Warren, you know how I keep telling you that the ONLY way you'll learn about your ethnic background is with a DNA test?? This was part of an answer to another similar question and concerns FREE tests: "There is one free DNA genealogy testing company it is Sorenson at
http://www.smgf.org. (Thank you, LongTooth for your help here).
Why on earth would you want a Soviet flag for?? It represented a Communist government where the everyday person had no say in how his country was run, his vote never really counted for anything (IF he got to vote), you had to stand in line to get the necessary food items to survive, etc. Why do you think Communism fell?? Because people got fed up with a system that DID NOT WORK.
http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/fall-of-communism-in-russia-faq.htm gives a brief history of this type of government :
1. It systematically oppressed its citizens into submission and obedience.
2. Promises to the people from the Communist government to supply all their needs so that they would live comfortably were not kept.
3. Communist leaders always told the people that America was ready to bomb their homeland at any moment.
4. Russian was the only language allowed spoken in the Soviet Union to help create equality among all the people.
5. A "true Communist" did not believe in God (they were to be atheists) and during Stalin’s rule from 1924 to 1953, people were imprisoned and tortured to death in Siberian prison camps along with millions of other Christians. Stalin believed that religion is "a relic from the past and atheism was more successful in treating all men equally."
6. You had no choice of what you wanted to be when you grew up. "Mother Russia" determined the careers of the graduates from high school. Suicide was high in graduates who got lifelong commitments to hard labor.
7. You could not choose where you wanted to live or in what kind of
house. "Mother Russia" assigned the housing and which location of the country one would live.
8. Lack of staff and medical supplies created dire needs in hospitals.
9. You could be sent to prison for "looking like a Christian."
10. You had to learn, often the hard way, not to look into the eyes of the authorities, but to always keep a downward glance.
11. Living conditions, even as late as 1985, sometimes had 9 people living in a 2 room apartment.
http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/communism.htm "The Communist Manifesto", which was first published in 1848 by Karl Marx, and "Principles of Communism", by Friedrich Engels had 10 essential planks:
1. No more "Private" property
2. Heavy Progressive Income Taxes
3. No more "inheritance rights" (your parents could not leave you anything in their will--if they even had one)
4.Property Rights were taken away, so you couldn't own your own land.
5. One "Central Bank." was allowed in the country, so you couldn't control your own money--again, if you had any.
6.Government Ownership of Communication and Transportation.
7. Government Ownership of Factories and Agriculture. (no "family farms")
8.Government Control of Labor (your job was chosen for you)
9.Corporate Farms and Regional Planning.
10.Government Control of Education (you could not choose your school or how far you'd go in school.)
It also demanded the abolition of both Religion and the Absolute Morality founded upon Religion.
Under Communism, the government is absolute. Under Stalin, perhaps the most notorious Communist, around 40 million Russian citizens were murdered for "the good of the state." The practical results of Communism have been horror and atrocity for those under communist rule.
(There was a reason for the "hammer and sickle" design for the Soviet flag, in my opinion--if they couldn't beat the people into submission, they'd cut them down. How do I know all this?? I read the "Communist Manifesto", for one thing. I also had a penpal in Kiev for a short time who literally BEGGED me to send him some TABLE SALT because it was too expensive to buy there, and he often told me of standing in line for TWO days to get either a loaf of bread (usually beginning to turn green from mold) or potatoes (usually rotten by the time it was his turn to get any) grown on these "state-owned farms."
If you want a Russian flag, at least get the NEW one--with the red, white, and blue of freedom.