Historians: Narva flag should be given back its true colors
Historians believe politicians have arbitrarily altered the colors of Narva's flag over time, and to restore historical continuity, the flag's original hues should be reinstated. However, this change would make Narva's flag even more similar to Ukraine's.
The main difference between the flags of Narva and Ukraine lies in the placement of their colors. On Narva's flag, the blue stripe is at the bottom, while on Ukraine's flag, it is at the top. However, this distinction is often overlooked, and even Narva residents occasionally fall into the trap of confusing the blue-and-yellow color combination.
"In the spring, our housekeeper accidentally hung the flag upside down, so it flew for about a week as if it were Ukraine's flag," recalled Rene Abramson, an employee at Narva Estonian High School.
Narva received its official colors, blue and yellow, in the 16th century from the Swedish king, but the flag itself wasn't created until the 1930s. The first Narva flag survived World War II and the subsequent occupation and is now preserved in the Narva Museum. However, when the historical flag was presented for approval to the city council after Estonia regained independence, it became evident that the blue color had faded to a greenish hue over 60 years. This also brought the issue of similarity to Ukraine's flag to the forefront.
"Before the war, the blue shade on the flag was closer to sky blue or cornflower blue. What we see now is more of a greenish-blue. One of the arguments for changing the color tone was that the original was too similar to Ukraine's flag. It was likely for this reason that a greenish-blue was adopted," said Zurab Jänes, chief curator of the Narva Museum.
Jänes believes that the sky-blue shade should be restored to Narva's flag.
"To emphasize historical continuity. Changing the flag's color, in my opinion, reflects poor memory politics to some extent. We should bring back the original historical blue," Jänes said.
Abramson, however, expressed caution: "If the tragedy in Ukraine were not happening, this could be done. But at present, it would feel like desecration, and hanging Ukraine's flag upside down in today's context would not look good."
To prevent Narva's flag from being confused with Ukraine's, Abramson suggested adding the city's coat of arms to the flag, as was the case with the historical version of Narva's flag.
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Editor: Marko Tooming, Marcus Turovski
