Figure 1.--Here we see a portrait of a Russian boy and girl in 1910. The girl wears a kind of dressy smock. The boy wears a readitionally styled sailor suit.

HBC has begun to develop some chronolgical information about Russian boys' clothes, although our information is still quite limited. Our Russian readers have provided us some interesting information to begin building a basic chronology. Russia in the early 19th century was the most backward country in Europe. It's huge reserves of manpower and the force of the Russian winter helped to defeat Napoleon and reverse the course of European history. The great bulk of the Russian people were mired in the feudal system. They were serfs on huge landed estates with no contact with western thought and culture. Their labor supported a wealthy airistocracy which prefered to speak Russian and in fact looked with distain on the culture and people of their own country. The middle class which proved the back bone of Western European nations was very small and less important in Russia. Boys clothing reflected these dichotomies. French fashions in the late 19th Century were popular with aristocratic and affluent middle class families. This was an interesting development as France under Napoleon invaded Russian and occupied with considerable brutality much of European Russia. None-the-less French culture in the late 19th century was dominate among the elite. Many spoke French at home rather than Russian. Dress styles were similar to those of France. Like French boys, little Russian boys also wore dresses. Peasant boys wore a tunic outfit that buttoned tightly around the neck. This style was also worn by boys from wealthy families and was the inspiration for the Russian blouse in Europe amd America. Little boys continued to wear dresses after the turn of the Century, but this fashion was passing and for the most part relatively young boys wore dresses. Sailor suits were popular for boys. The Tsarevitch Alexis almost always wore sailor suits, until World War I began (1914). Then he mostly wore army uniforms. Many other arristocratic and wealthy boys, as well as middle class boys, also wore sailor suits, but this was a realtively small part of the population. The sailor suit was probably a reflection of the German influence. Even before the Russian Revolution, Russia except for the elite was a basically closed society. Fashionable clothes were not generally available to Soviet citizens and restrictions on foreign publications and travel restricted the spread of European fashion trends. After kneepants had passed out of style in the 1910s, Soviet boys mostly wore long pants. Knickers were never popular in the Soviet Union. Boys did wear shorts, but mostly during the summer. Russian boys like boys in Scandinavia, Poland, and Germany continued to wear long stockings after kneesocks had become more common in Europe. Since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian boys have begun increasingly to dress like boys in the rest of Western Europe.

The 18th Century

We do not yet have much information on Russian 18th century fashion. The great bulk of the population was made up of serfs and peasants in rural areas, including large estates. We believe that boys at the time dressed much as peasant boys did in the 19th century. We have some information as we have some information on the 19th century and beginning in the 1860s even photographs exist. Boys wore tunic-like garments with baggy long trousers. This was the same garments their fathers wore. There does not seem to have been any style for peasant boys. Most went barefoot in the summer. The privlidged classes dressed very differently, considering peasants ucultured and barbaric. They chose French styles if they could afford it. They even preferred to speak French rather Russian. We have some portraits showing us the styles od clothing wirn, our major source of information. Of course the mumber of portait was minisule compared to what ogotography would produce in the 19th century. And they mostly depicted the fashions of the well-to-do. Fashions even for boys could be elaborate. Young bpys wore dresses like their sisters. After breeching boys were dressed like their fathers. They wore a full-skirted knee-length coat, knee breeches, a long vest (waistcoat). Vests at the time could have sleeves. Along with the suit, men and boys wore linen shirts with frills. Men wore silk stockings to cover their legs along with leather shoes. Well-to-do boys wore the new skeleton suits firt with knee britches and by the turn-of-the 19th century long trousers. We note one portrait of a boy wearing a tunic with loose long trousers dine in a light material. We do not know how common these tunic garments were.

The 19th Century

The 19th century was a time of enormous change for Russia. Russia had been a backward, but important power in the 18th century. It was Russia, however, that broke the back of Napolelon and his vast army (1812). This made Russia the most powerful continental power in Europe. And this continued to mid-century when it was the Russian Army that moved into central Europe and prevented the success of liberal revolutions. Russia was, however, with its basically fedudal economy lagging behind rapidly industrializing Western Europe. This first showed up in the Crimean War (1853-56) in which Russians were shocked at the degree to which their militry prowess had declined. One result was that Tsar Alexander II emancipated the serfs. The Russian economy still lagged badly behind the West. Russia began to industrialize, byt at slower rate than the other great powers except Austria. And the Tsarist regime after the assasination of Alexander II maintained its autocratic control of Russia, repressing even moderate demands for reform. By the end of the century Russia had begun to industrialize creating substantial wealth and a growing, but repressed urban working class with no legal way to express their desires. The pace of industrialization increased, but Russi was still a primrily rural, agricultural country. All of this had a major inpact on Russian sciety, including fashions. The major impact was economic. Industrializatio meant wealth creation which in the West meant the increasing prosperity of the working class because of the devlopmnt of democraric systems. This did not occur in Russia. Thus while the upper class and relatively small urban middle class could dress fashionanly, the vast majority of the urbn working class and rural population could not.

