Item Description
Original Item: Only One Available. Manufactured in the USSR and dating some time in the early 1950s, this tunic is constructed of thick, high quality napped dark green wool. Stand-up collar with red piping on the collar and cuffs. All buttons bear hammer and sickle communist insignia. Shoulder boards are six-sided, pre-1947 type, in gilt with red piping and has one silver star and crossed cannons.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, a new version of the gymnastyorka with a stand-and-fall collar was issued to the Bolshevik forces, with three razgovory straps sown across the chest in branch colours. During the Russian Civil War, both the counter-revolutionary White Army and the Bolshevik Red Army wore gymnastyorkas, White Army troops were issued with new black gymnastyorkas of the original Imperial pattern, some of them wore old khaki-green or white ones, but all of them had shoulder-boards. The Bolshevik Red Army wore both original Imperial pattern shirt-tunics and ones of a new model, with or without the coloured stripes, but some added with two breast pockets. The wide variety of uniforms worn by both sides during the Civil War arose from supply and production difficulties in the chaotic conditions of the time.
In 1924 the shoulder straps were abolished, and in 1935 the gymnastyorka was modified to accommodate the reintroduction of personal ranks in the Red Army. The M35 version was slightly modified on 1 August 1941 after the experience of the Winter War, replacing the colorful rank collar tabs, with duller and subdued ones. In 1943 the traditional Tsarist version with stand collar and shoulder-boards was reintroduced, replacing the M35 gymnastyorka. The M43 remained in service until the gymnastyorka was finally abolished in 1969.
A beautiful example that comes more than ready for further research and display.
Approximate Measurements:
Collar to shoulder: 11"
Shoulder to sleeve: 27”
Shoulder to shoulder: 19”
Chest width: 25"
Waist width: 26.5"
Hip width: 26.5”
Front length: 33"
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