The extensive system of uniforms of the Russian Armed Forces was inherited from the Soviet Armed Forces and modified across the years.
Traditionally, the military uniforms of the Russian Armed Forces have been subdivided into parade, service dress, and field uniform roles, each with summer and winter variations, largely based on rank, season, and gender differences.
Governance The specific items, rules, regulations, and duties of the uniforms which are used in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are determined by Ministry of Defence and ultimately by the Minister of Defence. The current effective order which governs this is:
Order of the RF Ministry of Defence No. 525 of October 9, 2020
Which replaced the following previous orders (in effect from 2015 to 2020): Order of the RF Ministry of Defence No. 300 of June 22, 2015 (for military personnel) Order of the RF Ministry of Defence No. 340 of June 27, 2019 (for military personnel of the Navy) Order of the RF Ministry of Defence No. 725 of November 8, 2016 (for civil servants of the Ministry of Defence) The wearing of uniforms is subject to regulations applying not only to those serving in the Armed Forces, but also to pupils of the Suvorov military and Nakhimov naval academies, members of the reserve who have been discharged from active service, and ex-servicemen and women who still have the right to wear a military uniform.
Design overview In terms of their design, the uniforms currently worn by the Russian Federation Armed Forces' servicemen are, to a greater or lesser degree, a development of those worn by the Armed Forces of the former Soviet Union and in turn the Russian Empire.
Uniforms tend be most distinguishable by branch of service, largely due to colour differences. Other noteworthy subdivisions are based on rank, season, gender, and role. Independent troops use the uniforms from one of these three services with varying modifications, with the Strategic Rocket Forces using Army uniforms and the Airborne Forces using Aerospace Forces uniforms. The customary basic colours of black, green, and blue as worn by those serving in, respectively, the Russian Navy, Russian Army, and Russian Aerospace Forces reflect those traditionally worn in earlier periods.
In terms of division by rank, major distinctions tend to emerge between generals, officers, and enlisted personnel. It is worth noting that warrant officers are categorised with other officers rather than enlisted personnel with regards to uniforms. Variations of uniforms by rank have changed throughout history. Current prominent current distinctions include the type of uniforms, with only generals and officers receiving parade and service dress uniforms, ceremonial insignia, and ceremonial accoutrements. A noteworthy exception to this general rule is in military bandsmen who receive parade uniforms and use the ceremonial insignia and accoutrements of officers during solemn occasions.
There are a number of distinctive uniform designs today that were used in both the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire. For example, belts, aiguillettes, and shoulder straps of ceremonial detachments and honour guard units in solemn occasions, such as parades, state and military holidays, meetings of heads of state, meeting of government delegations, usage in solemn ceremonies, and usage in military honours ceremonies tend to reflect previous periods. Additionally, the army and aerospace cockade acts as a synthesis of that from both periods, with a five-pointed gold star on top of orange and black ovals, and surrounded by dihedral ray edging and occasionally a wreath. The five-pointed star became a Russian military symbol as a result of its importation from socialist heraldry during the Red Army period. The black and orange ovals are directly an importation of the Russian Empire's cockade. The rays are from the Soviet cockade, however, were occasionally part of Imperial uniforms. Finally, the ceremonial wreathing of the cockade is a direct inclusion from Soviet tradition.
Navy Similar to most navies, the Russian Navy has a separate set of dress uniforms for different seasons. The dominant colours are navy blue (used, for example, in the sailor suit and naval working dress suit), white (used during summer) or black (used by officers in normal dress and other ranks in the office uniform). Worn under the sailor suit for enlisted personnel is traditionally the telnyashka.
Naval infantry have uniforms elements that differ from the rest of the navy. For example, their only uniform colour is black. Additionally, officers have a different style service dress uniform which is reminiscent of the Soviet period uniform, personnel of all ranks often wear telnyashka instead of just enlisted personnel, and they have black berets with a red flag and anchor (in a similar pattern to the flag of the Soviet Union).
Ground Forces and Strategic Rocket Forces
Similar to other armies, the Russian Ground Forces makes use of a number of colours for its uniforms depending on the degree of formality. The role of each colour has changed considerably during different times. For a brief view, current colours used commonly include aqua (often dubbed wave-green, sea-wave, and formerly czar green), steel-grey, and olive (which is used to describe two markedly different shades of green).
The aqua "wave-green" colour serves as the colour of the parade uniform of officers and army bands. The wave-green colour draws its origins from the 19th and early 20th century Imperial Russian era uniforms in which it was known as "czar green". Following an absence during the early Soviet period, it was restored to all parade uniforms of marshals and generals starting with the 1945 Moscow Victory Parade. Subsequently, the wave-green coloured parade uniforms were introduced to all commissioned and warrant army officers in 1969. In 1994, the colour was abolished once again with the establishment of the distinct uniforms for Russia. This color was once officially again restored to all officer and warrant officer ranks of the Ground Forces in 2010 after usage at the Moscow Victory Day Parade since 2008, thus restoring continuity with previous uniforms.
