The national flag is one of the state’s symbols. The national flag of Russia is a tricolored one – it features three horizontal strips – white, blue and red – from top downward. The Dutch flag features the same colors, yet the order is different – red, white, blue. It was in the Netherlands that Peter the Great borrowed the colors of the flag for Russian merchant fleet. In the rule of the last tsar of Romanov dynasty, the trading flag turned into the state one. In 1991, the special commission of the Council of Ministers approved the use of tricolor as a symbol of Russia for the second time. Those who think that the red flag replaced tricolor in November 1917 are wrong. The red flag was approved by the commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee only in 1918, yet also on April 8. The red flag fluttered over the country for 73 years.