|
Russia underwent major political changes in the 20th century. As a result, family life and clothing undewebt fundamental change. Tsarist Russia still governed Russia in the early-20th century (1900-17). The Church played a major role in family life at this time and the population was primarily rural. Both peasant families and workers lived in poverty. Middle class families lived and dressed much like similar famies in the rest of Europe. This changed after the Revolution. But it was not the worker's paradise that many had hoped for. After Stalin seized control, living standards improved in the cities, but never reached levels in Western Europe, let alone America. And this was achieved by starving the countryside. Stalin's Siviet Union was a closed society, but the Germans when they invaded (1941) encountred incredible poverty in rural Russia. This was because that in collectivizing Russian farms and killing many of the best farmers, farm production declined and the collective farmers were only allowed to retain a small part of it. While the regime propaganda went on and on about poverty before the Revolution, the rural population was actually better off. One thing the Communists did do was to expand the education system. After World War II, living standards generally improved, but lagged badly behind standards in Western Europe. And than by the 1970s living standards stopped rising as the inherent inefficencies of Socialist central planning overwealmed the capabilities of an educated wiork force and the country's raw material riches. All of this can be seen in family photographs. The Soviet Union was disolved (1992). Communism was outlawed, but subsequent Russian Governments have not adopted the democratic policies of Western Europe.
The 1900s was the last full decade of Tsarist rule. We continue to see formal dress among the Tsarist elite and urban middle class. We see the ame popular styles that we see in Western Europe. We see a lot of boys wearing sailor suits, a style made popular by the royal family. The Tsarevitich usually eore sailor suits, except for special occassions. Older boys wore suits. Single beaeasted suits were common. Some suits had Norfolk styling. We see some Eton collars. Knee pants were common. Si\ome boys dressed plainly. We note both long stovkings weree common. We notice girls wearing some large hats. They mostly wore dresses, but we also see blouses and skirts for less formal occassions. Long stockings were common for both boys and girls. The great bulk of he population still lived in the countryside and consisted of alarely landlaess pesantry. The boys wore Russian blouses of various lengths with baggy long pants and went barefoot. The girls wore colorful long dresses awith head scarves.
The 1910s was a tumultous decade for Russia which would impact the world history during the 20h century, The first 4 years were little changed from the 1900s, but then everytging began chngung with World War I (1914). Before the War, however, the Tsarist Empire still reigned and maby of the same fashions and social conventuoins were still in place. We still see mostly portraits of affluent, well dressed children and very little of the working class. We continue to see
yoingt boys wearing salor suits and older boys wearing a range of school uniforms with military looks--including the peasant tunic used by the Russian Army.
This is the prosperous looking Peters family. The photograph was taken in the Chortitza colony, a Russian Mennonite settlement on Kortytsia Island, an island in Dnepper. The Mennonites were a small part of the Volksdeutsch in the Tsarist Empire. We can see Jakob Peters (1859-1920) and Sara Funk (1863-1935) with their children, children in law, and grandchildren. The photograph was taken just before World War I, about 1910. Niotice that some wear Russian blouse outfits.
Here we see an unidentified family portrait. As it is not a cabinet card, we think it was probably taken in the early-1910s. The late-1900s is of course possible. We are guessing that the soldier is a non-commissioned officer bcause of his age and his plain uniform. Readers more familiar with military uniforms my have some insight here. We suspect that te portrait was taken before the outbreak of World War I (1914), but again are largely guessing. Mother wears a blouse and long skirt. The boys who look to be about 5-7 years old are dressed identically with tunics often called Russian blouses and knee pants. Notice the belts worn over the tunics that have no pratical purpose. Also note the boys' close-cropped hair.
Here we have a cabinet card with what looks like the younger childen of a well-off large extebded family, nicely posed. All we know for sure is thar they were a Moscow family. The children all loked to be about 10 years old or under and could not possibly have the same parents. We assume that they are all cousins. Three are infants as well as todlers. Three boys wear sailor suits. Two boys are obviously brother with the sane style of sailor suits. The girls wear white dresses and have long hair. We are not sure what the older boy is wearing.
