It was a flag used under Russian occupation so I am not fully sure if it is acceptable or not. For example in Korea, the Japanese rising Sun flag is extremely offensive. Just wondering, because I do think the flag looks cool but I don’t know much about the history of Poland

35 comments
  1. I’d say that it is not. If it was used by a Russian calling Poland a Russian puppet nowadays, then it would be. In probably every other situation it isn’t offensive, it’s just historical flag. At least I wouldn’t be offended. We are not in US where almost everything can be offensive

  2. In general we don’t get offended that easily in Poland. Anyway most people wouldn’t even recognize it (me included). If I knew what it was and saw someone flying it from their house I would probably question their motivation but have no problem if someone has it because they just like it/collect flags/are history buffs etc.

  3. In its historical context, it makes you look like pro-Russian fool but even if people knew the flag, they would think some things about you and go back to their business

  4. Extremely offensive. Poor kurczak is getting stabbed in the butt with a blue stick.

  5. It’s a forgotten historical flag, so not really. But if some group started using it for political purposes, then it quickly would become offensive.

  6. No one is using it currently, 99% will not recognize.

  7. Is this real flag? Cause it looks like VERY BAD photoshop for me. Back in XVIII/XIX it was ok to make ugly flags or what?

  8. The flag itself is not offensive but what is represents, I.e, Poland controlled by the Russian Empire I’d say is offensive.

  9. No, if you used it on a historical reenactment event or something like that. If you would walk around waving the flag it probably is. But I don’t think many people would even recognize it and they’d think it’s a local flag or some political thing.

  10. Not offensive, just embarrassing for people who know its meaning

  11. Politically yes, it’s a pro Russian flag. But honestly, most people hardly recognize it. The people who do recognize it will probably think you are an @sshole but will move on.

  12. For a culture which is so focused on the partitions, you’d be hard pressed to find any one of us that even knows this flag existed.

  13. Nobody knows what this flag stands for and what it represents. This is 100% intentional, even during the partitions themselves Poles were ignoring everything regarding r*ssian influences. You may read positivists books from that era about life in r*ssian partition that are called naturalists, focusing on everyday life and various different cultures, eg. Polish, German, Jewish etc. but they always lack one particular ethnicity: r*ssians.
    And Congress Poland was abolished in 1830s. and was replaced with Country-On-Vistula (Privislenski Kray), so even when Poland was re-established in 1918 it was very outdated.
    Partition of Korea is much fresher and Imperial Japanese flag is much more known in the whole world, so I guess this is not a very big surprise.

  14. Actually it was the ensign of the river boats in the Kingdom of Poland aka Congress Poland.

    99% of Poles don’t even recognize this flag so they won’t be offended. But people from r/vexillology may be offended because this flag is terribly designed. I personally think that it’s estetically pleasing but I’m weird – I think that Fiat Multipla looks cool.

  15. The flag isn’t recognized by most of us.

    > For example in Korea, the Japanese rising Sun flag is extremely offensive.

    The flags that would map to would be the ones of Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany – both of which would be likely to get one arrested, as our penal code criminalizes promotion of either of their ideologies or their symbols.

  16. The flag is hardly ever shown in our books, so 98 of 100 people won’t even get the clue. The remaining two history nerds that will recognize it will probably think that you are some weird pro-tsarist lunatic or Putin supporter with a few extra steps.

  17. This is unknow for almost everybody. I’m a bit interested in vexillology but i don’t think i ever saw it before. However “Kurica” is more recent, wider know, and considered offensive.

  18. It’s unknown enough, but may also confuse some Scottish people visiting Poland if they see

  19. This flag is actually very offensive but people won’t know why unless you tell them.

    This is a **Russian naval jack**. StAndrew’s cross – blue on white. This is not a “Polish” naval jack.

    Polish navy always white and red, or white eagle on red.

    Congress Poland is not considered “legitimate” Polish state so commemorating it outside of some historical context that makes sense is not appropriate. The proper colors under Russian occupation are white and red. All uprisings and rebels wore them.

    Other than that, as long as you’re not waving it with some intention flags are not offensive. We’re just not really a flag waving nation so it’s weird.

  20. As for people saing this wouldn’t be recognised by most people it depends if you paid attention on history classes, some will recognise it immidietly. Now, about it beeing ofensive is another thing. As mentioned is depends if you have it because it looks cool/you collect the flags or do you want to go out parading with it and shouting that we should be enslaved by russia once more. I guess most of the people will be cool with you having it as long as you don’t stand behind what this flag means and you dobt display it in public/honorary place f.e. don’t raise it in front of your house to show alegiance to rusdian emperor xD

  21. It looks cool but context makes it look very bad if you wave it around

  22. yes, on the grounds that it’s fucking ugly and looks like I wanted to do something with Russian naval flag in Paint and by accident I ctrl-v

  23. This is not the flag of the Congress Poland.

    This is the flag of the [Kingdom’s river flotilla](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Polish_flags#/media/File%3AMilitary_ensign_of_Vistula_Flotilla_of_Congress_Poland.svg), and to consider it the flag of the entire country is the same misconception as the infamous ‘[flag](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_Austria-Hungary#/media/File%3AEnsign_of_Austro-Hungarian_civil_fleet_(1869-1918).svg)’ of [Austria-Hungary](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_Austria-Hungary).

    The Congress Kingdom never had any official flag. It had a [royal banner](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Polish_flags#/media/File%3ARoyal_Standard_of_the_Tsar_of_Poland_(1815%E2%80%931830).svg) and a [river war ensign](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Polish_flags#/media/File%3AMilitary_ensign_of_Vistula_Flotilla_of_Congress_Poland.svg), but neither of these was an official flag, though wikipedia recognizes the royal banner as the de facto flag of the Kingdom. Although Wikipedia’s credibility on the issue of flags is questionable – see the case of Austria-Hungary, the Vatican, or even the Confederation of the Rhine.

    Just as the the [US Jack](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_of_the_United_States) is not the flag of the States, so this flag was not the flag of Russian Poland, though thinking otherwise is indeed tempting – this ensign is just quite pretty.

    Just as the [Jack of the president of the Republic of Poland](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Polish_flags#/media/File%3AFlag_of_the_President_of_Poland.svg) is not the flag of Poland the same was true of the banner of the Congress Kingdom and its supposed flag.

    And answering the question – most of the Poles probably don’t know this flag, the rest (both – knowing its true history and the alleged one) would probably be a little bit confused or simply didn’t care enough to bother. I would be intrigued as I love flags and seeing such piece in the wild would be awesome.

  24. First of all, that’s not a flag of Congress Poland since it didn’t have a flag – that’s just a flag of river flotilla

  25. To be precise, it is not the flag of the Congress Poland – it didn’t have a flag. It is the flag of the Vistula flotilla only associated with the Polish Kingdom.

  26. I don’t know about offensive but I should admit it’s a bad design (just my opinion). I mean, using squares in the angle works sometimes when the rest of the flag is proportional, for example the USA flag. In this case it looks like a Power Point flag created by a middle school kid.

  27. I’ve never seen this flag before. But better don’t use it, those who know it… Let’s just say you won’t get out of these lands alive.

  28. To me? Nah, just seems like something an HOI4 player would have.

    The Nazi, Communist, and Bandera flags are a big No-No

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