National Flag of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992)

The Republic of Serbia and Montenegro was formerly known as Yugoslavia ('Land of the Southern Slavs'), or as its official name the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia until the 13th of June 2002.

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was born from the former communist led Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which existed from 1918 until 1991.

The Republic of Serbia and Montenegro consists of two states of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro. 

The other member states of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia, have all become independent republics.

The Republic of Serbia and Montenegro officially adopted the blue-white-red horizontal striped tricolour of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on the 27th of April 1992. 

However, they removed the centrally replaced star from the original flag, which symbolised the socialist leaning of the former state.

The Symbolic Meaning

When the flag was adopted by the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1918, the colours represented the different members that made up the former federation.

Blue, white and red are traditional Slavic colours; together they are referred to as the pan-Slavic colours.

They were initially adopted by Slavic nations in the mid-19th century at a time when many of them lacked autonomy and were influenced by the flag of Russia (which was in turn influenced by the Dutch flag), an independent Slavic country at the time.

The colours now symbolise Slavic unity and independence and can be seen in the flags of a number of the Slavic nations.