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The school uniforms worn by Russian boys have changed over time, but until the disolution of the Soviet Union in 1992, mostly consisted of military-styled garments. This may have been influenced by the Prussins/Germans. This included both the Tzarist and Soviet periods. Boys wore both peaked military caps and campaign caps. I'm not sure if they had a dress cap or wore the same cap year round. I'm less sure about the caps or hats worn by the girls. A jacket or military blouse buttoned to the collar. Some boys wore white shirts. One style was to wear the collar outside the jacket. Russian boys normally wear long pants to school, but we see some primary boys during the mid-20th cntury wearing short pants, at least during the summer. A lot of the portraits we have collected appear to be from secondary schools. we uspect that many families did not hve the money for a portrait. Until the Soviet period, many working-class families could not afford to send their children to school. And with the Soviet period poverty contunued, although the ecucation system was expnded.
We only see Russian boys wearing caps to school. We do not see hats, although our 19th century archive is limited. We do have a number of images from the Tsarist early-20th century era. The cap we see had a leather peak, done like the uniform caps of those worn by officers in the Tsarist Army. They appear to be replicas. It is the only country we know that used this style of military peked cap. The Germans also had a peaked cap, but their's were styled differently. Russian boys wore both peaked military caps and campaign caps. The peaked military caps were very common during Tsarist period. It ws the primariy military style item, but this varied fromnschool to school. It was often worn with tunic-like blouses. We are not sure if they had a dress cap or wore the same cap year round. The campaign vaps appeared after the Revolution. We are not sure yet just when. It was also use by the Young Pioneers. They were less expensive. We still see the peked caps in the 1950s and 60s The boy here is a good exmple (figure 1). We no nlonger commonly se them by the 1970s. we are less sure about the caps or hats worn by the girls. After the Revolution girls education became more important. But the girls did nt wear military syled uniforms like the boys.
During the Tsarist era we see a lot of boys wearing tunic styled blouses. Often aelt was worn over the tunic. Later a jacket or military blouse buttoned to the collar. And then we see lapel mjckets like the boy here (figure 1).
White shirts were very commoWe normally see boys during the Soviet-era wear uniforms with white shirts. I do not know if any other colored shirts were worn with uniforms. White is the only color we have noted. There were both short- and long-sleeved shirts and different collars. One might have thought that in the Soviet Union that there would haved been one
standard style for these white shirts, but there seem to have been several sttles used and apparently the schools did not insist on one specific style as long as the shirts were white. We do not know if the shirts were sold as regulation school uniform shirts in the stores. We also have no information about the fabric used. Presumnably cotton was the principal fabric. We do not know if polyester was used to create blended fabrics. We note boys wearing them with and without suit jackets. This may have been seasonal Some boys may have taken their jackets off once at school or did not wear then to school in the warm weather. One style was to wear the collar outside the jacket. The children after a couple yearsed their red scarves which were worn with the shirts. We see boys with both open and buttoned collars. The girls wore white blouses. I am not entirely sure as to just how they differed from the boys' blouses, but the collars were more varied.
The earlies images we have of Russoan boys show them commonly wearing tunics to school. These are boys in rural primary schools. The tunics were basically serf clothingm what bith boys and adult me wore. Rhere were few id any schoold in rural areas at the beginning of the 19th centurym vur by the end of the century, orimary schools existed throughout the Russian empire. And tunics worn wiuth belts was the primary gaements worn to school. It was not an soecial school garment, it was what the biys normally wore, Many of tgese bvoys had little nore to wear than ehat they wire daily. WE are nor sure what boys wore in city schools, but we think that these tunics were also worn, but not as commonly. Secondary schools in the city had actual unifirms, mostly military styles. Some of the styles were tunics which was vaically the style wien by rge Russian Army. These tunics which were so common throughour the 19th and early--20th century Russian rapidly disappeared after the Russian Revolution abd Civil War (1917-21).
We have noted Soviet boys and girls in the 1950s-60s wearing neckerchiefs with their uniforms. The color of these neckerchiefs is not readily apparent in the black and white paragraphs. Boys also wore neckerchiefs with their Young Pioneer uniforms. The color varied as to their status in the Young Pioneers. We believe that these colored Pioneer neckerchiefs were worn to school. We note that some photographs of the younger children show them without these scarves. In some communist countries the younger children wore blue scarves and the older children red scarves. At least in some years, younger Soviet children did not wear scarves at all.
The Tsarist and Soviet school uniforms were a peaked military cap worn wuth jackets that either had an army or cadet look or a blue suit jacket. We see a few images of boys wearing sailor suits. Some boys did wear individual sailor suits, especially in the early-20th century both before and after the Revolution. School uniform rules were not strict or even non-existent fir children in the early -Soviet period. When several boys are wearing the same style sailor suits, this suggests a school uniform. Sailor suit uniforms do not seem very common, but we see a few examples that do look like school uniforms to us. Unfortunately we are nor sure just what the sailor suits reresented. For younger boys we believe they may have been pre-school that incouraged the boys to wear sailor suits or a cadet school that an actual sailor suit uniform. We believe that there also may have been a naval cadet school.
Russian boys normally wear long pants to school. We have noted images from elementary school with the boys wearing short pants, sometimes with long stockings.
We note many photographs of Soviet schoolgirls wearing dark dresses and pinafores. We are not sure when this practice began. We note images from the 1930s, but they may hasve been just a few individuals or show schools. These dark dresses and fancy pinafores appear very common from the 1950s through the 1980s. We have noted both dark brown and blue dresses. I'm not sure if any other dresses were involved. The pinafores were always fancy white ones. We note girls of all ages wearing them, both in primary and secondary school. I'm not sure but I think the firls may have had a best fancy pinafore that they wore for special occassions. Here I am not yet positive.
We do not notice many Russian school children wearing smocks, either during the Tsarist or Soviet period. We do note one image of what looks like Soviet kindergarden children wearing smocks. We are not sure how common this was. Nor do we know if it was a local or regional convention. We also do not know f smocks were used only for kindergrden children.
Russian children have worn different types of hosiery to school. We note Russian school children wearing ankle socks, three-quarter socks kneesocks, long stockings, and tights. Here it is not always easy to tell, especially about boys, because our primary source of information is the photographic record and we canot tell if the boys are wearing long pants. Thus we know more about younger than older boys. The popularity of these different types as well as gender an color conventions have varied over time. Long stockings were common before World War I. After the War we see many children wearing kneesocks, but long stockings were very common during the winter. White was a popular color for girls, but younger boys also wore white hosiery Ankle socks became common after Wirld war II. Long stockings continurd to be worn during the winter through the 1960s. Children began wearing tights in the the 1970s. White tights were especially popular for girls. Tights came in brighter coloes than were common with long sockings.
We notice some children with books bags and satchels we are not sure how common these were. They do not seem to have been as common as they were in European countries like France and Germany. We do not yet have details over the different styles children used and how they changed over time.
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