Last modified: 2010-03-12 by dov gutterman
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![[Bosnian yugoslav flag of 1946]](../images/b/ba-46.gif)
People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
image by Željko Heimer, 3 January 2010
See also:
Above is the flag of People's Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina in 1946, when was part of Democratic Federative
Yugoslavia.
Velid-aga Jerlagic, 13 April 1998
You can see image of first flag proposal
at wikimedia.
Detailed description of a proposed flag can be read at <unsa.academia.edu>
on page 12.
Aleksandar Nemet, 3 January 2010
I was quite unaware of this "flag", I have never
seen it in any source, and no wander as it was a rather obscure
proposal that was rejected. The wikipedia
page gives the full reference to a local journal of 1946 which
does not help much unless one has access to the national library
in Sarajevo, I guess.
However, the last link above is a serious scientific paper,
written by a young historian from the Faculty of Philosophy of
the Sarajevo University, who together with Tomislav Galovic from
the Zagreb University recently published a valuable bibliography of
heraldic and vexillologic literature in Croatia and B&H:
Tomislav Galovic, Emir O. Filipovic: Prilog bibliografiji radova
o heraldici (s posebnim osvrtomna Hrvatsku i Bosnu i Hercegovinu)
[Contribution to the bibliography of works on heraldry (with
special respect to Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina)], Arhivski
vjesnik, Vol. 51 No. 51, December 2008, pp. 161-226.
The above paper
is titled: Emir O. Filipovic: Grb i zastava Bosne i Hercegovine u
20. stoljecu | The Coat of Arms and the Flag of Bosnia and
Hercegovina in 20th century, Bosna Franciscana, Nr. 28 Vol. XVI,
pp. 103-126.
The entire article is quite interesting and well documented, but
for the time being, I concentrate on the above mentioned
proposal. With the formation of the "new" state within
the federative Yugoslavia the historical symbols of it were to be
ignored as well as the symbols of any of the three ethical
communities living there. The proposed Constitution was published
in Sarajevski dnevnik newspapers, nr. 429, on 15 November 1946 as
"Nacrt Ustava NR BiH". It inculded a proposal for the
coat of arms quite different the eventually adopted (a torch held
by three hand in front of the mountains surrounded with a wreath
of wheat topped with the red star and boud with a ribbon bearing
the date 1-VII-1944 - the day of 2nd session of ZAVNOBiH, when
the statehood of B&H was decided upon). The article 5 of the
proposed constitution described the proposed flag in enough
details to provide quite high fidelity reconstruction (my
translation): "The state flag of the People's Republic of
Bosnia and Herzegovina is composed of three colours: blue, white
and red, in horizontal arrangement. The ratio of width and length
is one to two. In the centre of the flag are set two five-pointed
stars - a red and a golden one, with their rays interchangeably
positioned. The bottom golden star is smaller, with wider angles
and smaller vertexes. Its lower ray enters into 1/3 of the red
stripe, so that the top rays enter adequately into the blue
stripe. The top red fve-pointed star is larger and bordered
golden. Its top ray enters to 1/2 of the blue stripe, so that its
lower rays enter adequately into the red stripe."
The wide public discussion reslted in the overall opinion that
the state flag should be red, as this was the flag adopted by the
liberation movements in the begining and the national tricolours
of Serbs and Croats were "import" of latter period in
the struggle. After a consultation with highest officials in
Belgrade, the public opinion was listened to, with adition of the
Yugoslav tricolour in the canton, as symbol of affiliation to the
Federation. Therefore an amendment to the proposed article was
amde, that was adopted in the end: "The state flag of the
People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina is red. The ratio of
width to length is one to two. In the top corner of the flag next
to the hoist are yellow (golden) edged colours of the state flag
of the FPRY, with the red five-pointed star in the centre,
covering one fourth of the width i.e. length of the flag. The
star has the regular five-pointed shape and is bordered yellow
(golden). The top ray of the star enters to the half of the blue
field, so that the bottom rays enter adequately into the red
field."
This gives us exact wording of the description of the flag and
provides us with technical details - proving that numerous
variants that were to be seen regarding the size and exact
positioning of the Yugoslav tricolour in the red flag are nothing
more then irregular representations. Virtually the same
description of the flag is retained in the 1974 Constitution of
the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as also noted
by Filipovic.
It leaves only a minor detail ambiguous - weather the yellow
outline of the Yugoslav flag in the red flag of B&H was
supposed to edge the tricolour only "inside" towards
the red field, or weather it was supposed to go all around the
tricolour, i.e. also along the outer edges of the flag. I believe
the latter may be true as it appears so in several official
depictions of the flag, even if this was as a rule omitted in the
produced and printed flags.