Early 19th Century

Russia in the early 19th century was the most backward country in Europe. It's huge reserves of manpower and the force of the Russian winter helped to defeat Napoleon and reverse the course of European history. The great bulk of the Russian people were mired in the feudal system. They were serfs on huge landed estates with no contact with western thought and culture. Their labor supported a wealthy airistocracy which prefered to speak Russian and in fact looked with distain on the culture and people of their own country. The middle class which proved the back bone of Western European nations was very small and less important in Russia. Boys clothing reflected these dichotomies. Peasant boys wore loose fitting blouses and baggy trousers and went barefoot. Boys from wealthy famikies were dressed in the latest Parisian fashions. British and German styles were also influential.

Mid-19th Century

We have onlu limited information available on the mid 19th century. We see younger aristocratic boys wearing tunic outfits. We notic the Gorchakov boys wearing tunics (1848). We also note the children of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna in a Roberson portrait (1849). Prince Nicolas wears what looks like a burgandy velvet tunic with long pants. We notice an older noy wearing an open lapel suit jacket (1839).

Late 19th Century

French fashions in the late 19th Century were popular with aristocratic and affluent middle class families. This was an interesting development as France under Napoleon invaded Russian and occupied with considerable brutality much of European Russia. one=the-less French culture in the late 19th century was dominate among the elite. Many spoke French at home rather than Russian. Dress styles were similar to those of France. Like French boys, little Russian boys also wore dresses. Peasant boys wore a tunic outfit that buttoned tightly around the neck. This style was also worn by boys from wealthy families and was the inspiration for the Russian blouse in Europe amd America. Military styles, especially sailor suits were especially popular. School age boys common had their heads shaved, although HBC is unsure just when this style was adopted.

The 20th Century

Generally we prefere to assess chronological trends by decades, but the Bolshevik Revolution (1919) was such a watermark event that we think it is appropriate to divide Russia's 20th century chronology by the Tasarist (1900-19), Soviet (1919-91), and post-Soviet 1992-2000) eras. There were major fashion shifts in part ideological and in part economic. Russian srtles at the begining of the 20th century were sharply divided. The upper class and urban middle class sported the fashionable clothing of the West. The working class, especially the rural population dressed very differently, boys commonly wore tunics which for some reasonnsparked a popular Western style--the Russian blouse. This changed with the Revolution. Fashion was no longer ideologically acceptable. Thus we see much less fashionable clothing in the cities, but in rural areas the peasant clothing rapidly declined and children ransitioned to Western styles, although not very fashionnle western clothing. You no longer see advertisemnts in magazines and newspapers. A Soviet propaganda wildly overstated the income gains of the woring class. And income leves lagged far behind the west, affecting how people dressed. But even the Iron curtain could not keep fashion out, especially after Stalin died and the NKVD/KGB had to moderate its fierce repressive regime to some extent. Russian teenagers all wanted blue jeans and oher western styles. As a result, by the time the Soviet Union emploded, Russian children had already adopted the popular pan-European styles of the West. The most obvious difference between Russian and Western clothing was the persistance of long stockings in the post-World War II era and then the transition to tights.

The 21st Century

We note Russian Children in the 21st centuyry adopting many of the styles popular throughout Europe. Begunning in the 1970s, Europerean children began to adopt a kind of pan-European syle, heavily influenced by American fashions. We see an incresing popularity of casual styles with a sports influene. We see stylish T-shirts and sweatshirts. Warm up suits also see popular. Garments with sports and music band logos are especially popular. Denim is a prefered material. We see baseball caps and brightly colored jackets. Soviet policies slowed, but did not stop the s[pead of the styles east and the disolution of the Soviet Union (1992), the floodgates were open. By the 21st century there was vey little differece in popular styles in Russia and the rest of Europe. Of course cold weather items like war coats and jackes were needed in Russia. This was at lweeast the cade in the major cities. We are less certain about the small oens and rural areas. One of the few diffeences we note is that tights comtinue to be worn by boys in Russia, but are not in Europe generally.

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Created: 5:47 PM 8/11/2005
Last updated: 11:33 PM 8/17/2017