Bad Country Flags – Boring Commies

Those wild and crazy commies. Their choice in flags reminds me of that famous quote from Henry Ford, “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” Yup, it’s any color you want, as long as it’s painted the color of the blood of the revolutionary martyrs.


#5  Kampuchea

Democratic Kampuchea was around for four short years. This flag was flying for three of those. A slight variant flew for 10 years for the People’s Democratic Republic. 

Interestingly, that thing in the middle represents the temples of Angkor Wat, and has appeared on every Cambodian flag back to the middle of the 19th Century. More traditional designs have combined those two elements with various swaths of blue:

#4  Soviet Union

Needless to say, a lot of these flags are going to be historical. Communism just isn’t as popular as it used to be, is it?

Yup, this is where it all started. The ol’ Hammer and Sickle. Cute, ain’t it?

You probably know that the hammer represents the workers and the sickle represents the peasants. You probably didn’t know that the red symbolizes socialism and rebellion in general, dates back all the way to the French Revolution, and was also a very popular color in traditional Russian culture.

This baby flew from 1923 to 1980.


#3  China

Red just so happens to be an extremely popular color in traditional Chinese culture as well. In fact, the combination with yellow is supposed to be particularly lucky and auspicious.

Interestingly, this one was actually the result of a contest, put on by the snappily named Preparatory Committee of the New Political Consultative Conference. One Zeng Liansong was the big winner. 

The big star traditionally represents the Communist party. The four stars around represent the four classes of China – peasants, workers, bourgeoisie, and patriotic capitalists. Another interpretation is the dominant Han race as the big star and the Manchurians, Mongolians, Tibetans, and Muslims as the four little stars. 

And, yes, it still is in use today.


#2  Dem. Rep. of the Congo

Another historical item, this flag flew from 1969 to 1991. The DRC is now more familiarly known as Congo-Brazzaville. BTW, that’s a hammer and a hoe (instead of the ol’ hammer and sickle).

Here’s what they’re going with these days, by the way:

#1  Vietnam

There are many other historical and regional flags that ring the changes on this same boring overall pattern. I’ll spare you – and close out with this total snoozer.

Honestly, what is there to say? This baby seems to be the epitome, the sine qua non, the apotheosis, of boring commie design. 

This one dates all the way back to 1940 (and, of course, is still in use). Interestingly, this color combination is a traditional one for Vietnam as well – in particular, of the kingdom of Annam, one of the 3 kingdoms that made up traditional French Indochina and by far the largest:

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