Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

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”).