Figure 1.--This drawing depicts the clothes of Russian boys on a collective farm in the 1930s. Notice the floppy hats and barefeet. |
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Even before the Russian Reviolution, Russia except for the elite was a
basically closed society. Fashionable clothes were not generally available to Soviet
citizens and restrictions on foreign publications and travel restricted
the spread of European fashion trends. After kneepants had passed out of style in the 1910s, Soviet boys mostly wore long pants. Knickers were never popular in the Soviet Union. Boys did wear shorts, but mostly during the summer. Russian boys like boys in Scandinavia, Poland, and Germany continued to wear long stockings after kneesocks had become more common in Europe. Boys wearing short pants might wear them with long stockings. After tights becamev availabe in the 1950s, younger boys wore them with short pants during the winter. Sailor suits did not disappear after the Revolutionm. Andrea Sakarov, the noted physicist and disident, for example wore a sailor suit as a boy. I am not sure, however, how common that was.
We are beginning to develop some basic chronological information on Soviet boy's fahion.
The experience of childhood and youth during the early Sovier period is a fascinating subject. Soviet citizebns had to address the question of what it meant to be "Soviet," "communist," or "revolutionary" to different social elements in the Soviet Union during the first decades after the Revolution. There were many dichtomies in Soviet scociety. There
was a generation gap between the younger and older generations, and the difference between
"adult," as opposed to "youth" responses to Bolshevik cultural ideals. One author believes that there were serious contradictions as to the political significance of youth, as to how youth would be accommodated in the communist culture, and even as to what this "communist culture" was exactly. Revolutionary values had become contradictory by the 1920s. [Gorsuch, p. 19.] As the state endeavored to create a youth culture that could respond to its needs and attempted to enforce communist standards for youth culture, the contradictions engendered by this period of transformation only exaccerbated the gap between
generations, and between the expectations and concepts that both generations had about what it meant to be "Soviet" or "communist". The results were a stronger government control over youth culture on the one hand, and youth's recalcitrant resistance to imposed values, on the other. Soviet Union citizens experiences dire, social and economic conditions that affected the attitudes of youngsters in the early 1920s, including
the crowded housing facilities, high unemployment, the competition between young workers and their more mature, better qualified counterparts. The result of these conditions was "disillusionment," which, in turn, led to the Bolsheviks' inability to "educate and
inspire the new generation" [Gorsuch, p. 39.] Consequently, the state began
to regard youth as a dangerous force in view of its "potential to
resist as well as support" [Gorsuch, p. 40.] Bolsheviks' attempts to transform
culture.
Soviet youngsters had widely different experiencesin the Komsomol. Militancy grew in a
portion of the youth population as a reaction against the cultural conditions under Lenin's New Economic Policies (NEP). The government's Smychka politics eliminated the "clearly defined 'other'" and introduced a number of abstract "enemies" such as religion and illiteracy. As a result, the "diminished sense of difference between 'us' and 'them,' between communist and non-communist, made identity less certain than it had
been, and led to both disillusionment and anger among some young people" [Gorsuch, p.82.] Consequently, NEP itself became the new enemy. Many youngsters embraced a revolutionary counter-culture of militancy, which manifested itself in desdain for the established social standards in clothing and behavior, for example [Gorsuch, pp. 87-95).
"Dance and dress had political meaning in the unsettled and contentious environment of
NEP" [Gorsuch, p. 137.] Youngsters used "the language of clothing to express
their resistance to communist norms and to define themselves as anti-Bolshevik" [Gorsuch, p. 135.] On the other hand, the authorities understood this defiance as a dangerous political message, and reacted with stricter, disciplinary measures [Gorsuch, p. 138.]
The Soviets as a result of the Civil War found itself with larger numbers of "bezprizornye" (homeless children) and proved unable to effectively reintegrate these homeless children into society. There were depressing conditions and problems inside children and youth communes for "bezprizornye". The "detdom" (orphanage) presented represented the contradictory nature of Bolshevik policy, which acknowledged the state's responsibility as caretaker, while at the same time considering "bezprizornye" a social nuissance rather than
innocent victims.
The Bolsheviks' defined the developing youth culture as hooliganism. Authorities were concerned about youth subcultures that they did not control and did not fit their cultural and social standards. Hooligans were "primitive" and "sick," closer to an animal or "beast" that to a human being in terms of their behavior [Gorsuch, pp. 170-174.] Much like Foucault's social elements, Soviet hooligans were subjected to the state's control of "undesirables," by means of the "creation of the alien 'other' attitude towards this
group" [Gorsuch, 174.] In addition, rhetoric emphasizing hooliganism as an "illness" also led to a vision of the danger of "infection" and "contamination," which legitimized the authorities need to protect "healthy youth" by imposing a rigid system of isolation and control [Gorsuch, p. 176.] Some youth, with no outlets permited by Soviet demands and controls, turned to suicide as the ultimate wheapon of resistance in an "age of
anxiety" [Gorsuch, pp. 176-181.]
Communist clothing appeared in various interations during seven ecadeds of Soviet rule. Here a range of political, economic, and social factors were at play. Unlike the capitlist West, ideology came to dominate fashion. The early Bolsheviks approach to fashion was to reject the very idea of 'fashion' itself. The idea was to demand 'functional' clothing. Stalin interestingly was more interested in fashion. Stalin wore well-tailored if very plain clothes. The flat cap with its working-class image became a Soviet standard. One source suggests that Stalin in "... an ideological turn, granted fashion a highly representational role. Stalinist dress for women featured a new Stalinist aesthetic, a blend of Russian folk tradition and Hollywood glamour, appropriate to Stalinist ideals of classical beauty and traditional femininity." The Bolshevik ideal was an austere'New Woman' wearing clothing with few decorations. The New Soviet Woman was depicted as a a kind of 'Super Woman' during the Stalinist Era. Dresses were depicted with accentuated waistlines and shoulders designed to follow a curvy, well propotioned body.
