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Moscow celebrates Russian Flag Day

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MOSCOW, August 22 (RIA Novosti) - About 700 active members of the Union of Right Forces right-wing liberal party and 150 representatives of the Russia Detachment public organization gathered for a festive procession Monday to mark Russian Flag Day.

Members of the procession walked from the Russian government house, the White House, to the memorial of the defenders of free Russia.

The procession was headed by those who participated in the August 1991 events, when Russia's tri-colored flag was reinstated at the White House.

Following the Union of Right Forces' leadership were young people carrying a 100-meter-high flag, three times the height of a nine-story building.

The procession occurred before a gala meeting of about 300 people, the police said.

The tricolor first became the national flag before the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II in 1896. It was replaced by the red banner after the 1917 October revolution.

In 1991, Boris Yeltsin, then chairman of the Supreme Soviet, summoned a military detachment to the White House to defend against a possible attack by those who had removed Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev from power. However, no attack followed, as the putsch participants were put off by the broad public support for Yeltsin.

The tricolor reappeared on Russian administrative buildings, including the White House, on August 22, 1991. In 1994, Russian Flag Day was introduced.

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