Slavic peoples and states in which the majority of inhabitants possess a Slavic background. Their use symbolizes the common origin of the Slavic peoples. Originally, it was the flag of the Russian Empire turned upside...
(red, white, blue).
The
Samara flag is one of the most important military symbols of the
Bulgarian ArmyThe Bulgarian Army represents the Armed Forces of the Republic of Bulgaria. The Commander-in-Chief is the President of Bulgaria Georgi Parvanov. The Ministry of Defense is in charge of political leadership while military command remains in the hands of the General Staff, headed by the Chief of Staff...
. Sewed by local nuns and given to the
Bulgarian volunteersOpalchentsi were Bulgarian voluntary army units, who took part in the Serbo-Turkish War of 1876 and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878...
in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 by the citizens of the
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n city of
SamaraSamara is one of the largest cities in Russia. It is situated in the southeastern part of European Russia, the Volga Federal District. Samara is the capital of Samara Oblast. Population: . The metropolitan area of Samara-Togliatti-Syzran within Samara Region constitutes the population of more...
on 18 May 1877, it became famous when it was heroically prevented from being captured by the
OttomanThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
forces in the Battle of Stara Zagora, with many soldiers perishing while protecting it from the enemy.
The flag, a
tricolourA tricolour or tricolor is a flag or banner more-or-less equally divided into three bands of differing colors...
1.85 × 1.90 m in size, was sewed from thin
silkSilk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
cloth and has the
pan-Slavic coloursThe Pan-Slavic colors, red, blue and white, are colors used on the flags of some Slavic peoples and states in which the majority of inhabitants possess a Slavic background. Their use symbolizes the common origin of the Slavic peoples. Originally, it was the flag of the Russian Empire turned upside...
(red, white, blue). Icons of the Holy Mother of God and Cyril and Methodius were drawn on it in a golden cross by the
Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd and Leningrad...
artist Nikolay Simakov. It has a silver point designed by Graf Rochefort. The flag, originally intended for the rebels of the
April UprisingThe April Uprising was an insurrection organised by the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire from April to May 1876, which indirectly resulted in the re-establishment of Bulgaria as an autonomous nation in 1878...
, was handed to the
BulgariansThe Bulgarians are a South Slavic people, generally associated with the Republic of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian language. Emigration has resulted in Bulgarian minorities or immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-Ethnogenesis:...
near
PloieştiPloieşti is the county seat of Prahova County and lies in the historical region of Wallachia, Romania. The city is located north of Bucharest. In 2002, it had a population of 232,527, making it the ninth-largest city in Romania.-History:The town was established in 1596, during the reign of Mihai...
on 18 May, having been transported through
ChişinăuChişinău , is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc. The city is the most economically prosperous locality in Moldova, and its largest transportation hub...
, where it was on 1 May. A delegation from the city of Samara, headed by Efim Kozhevnikov and Pyotr Alabin, handed the Samara flag to the volunteers in a special ceremony, with the flag being nailed using gold nails to its pole. The last nail was nailed by the old voyvoda Tseko Petkov, a leader of a band in the
TroyanTroyan is a town in central Bulgaria with population of about 30,000 and territory of 888,850 m². It is located 160km from Sofia. The nearest civilian airport is Gorna Oryahovitsa, 105 km away...
part of the
Balkan MountainsThe Balkan mountain range is a mountain range in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The Balkan range runs 560 km from the Vrashka Chuka Peak on the border between Bulgaria and eastern Serbia eastward through central Bulgaria to Cape Emine on the Black Sea. The highest peaks of the Stara...
for 30 years, who, with his fur cap taken off and with his eyes fixed at the sky, exclaimed:
His words were followed by a storm of cheers and a cap toss.
The flag, entrusted to the third battalion of the Bulgarian volunteer corps, was part of the battles at
Stara ZagoraStara Zagora is the sixth largest city in Bulgaria, and one of the nationally important economic centres. Stara Zagora is known as the city of straight streets, linden trees, and poets. According to the city's chamber of commerce, it is one of the oldest settlements in Europe, being at least eight...
and
Nova ZagoraNova Zagora is a town with a population of approximately 26,000 people in the city, and approximately 48,000 in the entire municipality . It is located in the southeastern plains of Bulgaria....
, where a number of colour-bearers perished protecting it (including Lieutenant-Colonel Pavel Kalitin), as well as the Battles of Shipka Pass and Sheynovo.
The Samara flag, initially kept in
RadomirRadomir is a town in the Pernik Province of Bulgaria with a population of about 16,503. It is located at .- History :The town was first mentioned in a 15th-century source as Uradmur. The current form appears for the first time in a source from 1488...
from where its last bearer Pavel Korchev descended, was housed in the royal palace in
SofiaSofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city by population in the European Union, with 1.4 million people living in the Capital Municipality...
(now the
National Art GalleryThe National Art Gallery is Bulgaria's national gallery and houses over 50,000 pieces of Bulgarian art...
) between 1881 and 1946, when it was transferred to the National Museum of Military History (NMMH). It has remained there ever since, preserved in a chamber under special conditions.
Two copies of the flag were made in 1958, one of which was sent to the Central Military Museum in Russia. Another two were made afterwards, one of which in 1978 in the NMMH restoration workshop by Mihail Maletski. The nuns of the Russian-founded Knyazhevo Nunnery of the Shroud of the Most Holy Mother of God gave the NMMH another precise copy made by them in 2006.
The Samara flag is the only flag awarded the Bulgarian Medal for Bravery, the medal being implanted in its pole's richly decorated point. The flag has been portrayed numerous times by noted artists, the most famous paintings featuring it being arguably
The Samara Flag by Jaroslav Věšín from 1911 and
Handing of the Samara Flag to the Bulgarian Volunteer Corps in Ploieşti by Nikolay Dmitriev-Orenburgsky. The contemporary flag of Russia's
Samara OblastSamara Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the Volga Federal District. The administrative center is the city of Samara...
(image) was based on the Samara flag when it was adopted in 1998.
The Flag Monument of Stara Zagora is a concrete replica of the Samara flag and commemorates the deaths of Bulgarian soldiers in the Russo-Turkısh War of 1877-78.