On the previouis page we see a family in the early Soviet era. The photograph first appeared in a Soviet magazine called Chelnok, No. 8 (May, 1925, p. 13). We suspect that the photo is roughly contemporary with the publication. This is a committed Revolutionary family in which the members work in textile factory. The factory made printed cotton fabrics. The mother sits at a table in the rear with two of her sons. A third son has joined the Young Pioneer group, and his father is cremonially tying on his red neckerchief. An older son, not in the photo, was a member of the Komosol. [Gorsuch, p. 35.] The photograph is interesting because the Young Pioneers were first organized in 1925. It was not yet a national mass organization, but only formed in a few factories. This is probably why such a young boy is a member. Subsequently induction in the Young Pioneers came later. The boys seem to be wearing knee pants. The boy with the neckerchief, who looks as though he is about 10, wears a suit with a loose jacket and knee pants. The Young Pioneers were founded in 1925. but for many yers most children only wore a red scarve as there was no standard uniform.] He wears white long stockings with hightop shoes. I'm not sure how common white stockings were for Young Pioneers since white long stockings are usually considered rather dressy for boys. Perhaps it was a special day at school, or more likely he is being outfitted in his best clothes for the photographer. I don't know the location of the family. They live near a textitle factory, so they are probably in one of the larger cities.
Images like this provide insights to Sobiet life, but also many interesting questions. This is a family portrait taken during the summer at a make-shift studio. We see mother with her four children. We do not know where father was. As this looks like a studio set up, father presumably did not take the poortrait. Perhaps at work, but mother also probably worked, so this must be day off and a family outing. This would have been taken just before Stalin introduced the 'contunuous working week' (the 'nepreryvka'), an 11-year experiment that ultimately failed. The children look to be about 1-9 years old. It is clearly a warm day, presumably summer. The children do not lookmlike they are dressed for school. They are wearing light clothes, the boy a singlet, but black long stockings more associated with winter wear. Also notice the books. That seems strange, to bring books along on an outing. Perhaps the phoograph was taken just after school. We do not know about Soviet libraries. Perhaps the books were purchases in a market. Which leads us to another issue. Stalin by 1929 was in control of the Soviet satate and had ended Lennijn's New DEconomic Program (NEP). This meant that all productive enterprises had to be owned by the sate. We assume this meant even very basic operatiins like this make-shift studio. We do not think this was the father's set up, because camera ownwesg=hipo was not wude spread and this doies not look like an especially prosperous family.
Here is a snapshot which we thought was from a Russian home in the 1930s. The unidentified boys seem to be brothers, at least they are all dressed alike. A Russian reader agrress that the photograph was probably taken diring the 1930s. The three boys are in an apartment. Unlike similar images taken in the West, this is probanly not a family scene. Our reader reports that at the time, most Russian families in cities lived in communal apartments. So the boys here may not be brothers, but rather boys from different families living in one of the communal apartments.
A Russian reader has provided this family photograph taken in 1932. The family was from the Ukraine. The photographwas taken in Vastok. I'm not sure tet where Vastok is. I do not have the details, but we suspect that the family may have been Kulaks who managed to survive deportation from their farm in the Ukraine. They look like a farm family. Stalin decided to end individual peasant propretorship (1929-31). When the peasants resisted, he engineered a disatrous famine.
