Leather jackets as a uniform for soldiers of the Russian Imperial Army and the NKVD

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The leather jacket and cloak are the same cultural symbol of the fighters of the state security organs of the post-revolutionary period, like the revolver and mass shootings. Was the leather jacket really official clothing and was it only the NKVD who wore such a jacket? Apparently, everything was not quite as it seems at first.

The leather jacket and cloak are the same cultural symbol of the fighters of the state security organs of the post-revolutionary period, like the revolver and mass shootings. Was the leather jacket really official clothing and was it only the NKVD who wore such a jacket? Apparently, everything was not quite as it seems at first.

Surely when pronouncing the words fighter (or better executioner) of the NKVD, a man with a bandit face in a cap and a leather jacket or raincoat appears in front of the eyes of most modern people. It is quite clear that the leather clothing was some kind of uniform. It is known that leather jackets were already in tsarist Russia, where they were mainly used by drivers and pilots of the Air Force. It is known that in October 1917, the Chekists exterminated all owners of leather jackets. And then their families were cut out to the seventh knee.

Uniform of servicemen of the Russian Imperial Army without insignia

In the Cheka, they dressed in whatever they could.

Okay, jokes aside. First, about the clothes. To put it very briefly, after the revolution, no one bothered much about the uniforms of military personnel and fighters of state security agencies. For example, uniforms for the army began to be developed only on May 7, 1918, after order number 326. At the same time, on September 30, 1918, by order 929, it was allowed to wear the uniform of servicemen of the Russian Imperial Army without insignia.

During the Civil War, the Cheka did not have any special uniform, which (among other things) is explained by the tasks and realities in which the state security officers had to work. When parts of the Red Army came to the disposal of the Cheka, they simply kept their shape. After its abolition and the creation of the GPU under the NKVD of the RSFSR, the uniform was very modest: a dark blue tunic without edging and a cap. The clothes were installed by GPU order number 280 dated November 3, 1922.

At the official level, there was no question of any leather jackets at all. Seriously took up the form of troops and bodies of the NKVD only in 1935. And even then in the orders (number 396 for the GUGB, number 399 for the GUPVO dated December 27, 1935) there is no official leather clothing. However, it was not prohibited, referring to the category of "non-statutory permitted."

Fashionable, stylish, revolutionary

The leather jacket gained great popularity in post-revolutionary Russia starting in 1919. It was worn not only in the Cheka. Leather jackets were worn by the command staff of the Red Army, as well as by workers of the party apparatus. It is obvious that post-revolutionary Russia in the first years did not have the opportunity (including industrial) and time to put the production of leather jackets on stream and dress all the Cheka fighters in them. People simply "wore on" what was left from the tsarist times.

Why were they wearing jackets? This is a good question. This is partly the reason why coats and felt hats were worn in the United States. It was trendy. Much more important that leather clothing is very practical, comfortable, and most importantly, lice do not start in it … Finally, leather jackets and raincoats were rare, and therefore of a certain value, moreover, they worked as a "formal uniform" allowing you to immediately determine a person's affiliation with a particular organization … But, even with this, one should not forget that the state security officer was determined primarily not by the clothes, but by the insignia on it.