Željko Heimer, 3 January 2010
![[Bosnian arms in Yugoslavia]](../images/b/ba)46.gif)
image image by Velid-aga Jerlagic, 13 April 1998
This is the coat of arms of the People's Republic of Bosnia
and Herzegovina in 1946.
Velid-aga Jerlagic, 13 April 1998
image by Željko Heimer, 3 January 2010
image by Željko Heimer
image by Željko Heimer
Adopted: 1963 (?).Abandoned: 1990. The leading (and only)
party of the socialist Bosnia and Herzegovina within Yugoslavia
was member of Yugoslav Leage of Communists, and the pattern of
the flag followed - the only sdifference being the small initials
below the star. In theory the flag with inscriptions in any
language of the peoples living in B&H could be used, though
in practice only two were used - in "Serbo-Croatian",
either in latin or cyrillic script.
Željko Heimer
![[Bosnian partisans (1944)]](../images/b/ba-44.gif)
image by Velid-aga Jerlagic
The flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina used by NOV i POJ (People's
Liberation Army and Partisan Units of Yugoslavia) in 1944, when
Yugoslavia was virtually the "Democratic Federative
Yugoslavia".
Velid-aga Jerlagic, 13 April 1998
![[Bosnia in Yugoslavia - variation]](../images/b/ba!47.gif)
image by Velid-aga Jerlagic, 13 April 1998
Proposal for the flag of People's Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina in 1947, but never adopted, even if sometimes seen as
official. It was just a variation on the existing flag. This flag
is printed in Whintey Smith's book "Flags and Arms of the
World", 1979.
Velid-aga Jerlagic, 13 April 1998
image by Josep M. Palau, 2 January 2000
I found this flag for Bosnia in a book, just after they got
their independence. I assume that the image on them is a variant
from the coat of arms. I would like anyone to confirm me if these
flags were correct.
Josep M. Palau, 2 January 2000
I can't say that I have ever seen such flag nor anything even
remotely resembeling it. I would guess, without any further
evidence, that it is a fruitful fancy of the book publisher who
had no info on the new flag at the time. In any case, they were
never official, that is for sure.
(I assume that we are talking about 1990's, and not the 1940's
here - if they are from just after the WWII - wouldn't they
represent some "proposal" that did not catch.
Željko Heimer, 5 January 2000
The plain red field was actually used from 1947 to 1990 in
combination with Yugoslav flag in upper left canton, but this
flag is a combination of the official "socialist" flag
and "the inside" of the CoA... You can recognize the
chimneys and silhouette of Jajce in the background...
IMHO, this flag is just a fantasy of a book publisher, just as
Željko said - I agree with him totally.
Velid-aga Jerlagic, 5 January 2000
If by this comment you want to suggest that these indeed may
be 1946 "proposals" (or even something more then
proposal), I am inclined to write down several more lines why I
am extremly "sceptical" about those.
The coat of arms of People's Republics of Macedonia and B&H
were adopted (as far as I know) at the same time as the well
known socialist flags. As far as I am aware, the COAs were not
"known" before adoption, so, there would be little
possiblity that someone used them as "prototypes" for
flags.
In early post-WWII days, if there was need for flags of the
federal units (they were not yet officially republics then), it
was most usually pure red flag with large red star in the middle
(outlined
gold or white) that was used for B&H, and possibly also for
Macedonia. However, they were, I guess, more considered as
"fill-in" designs and decorations, then real
"state" flags. Also, it would be, I believe, not easy
to demonstrate that such flags were indeed to represent the
federal units in question (they might be considered to represent
the Communist party, for example).
Željko Heimer, 5 January 2000
image by Jaume Olle' and Željko Heimer
The flag of the Olympic Games in Sarajevo '84 is white with
red emblem consisting of olympic rings and four-sided snow-flake.
Flags in other colours were used for ornamental purposes, but
this seems to be official version.
Željko Heimer
Today I photographed the banner
of today's ZOI'84 Olympic Centre Sarajevo. ZOI'84 Olympic Centre
Sarajevo is the legal successor of the Organization Committee of
the XIV Winter Olympic Games with all its sport and leisure
facilities.
It's a orange flag with olympic rings and four-sided snow-flake
Above there is an inscription "ZOI'84 - OCS", and below
there is an inscription "SARAJEVO'84".
Official site of Olympic Centre Sarajevo at <www.zoi84.ba>.
Aleksandar Nemet, 25 June 2009