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Economic conditions were very difficult in Russian after World War II because of the destruction caused by the Germans. In addition, Stalin refused to participate in the Marshall Plan. Little money was available for more than basic outfits. Only in the 1950s did economic conditions begin to improve. Young boys in the post-war period continued to commonly wear short pants. ften with long stockings. Pre-school boys might wear bib-front shorts, but this was less common once school began. One reader reports that almost all boys in the 1950s wore shorts with long stockings--at least in Moscow. He reports, "There was simply NO OTHER KIND OF DRESS AT ALL for boys of this age, at least in Moscow. With obvious exceptions for extremely cold or hot weather etc." Boys wore military type uniforms to school, but at home after school short pants and long stockings were typical for boys 7-10 years of age. Tights began to replave long stockings in the late 1960s.
Sovier boys clothes can be divided into three types: 1) school uniform, 2) smart pioneer uniform, 3) ordinary street clothes. On the most part of the USSR of 7-8 months in one year there is a cold weather, therefore boys wore long pants. Younger boys might wear hort pants, but with long stockings. During the warm summer season many boys wore short pants as well aslong pants.
The Young Pioneer organization was obligatory at school till 1990, therefore, basically, the pioneer uniform was the school uniform. There was also a Young Pioneer dress uniform which might be worn at Pioneer camps, [?constructions], and parades. TheYoung Pioneers always wore a red kerchief. Other parts of the uniform changed, but never the kerchief.
1918-30: There was no fefinitive Pioneer uniform until 1950. Here the major factor was poverty. Many families could not afford to buy a special outfit for Pioneer activity. Boys wore a great varietyof outfits. Boys wore knee-length short pants. Some of the shorts were also very baggy. Boys wore both long stockings and kneesocks. Knee socks were distributed to some Pioneers. Ankle socks were very rare. Many children went without socks and stockings. Boots were common.
1930-60: Boys wore short pants, at first knee-pants with buttons on the leg hem. Gradually, especially after World War II a pioneer uniform consisting of white shirts, white wide rather long shorts, and white ankle socks became common. The rest remained as earlier.
1960-70: The short pants become shorter. The pioneer uniform become a white shirt, dark blue shorts and white ankle socks. Some boys also wore white knee socks.
1970-80: Knee socks became very popular in the 1970s. Boys very much frequently wore kneesocks of different colors. The shorts become even shorter. The uniform becomes a white shirt, dark blue shirts, with a brown belt, and knee socks. White kneesocks were often worn for formal occassions.
1980-85: he popularity of knee socks declines, but they remain in the pioneer uniform.
1985-90: The pioneer uniform no longer includes kneesocks.
1990-92: The Pioneer Organisation declines after the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991.
Soviet children for many years had no school uniform that was worn throughout in the Soviet Union. A uniform was introduced in 1949, bit over time several changes and new styles were introduced.
1918-48: Soviet children for many years had no school uniform that was worn throughout in the Soviet Union. Individual schools in the larger cities such as Moscow and Leningrad may have had uniforms. Most children wore their ordinary street clothes.
1949-61: School authorities intoduced the first uniform in 1949. For boys it was a military styled uniform. I have noted images of boys wearing a peaked military cap, but a Russian reader tells us that a beret was also worn. The principal uniform item was a militart-looking jacket with a collar. The jacket had five buttons, two pockets, and [?valves] on the breast. The jacket was worn with a belt. In the street carried beret.
1962-72: A new uniform was intriduced which was grey woolen suits with four buttons.
1973-87: Another new uniform was introduced in 1973. It was a dark blue suit from the half-woolen fabric, decorated with an emblem and aluminium buttons. Matching pants and jacket with five aluminium buttons, cuffs and two breast pockets with [?valves].
1988-91: Some chools in 1988 stop requiring children to wear mandatory school uniforms. Many children still wore the uniform, but gradually fewer and fewer children.
1992- : Amandatory school uniform at state schools was abolished in 1992 with the end of the Soviet Union. Children began wearing their street clothes. I think some private schools now have uniforms, but I have littlke information here.
Trends for street clothes varied ober time and with the various types of garments. We have some chronological information on hosiery. Boys through World war II commonly wore long stockings up to about age 13. Younger boys might wear them with short pants. They were commonly worn for warmth, but boys dressing up in short pants also wore them. Color from light brown up to dark brown. Soviet boys wore long stockings into the early 60s. Kneesocks were also commonly worn. Dressed up to 1960. Boys till 13 years carried.
After 1960 kneesocks wer worn in a variety of colors. For holidays and parades dressed white knee socks. Boys up to 15 years old wore them. Ankle socks begin to become popular in the 1960s. They were always made in many different colors.
Anne E Gorsuch. Youth in Revolutionary Russia: Enthusiasts,
Bohemians and Delinquents. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana
University Press, 2000. x + 274 pp: Gorsuch's book is an excellent source on the subject of youth during NEP. The subject is interesting, and the information useful. The amount of important secondary material summarized in one source makes it almost encyclopedic in its academic value.
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