Grey colour is a colour also used for ceremonial purposes. Formerly the staple colour of officer and other ceremonial winter uniform items such as greatcoats under both the Soviet and Imperial periods, it now only serves in this role for honour guards. The "gala" walking-out parade tunics of generals is also in this colour.
There are two distinctive colours called olive in the Russian Armed Forces. The first colour to be called this was used for the universal service dress and parade uniform for all ranks between 1994 and 2008. This replaced the similar but nevertheless different khaki colour used by a number of Soviet uniforms. Following the 2008 uniform reforms, this colour was retained for service dress, enlisted parade uniform usage. Since the introduction of the office uniform in 2012, the second colour to be called olive is a noticeably different bright shade of green.Тельманов Д. Шойгу переоденет сотрудников в «офисную» форму со звёздами // Сайт газеты «Известия» (izvestia.ru) 16 августа 2013. Infantry berets introduced during this period noticeably remained in the 1994 shade of olive. The 1994 shade of olive is additionally still used for general and officer service dress, however, the service dress uniform itself is seldom used today.
Aerospace and Airborne Forces The uniforms of the Aerospace Forces and Airborne Forces of the Russian Federation and Soviet Union are traditionally blue. The Air Force command staff wore a blue uniform in the 1920s and 1930s (with interruptions). Pre-war and early Second World War pilots also wore blue. Later in the war, the tunic colouring was reverted to khaki for all ranks, however, the universal breeches colouring of blue applied in parade dress (this also applied the Ground Forces until the M69 uniforms were introduced). From 1955-1957, there was a short-lived revival of the blue tunic colouring for Air Force officers. In 1969 there was a full blue revival for officer parade dress. Apart from this, officer and airmen uniforms were khaki coloured. The 1994 uniforms kept blue as the primary service and parade dress colour, however, this quickly fell out of use in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Blue was once again revived as part of the 2008 uniform reforms to a position similar to the 1969 role, with the exception being that Air Force officers and generals wear a blue service dress instead of olive (which had replaced khaki in the Russian Federation). This exception does not apply to Space Forces or Airborne Forces officers and generals, who continue to wear olive. The 2012-introduced office uniform is blue for all Air Force and Airborne Forces personnel and olive for all Space Forces personnel.
Throughout the existence of the Russian Federation, the Airborne Forces have continued to use the telnyashka and sky-blue beret from the Soviet period as a mark of distinction from the rest of the Aerospace Forces uniform set.
In the place of crown eagles, Air Force pilots and Honour Guard units have pilot brevets. This is in contrast to the Soviet period in which all officers, regardless of rank, had brevets.
Current designs Typically, uniforms are divided into the following categories, each with summer and winter variations:
Ceremonial honour guard uniform Issued to and typically worn by the servicemen of the 154th Preobrazhensky Independent Commandant's Regiment, this uniform is also worn by troops of other regiments depending on the nature of the occasion. The colours of the uniform are wave-green for the Army, blue for the Aerospace Forces, and black or white for the Navy.
The standard ceremonial honour guard uniform consists of a peaked cap, a standing-collar tunic with a plastron, breeches, and jackboots (swapped with dress pants and shoes for the Navy honour guard). Hot weather seasonal variations include the replacement of the closed-collar tunic with a white shirt-jacket and a black tie. Demi-season ceremonial dress adds a standing-collar greatcoat (grey for army, blue for Air Force, and black for navy). During winter, the greatcoat has an astrakhan collar-lining and the peaked hat is replaced with an astrakhan ushanka.
Parade uniform Typically only assigned to officers (including warrant officers) and service personnel of military bands of the Armed Forces. The colours of the uniform are wave-green for the Ground Forces (except Spetsnaz units), blue for the Aerospace Forces and Spetsnaz units, and black or white for the Navy (depending on the season in which the uniform is used).
The uniform is used for the following occasions:
Participation in parades and at official events On holidays of the military unit Upon receipt of state awards During a ceremony of presentation of colours within military units and educational institutions Upon launching of a ship When raising the Navy flag upon the ship Enlistment in guards of honour While serving as sentries for the protection of the Battle Colour of a military unit When serving as bandsmen/women in military bands Servicemen may also wear this uniform on weekends, outside of work hours
The peaked caps for parade uniforms feature coloured headbands largely based upon the Soviet uniform regulations. Below are the variations for these as well as other uniform colour variations: