Culture

Cross Or Stripes? What A Flag Can Tell About A Country’s Place In Europe

How the Estonian and Finnish flags tell a story full of symbolism about the nations' place in Europe

Throughout the centuries, Finland and Estonia have been at the junction between the West and the East, between Sweden and Russia. Accordingly, as Finland and Estonia chose their flags at the turn of the 20th century, the choice between a cross and stripes was full of symbolism about their nations’ place in Europe. Finland has settled on a cross, while in Estonia, despite the country seemingly settling on a striped design, the debate is still not entirely over today.

The Finnish flag: A brief history

“Swedes we are not, Russians we do not want to become, let us therefore be Finns”, said the Finnish writer J.V. Snellman in 1861.

While the yellow lion on a red background – as seen in the coat of arms – has been a symbol of Finland for centuries, the now-emblematic blue cross on a white background is a relatively new invention. The Finnish flag is effectively a compromise reflecting the political fault lines of 19th-century Finland, then an autonomous part of the Russian Empire.

Red and yellow were favoured by Swedish speakers and those who took a hard stance against Russian influence. In turn, blue and white symbolised an accommodating stance towards the tsar, given that these were the colours of the Russian navy. As for shapes, the cross would tie Finland with Sweden and the West, while two horizontal stripes were a distinctive design somewhat reminiscent of the Russian tricolour – itself inspired by the Dutch flag.

In the end, a combination of a Scandinavian cross and Russian-friendly colours was selected. After the Russian revolution and the Finnish Civil War of 1918, fought between the Reds and the victorious Whites, the red colour had taken on new, negative meanings. To this day, the unofficial flag of Finland’s Swedish-speaking minority is a yellow cross on a red background.

Flag of the Swedish speakers in Finland

Estonia: a cross as an alternative to the tricolour?

Like Finland, Estonia once was a part of the Swedish Kingdom until it was conquered by Russia and finally declared independence after the Bolshevik revolution. Though cross designs were proposed at the time, in the end Estonia decided in favour of three stripes. From World War II onwards, the decades-long Soviet occupation and the suppression of Estonian national symbols would strengthen Estonians’ emotional ties to the national flag.

At the same time, critics have pointed out that the tricolour design masks Estonia’s cultural, historical and linguistic connections to Finland and other Nordic countries, unfairly branding Estonia as an ‘Eastern European country’ with the negative mental images the status entails.

Replacing the tricolour entirely is out of question, but proponents of the cross design would envisage it as an alternative flag to be used in contexts such as marketing. Supporters of a cross shape include the former President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, also known for his bowties.

The idea for a cross flag resurfaced at the turn of the millennium, and again more recently as activists founded a website for ordering an alternative Estonian flag. The site is called “Estland.org” – besides the flag, the country’s avid Nordicists believe that finishing the country’s English name with -land, as in Iceland or Finland, would be better PR than ending it with -nia, as in Romania or Lithuania.

To design a flag is to brand a nation

The purpose of all national flags is to symbolise the values the state upholds, and often to position the country in a geopolitical bloc. A red-gold-green combination means Africa, a combination of red and yellow connotes communism, while a red-white-blue flag reminds you of the West.

We might not all know what each colour or element in our flags is meant to stand for, but a flag is not mere decoration – it’s a strategic choice. No wonder, then, that a revolution is often accompanied by a brand new national flag.

Guest article by Juuso Järviniemi. This content does not necessarily reflect the official opinion of My Country? Europe. Responsibility for the information and views expressed therein lies entirely with the author.

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This article was written by a guest. The content does not necessarily reflect the official opinion of My Country? Europe. Responsibility for the information and views expressed therein lies entirely with the author.

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