State and war flag, Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic 1918-37.

The flag is made of wool bunting with a linen hoist and is machine sewn and has a rope halyard is attached. It is red, with the yellow letters 'RSFSR' in oil based paint in the Cyrillic alphabet within a border in the canton. The letters stand for 'Russian Federal Soviet Republic'. 'Kop P 9'-9" 6'-6" is marked faintly in ink on the hoist.

The ensign was captured from Russian destroyer 'Avtroil' 1915, on 27 December 1918 at Revel and acquired by Lieutenant Albert Thurlow. The vessel was handed over to the Estonian government and renamed 'Lennuk'. A fleet under Rear-Admiral Edwyn Alexander-Sinclair had been sent to the Baltic by the British government during the civil war that followed the Russian Revolution. Most of Sinclair's ships went to Revel from which base they were able to protect Estonia from Bolshevik incursions during 1918-19. Thurlow was a lieutenant on Sinclair's flagship HMS 'Cardiff'.