It is associated with courage, sacrifice, blood and war in general, but it was first used as a flag of defiance. The red flag gained its modern association with communism in the 1871 French Revolution.

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had pledged a retreat from the Stalinist policies and repression of the past, but the violent actions in Budapest suggested otherwise. An estimated 2,500 Hungarians died and 200,000 more fled as refugees.

Anti-Sovietism, anti-Soviet sentiment, called by Soviet authorities antisovetchina (Russian: антисоветчина), refers to persons and activities actually or allegedly aimed against the Soviet Union or government power within the Soviet Union. Three different flavors of the usage of the term may be distinguished.

In politics, a red flag is predominantly a symbol of socialism, communism, Marxism, trade unions, left-wing politics, and historically of anarchism. Socialists adopted the symbol during the Revolutions of 1848 and it became a symbol of communism as a result of its use by the Paris Commune of 1871.

Both socialism and communism place great value on creating a more equal society and removal of class privilege. The main difference is that socialism is compatible with democracy and liberty, whereas Communism involves creating an ‘equal society’ through an authoritarian state, which denies basic liberties.

In western culture, these are the two most sinister colors, as red typically conveys the meaning of blood or anger, and black is that of darkness or death. Being a very visually striking combination, they can also convey a sense of power.

Three Red Banners (Chinese: 三面红旗) was an ideological slogan in the late 1950s which called on the Chinese people to build a socialist state. The “Three Red Banners” also called the “Three Red Flags,” consisted of the General Line for socialist construction, the Great Leap Forward and the people’s communes.

Red Banner (Russian: Красное знамя) was a symbol of the USSR associated with the Soviet state flag. Civilian establishments awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour are also sometimes addressed with the “Red-Banner” honorific.

Flag of South Vietnam. A yellow flag with three horizontal red stripes.

A red flag is either a literal warning of some danger, like the signal flag used by a sinking ship, or a figurative warning, like the red flag a candidate’s angry outburst sends to the voters about his temperament. Even some spam filters refer to their junk email alerts as red flags.

If there is a red flag indicator, regulators may suspect that money laundering (ML) or terrorist financing (TF) has occurred. SRBs and law enforcement officers find these red-flag indicators useful when monitoring or researching the professional behavior of professionals or customers.