Greatcoat: Again based on an historical precedent, in this instance the uniform of a 17th-century Russian musketeer (strelets), the Red Army greatcoat (kaftan) was introduced on 8 April 1919. It was made of khaki cloth and for fastening had three distinctive cloth tabs (razgovory)—double-bastion shaped and in branch-of-service colors—across the chest. The kaftan had two vertical side pockets. The collar, cuffs, and pocket flaps were of darker khaki cloth and piped in branch-of-service colors.
Shirt: A smock-like, khaki cotton blouse (gimnasterka) with a two-inch standing collar with two hooks and two buttons on the cuffs for fastening was worn. The collar and the front of the shirt were decorated with pairs of razgovory in branch-of-service colors.
Breeches: A variety of types of trousers were in use, but most common were breeches (sharovari) of light gray cotton in summer and of dark gray cloth in winter (sometimes reinforced with leather for cavalry and horse artillery units).
UNIFORMS (WHITE ARMIES). Until substantial numbers of uniforms were imported from the Allies—Britain alone donated 200,000 sets to the Russian Army of Admiral A. V. Kolchak and the Armed Forces of South Russia—White forces relied almost entirely on uniforms left over from the Imperial Russian Army. Its field uniform had last been regularized in March 1909. The single-breasted tunic was made of cloth and was grayish-green in color. It had five buttons (made of leather or metal) and two metal hoops and hooks at the neck for fastening. The top button was located 1.3 inches from the lower collar hook; the lowest was at waist level. There were two rectangular pockets on the chest, with flaps fastened by smaller buttons. There were no cuffs on the sleeves. The tunic measured 26–30 inches from the collar to the lower hem for infantry and 24–28 inches for cavalry. It was adorned with shoulder boards (pogony), which were up to 7 inches in length and about 3 inches wide. These were double-sided; one side displayed the regimental colors, the other was khaki. Both sides had insignia in branch-of-service colors: yellow (infantry), crimson (riflemen), scarlet (foot artillery), light blue (cavalry and horse artillery), black (commissary units), white (train units), brown (engineers), or orange (fortress troops). There was also a loose-fitting, smock-like summer blouse (gimnasterka), in khaki. The breeches (sharovari) were of khaki cloth for infantry, foot artillery, and engineers and gray-blue cloth for cavalry and horse artillery. Traditionally, the breeches were worn tucked into tall jackboots or with puttees and boots, but these were in very short supply during the civil wars, and a wide variety of footwear was adopted. Both soldiers and commanders were also issued with a single-breasted greatcoat, with a broad collar, roll cuffs, and hooks instead of buttons for fastening. Local customization of this basic pattern was common, as detailed below.
North Russia: Because of the number of Allied (especially British and American) troops in this theater, the wearing of their uniforms (or elements of them) by Russian forces was very common from the earliest stages of the civil wars. In addition, in August 1918, by order of the Supreme Administration of the Northern Region, officers were banned from wearing shoulder boards (pogoni). Instead, they wore chevrons on their right sleeves. Pogony were reintroduced in 1919, but were made of cloth, with lettering stenciled on them in oil paint for soldiers and NCOs and embroidered (or in metal) for officers. NCOs were to wear red lace stripes on the cuff: one narrow stripe for an efreitor (lance-corporal), two for a mladshii unterofitser (junior NCO), three for a starshii unterofitser (Senior NCO), and a single wider stripe for a feldfebel (sergeant-major). By 1919, the wearing of British uniforms was nearly universal, with ranks indicated by black braid on the sleeve, the Russian imperial cockade (kokarda) displayed on headgear, and woolen braid on the cap, crown, and cuffs: white for the first regiment of a division, blue for the second, and red for the third, for infantry and cavalry; black for artillery; green for engineers; and black velvet for general staff.
Northwest Russia: In this region, the men of the North-West Army were usually distinguished by a sleeve badge made of cloth and consisting of a broad chevron in the Russian national colors (white, blue, and red), pointing upward and partly enclosing a broad white cross. Following the delivery of some 40,000 British uniforms to the region in August–September 1919, most units wore these, with Russian pogony and buttons. The men of Prince A. P. Liven’s army group, however, wore German uniforms, and even civilian dress was not uncommon.
South Russia: In the Armed Forces of South Russia, the uniforms of the imperial era mixed with an increasing concentration of British-supplied kit, as 1919 wore on. The most common insignia was a chevron on the left sleeve, downward pointing in the national colors. Badges and embroidery on the chevron distinguished units (e.g., a wolf’s head for the cavalry of General A. G. Shkuro, who had been nicknamed the “White Wolves”).
However, the colorful units had their own, often flamboyant, uniforms and insignia, which contrasted starkly with the dull khaki of others. The Kornilovtsy wore black tunics and breeches, with white piping on the collar, breast, pocket flaps, cuffs, and trouser seams. Their caps had a red crown and a black band, again with white piping, and were peaked for officers and unpeaked for others. Pogony were half red and half black. The uniforms of the Markovtsy were similar, except that the crown of the cap was white, with black piping, and the pogony were predominantly black. The Alekseevtsy wore black (or sometimes white) uniforms, with facings in light blue, and a white-crowned cap piped in light blue and with a light-blue cap-band piped in white. The Drozdovtsy wore khaki tunics, without piping, and gray-blue breeches piped in red, with crimson-crowned caps piped in white and with a white cap-band piped in black. As these regiments grew into divisions over the course of 1918–1919, only the original members—usually the 1st or Officers’ companies or regiments—displayed these colors, the rest of the men wearing Russian or British khaki.
In all units of the Armed Forces of South Russia, the most senior officers (notably General P. N. Wrangel) were often clad in a long, narrow-waisted, and collarless cherkeska (Circassian coat) and a tall papakha (Circassian hat) of black or white fur or astrakhan.
Siberia: As the Siberian Army was gathered in the summer of 1918, during the Democratic Counter-Revolution, it at first deliberately avoided the pogony, cockades, and other regalia of the imperial army. Also, to display the regionalist credentials of the Provisional Siberian Government, the army adopted as its field sign (displayed on badges, patches, chevrons, and armbands) the white and green colors of Siberian regionalism (symbolizing the snow and forests of Siberia). By September 1918, however, as the military sought to assert itself over the civilian authorities, tsarist patterns were being reintroduced; the army commander, General P. P. Ivanov-Rinov, even decreed that officers could be arrested on sight for failing to display their insignia of rank.