Where are all of the Russian/USSR leather jackets

[nick123]

Simple question...why have there not been more examples/talk of Russian leather jackets, both military and civilian? It is the largest country in the world and surely invested in military clothing during WWII and the Cold War. Also, I imagine they had a few tanneries and civilian clothing makers, at the very least. Anyone?

Also, please post your photos of Russian/Soviet era jackets!

 

[HanauMan]

I was going thru ebay last night looking at leather jackets and saw a few Russian ones on sale , so they're definitely out there! And they're so much cheaper than old Schott and Avirix jackets.

 

[Doctor Damage]

There's an older thread on this topic somewhere around here (no comment). Plus there's a detailed thread on the US Militaria forum or whatever it's called. The reality is that the Sovs had one design of leather jacket for pilots which they didn't change for decades. They still have the same design as far as I know and even other former Sov republics have used them so I suspect it might be more of a private purchase thing than an issue item. I think Silverman's surplus in the UK was selling a copy a while back )this jacket) which now seems almost sold out. But as far as I can tell the Sovs never got into leather jackets like the Amerikans did. Basically, they're useless in a Russian winter or spring/fall so they did heavy insulated cloth jackets instead.

 

[ButteMT61]

I would love to find a large, WWII era Soviet jacket. As it is, there's tons of post-war surplus being brought in, and the prices have skyrocketed in the last couple of years. There's some 50's "sheepies" that are awesome, but haven't found one in my size yet.
I do soviet reenacting, and we have a lot of original and repop stuff, including a cache of 30's and 40's Mosins, DP, a Maxim, and lots of PPSH in various builds. It's not sexy like the German or American gear, but it's still affordable *sans guns.

 

[Doctor Damage]

For a few years in recent years RUS police wore leather jackets, but those are phasing out.

 

[Stearmen]

There's an older thread on this topic somewhere around here (no comment). Plus there's a detailed thread on the US Militaria forum or whatever it's called. The reality is that the Sovs had one design of leather jacket for pilots which they didn't change for decades. They still have the same design as far as I know and even other former Sov republics have used them so I suspect it might be more of a private purchase thing than an issue item. I think Silverman's surplus in the UK was selling a copy a while back )this jacket) which now seems almost sold out. But as far as I can tell the Sovs never got into leather jackets like the Amerikans did. Basically, they're useless in a Russian winter or spring/fall so they did heavy insulated cloth jackets instead.

That's Amerikanski to you!

 

[nick123]

The Russian weather makes a lot of sense. Duh!

 

[Doctor Damage]

The Russian weather makes a lot of sense. Duh!

I've seen photos of Sov troops on maneuvers in April or May wearing insulated jackets with fur collars, etc. Parts of that country have looooong winters (northern Canada, too).

 

[Eastwood]

It's amazing how many fantasies and fictions in your discussions about USSR...sorry but it's true!, and especially today!
I do not understand why write - ugly utility, not beautiful, for cold weather only... if you do not know anything about the flight jackets of the USSR.
Flying jackets in the USSR developed how in the rest of the world - together with aviation.
First there was a leather raincoat "reglan", later a lot of leather jackets made in the USSR, and received by Lend-Lease during the war. After the war, there were five generations of leather intermediate jackets. There were also many kinds of heavy winter and light summer clothing flight jackets.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Cossacks sporting flight jackets. A few years ago Russia revived Cossack troops who are generally employed as auxiliaries assisting police and border guards.

 

[Eastwood]

Here are some examples of flying jackets in the USSR ..
P.S. And what does the cossacks and flight jackets? I do not see a single flying jacket on anyone!

 

[nick123]

It's amazing how many fantasies and fictions in your discussions about USSR...sorry but it's true!, and especially today!
I do not understand why write - ugly utility, not beautiful, for cold weather only... if you do not know anything about the flight jackets of the USSR.
Flying jackets in the USSR developed how in the rest of the world - together with aviation.
First there was a leather raincoat "reglan", later a lot of leather jackets made in the USSR, and received by Lend-Lease during the war. After the war, there were five generations of leather intermediate jackets. There were also many kinds of heavy winter and light summer clothing flight jackets.

Yes, Lend-Lease....did the Americans outsource any jackets? Idk, but I feel there's this big gap that has yet to be explored and archived (at least by the West) in Russia's clothing. There has to be more out there.

Wasn't the Himel Canuck derived from a jacket designed by Russian immigrants? Surely they had some kind of leather industry at one point?

 

[TREEMAN]

Cossacks sporting flight jackets. A few years ago Russia revived Cossack troops who are generally employed as auxiliaries assisting police and border guards.

The guy in the middle looks like he has a Lost Worlds jacket on.....

 

[rocketeer]

Forget the other stuff (grrrr) lets see the Eastern Block(Soviet era) jackets . A lot of equipment started to appear in the mid 1990s from Eastern Europe, especially tank drivers goggles which were ok for tank drivers and maybe pilots as they were a little like Stadium Mk8s but not really usable on motorcycles.
Another item that was very popular and really expensive were old long wave radios with fantastic bakelite and plastic casings with all those wonderful Russian radio station names in Russian script.
And as the original poster asked lets see the Soviet era jackets, all jackets, not just flight.

 

[Eastwood]

Ok, if talk about the theme.
I think if we talk about jackets, then everything goes back to either sport or military, in each country. Then the basic models of sport, fleet, aviation appear and they are already developing. Look at the experience of other countries, the experience of application in the case. So the jackets become legendary. In the USSR it was the same. But in the USSR, in addition to military flight jackets, I do not know the legendary jackets that are characteristic of the USSR. Everything in the jackets of the USSR basically goes back to sports or military jackets of Great Britain, Germany, the USA. Perhaps only a "Tulup" and a "Fufayka" as well as military flight jackets are typical for the USSR only.
I attached the photo of the military flight jackets of the USSR earlier. There in the photo the first cosmonauts of the USSR and the world are Gagarin, Leonov and many other famous pilots.

 

[Monitor]

 

[shadowrider]

Backto topic, I saw a russian biographical movie about Yuri Gagarin, a couple of years ago.
Lots of nice leather jackets in the movie. They looked similar to the ones posted (the standard russian flight jacket that has been around for years), but had some small differences that made them way cooler.

 

[ton312]

A simple google search nets these results:

After scrolling, scrolling and more scrolling. This is about all I could find.
Different keyword search:

My interest has passed and from what I can see there just isn't much to be seen or explored here.
eBay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/262590752499

 

[Eastwood]

Honestly, this, of course, is not original Russian jackets. These three are based on .. some original Russian jackets.

 

[Monitor]

Honestly, this, of course, is not original Russian jackets. These three are based on .. some original German jackets.

Fixed.