This snapshot is dated, we know it was taken in 1935 which proably merans that it was a family on a collective farm. All we know for sure is the date. There are interesting aspects to this photograph. The family does not look very prosperous, but they do have a dog--which is apositive sign. And you nhave to cosidr it was prpably a warm summer day because the photograph was taken in August. It is also important to note that bcause if the Soviet internal passport system, the family was not free to leave the farm. Because conditiions on collective farms were rather poor, the Sovit Givernment used the passport system to precent farm worketrs from leacing the farms. In most countries, people on farms usually fared better in terms of food. This was not the case in the Soviet Union. The NKVD was so efficent in controlling the food that even in terms of food the collective farm workers fared poorly. Parents would send the children out into the fielkds at night which became a serious crime in the Soviet Union leading to sentesens in the Gulag. [Solzhenitsyn, pp. 57-58.] This dangerous theft of socialist property led to 10-year sentences. Farm workers were more sucessful in hiding food from the NAZis than the NKVD. ,
The greatest war in history was fought in rge area between Germany nand the Siviet Union (1939-45). Much of this was fought in the western Soiviet Union. While the Soviet Union was allied with the NAZIs (1939-41), rgar was klittle umoact on the country. When the NAZIs in vaded (Hune 1941), huge damage resulted and some 25 million Soviet citizens, mostly civilians were killed. The NAIs surrenderded (May 1945), but the country was devestated. The infrastructure of the occupied area was destroyed, The damage was damage, especually in the cities, but the agricultural infrastructure was also largely destroyed. Recovery began after the war, but it would take more than a decaded to repair the damsge and rebuild the cities and infrasdtructure. We have collected a range of family images. We see a family enjoying themnselves in a park on what looks like a spring day. The boys are smartly dressed with berets. We also have images of a mining, peasant, and military family as well as a Moscow city family. Most Moscovites lived in apartments. So we have a good cross section of Russian families in the 1950s showing popuolar fashions. The children seemed well dressed, although the boys in the mining family are barefoot. Long stockings were still quite common which children wore during cold weather. Yonger boys still wore short panbts with long stickings.
Here we have what looks like a Soviet Apparatchik family on their summer vacation. We assume that they are Russian, but they could have been in one of the other European Soviet republics. There was no notes on the back of this snapshot, so we can only pick up on the clues. There is a car in the background. This tells us a great deal. The average Soviet family could not afford a car. There was a classic Soviet joke about orfring a car. The buyer was given a date 10 YEARS from the order to be picked up. He asked the salesman, moring or afternoon? The salesman asked what possivle diference it could make 10 years in the future? He answered, because the plumber is coming in the morning. But for most Soviet citizens the 10year lag in delivery made little difference. There simply was no way they could afford a car and if they could afford one, getting permision to buy one was aa equal if not more difficult hurdle. The result was that car ownership as a fraction of that in the West. Even by the 1980s, only about Soviet car ownership was 45 cars per 1000 people by 1985. American car ownership in contrast is someyhing like 800 per 1,000 people. (The Soviet Red Army in contrast had three times more tanks.) And the whole process of buying a car is a itself a fascinating story. Another interesting matter is that in Communist countries like Russia, used cars (even with high milage) cost more than new cars. So very likely the family here was well positioned in Soviet society. Another interesting matter, is that there were not well developed highways between Soviet cities or amnties like motels, restaurants, and filling statons located along the often unimproived roads. A well off Soviet family might be able to drive out of the city to their dacha, but not go on a road trip like an American family.
Here we see what looks like a family vacation snapshot. It is undated, but looks like the 1970s to us. We are rather confused as it looks like two families involved. We think that there were probably two families. They may have been related familes, but that is not clear. We think that multiple family vacations were not unusual as they were commonly organized by factories and other enterprises where people worked. This appears, however, to be two families who may or not be related. We are not sure how commomn this was. They appear tobe standing infront of a monument. The lettering probably tells us where they are, but we do not read Russians. There are three young children. The girls weaes a simple white summer dress. TThe boys wear shorts and short pants. The younger boy wears a casual shorts set with matching shirt nd shorts. The fact that thee boys have not tucked in their shirts intoi their waust bands tell us that it was a casual occasion. And the shirts do have tails, they were not made to be tucked in.
Gorsuch, Anne E. Youth in Revolutionary Russia (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000).
Solzhenitsyn, Alexsanddr I. Trans, Thomas P. Wjitney. The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-56: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (Harper & Row: New York, 1973), 660p.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main Russian family page]
[About Us]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Girls]
[Topics]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Russian pages:
[Ballet]
[Children's literature]
[Choirs]
[Fashion magazines]
[Movies]
[Royalty]
[School uniform]
[Youth groups]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main Russian page]
[Return to theMain country page]
[Australia]
[Canada]
[England]
[France]
[Germany]
[Ireland]
[Italy]
[Mexico]
[New Zealand]
[Poland]
[Scotland]
[United States]
