Shapka ushanka

[Lady Campanula]

Russian fur cap​

I have a grey one. A posh friend has a black one. I'm told that the colour and styles were specific to different arms of the Soviet Forces. For example, I understand the black hat was issued to officers in the Soviet Navy. What about the rest....?

 

[sailorman]

Russian fur cap​

I have a grey one. A posh friend has a black one. I'm told that the colour and styles were specific to different arms of the Soviet Forces. For example, I understand the black hat was issued to officers in the Soviet Navy. What about the rest....?

Guapa has a Black one

 

[VO5]

The Grey one you have is Soviet Army.
The soviet military also wear an Astrakhan version.
I have one I bought in Warsaw, Siberian Water Rat Flap Hat, silk lined, beautiful, but too warm to wear down here.
I used to wear it a lot in the days when I used to visit Svierdorsk, Siberia, Brrrrr!...minus 40s and 50s not uncommon.

 

[Searush]

I have one I call my Fox hat, especially when I am looking for it.

I suspect it is actually made from a Ginger cat, but very striking, real fur & as already stated very warm. Much posher than the nylon fur military ones. Bought in a market in Minsk (Ukraine) some years ago for about 15 dollars.

 

[sarabande]

mine, Tovarich

 

[prv]

I'm told that the colour and styles were specific to different arms of the Soviet Forces. For example, I understand the black hat was issued to officers in the Soviet Navy. What about the rest....?

The Moscow traffic police wear blue-grey ones. The exact same shade as RAF uniforms.

The story goes that in 1917 a British weaving company made a big batch of fabric in that colour, ready to be sent to make uniforms for a particular Tsarist military unit. The revolution intervened, and the batch of cloth in the UK was offered cheaply to anyone prepared to buy it. The RAF was being formed about this time, so a lot of uniforms were needed all at once, the colour was fairly appropriate, and everybody likes a bargain.

In the meantime, the Soviet and then Russian military and para-military organisations merged and split and shifted over the decades, such that eventually the Moscow street police force came to trace a distant ancestry or relationship back to that grey-blue-clad regiment. They have their ushankas made in that colour, and it's a perfect match for a modern RAF uniform.

I don't know to what extent that story is true, but I know for a fact that a few years ago the Moscow Militsia ushanka (with the cap badge replaced with an RAF one) was formally approved for wear by RAF personnel in uniform above the Arctic Circle. Cos I know the man who was fed up with freezing his ears off and got the powers that be to approve it.

Pete

 

[Dockhead]

The Grey one you have is Soviet Army.
The soviet military also wear an Astrakhan version.
I have one I bought in Warsaw, Siberian Water Rat Flap Hat, silk lined, beautiful, but too warm to wear down here.
I used to wear it a lot in the days when I used to visit Svierdorsk, Siberia, Brrrrr!...minus 40s and 50s not uncommon.

Svierdorsk? Where is that? Do you mean Sverdlovsk?

 

[Lady Campanula]

Guapa has a Black one

Sean Connery has a black one.....

 

[wizard]

Guapa has a Black one

Can you buy these in the UK?

 

[Lady Campanula]

Yes. I did - at Marcruss' store in Bristol.

 

[Searush]

He who wears the Fox Hat will never get lost . . .

Haven't had it out in years, jolly warm to wear indoors tho.

Anyone lost a Ginger cat recently? ;D

 

[Koeketiene]

Can you buy these in the UK?

Got mine in Leningrad (was still Leningrad at the time) after the first NATO-Russia PASSEX.

 

[VO5]

Svierdorsk? Where is that? Do you mean Sverdlovsk?

Arctic Circle, diamond mine.

 

[Tidewaiter2]

Yep, but...

Can you buy these in the UK?

Our Eldest bought his Dad one 3/4 Xmas's ago, But....
Even in the High Weald Winters of last two years(cut orf for 3/4/5 days at a time), still too warm to wear it!