Figure 1.--Here a little Russian boy in a family snapshot plays at hoime dressed in pajama tops and blue tights. Available images suggest that this was common in many Russian homes. |
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HBC has noted Russian boys wearing both long stockings and tights with both short and long pants. While it is sometimes difficult to tell if boys in available images are wearing long stockings or tights, the date of the image using the above chronology can help determine this. Tights appear to have been widely worn, although apparently not as commonly as long stockings. It is somewhat difficult to assess this as many boys apparently worn them with long trousers. They were worn for play, school, and dress occasions. They were even worn with Young Pioneer uniforms. German sources report that some younger boys at home might wear tights without pants. Our Russian sources vary on this subject. Russian sources indicate that this was not the case in the Soviet Union, except for very young todler-age children. Some available images, however, suggest that it was the case. We suspect this may have been somewhat similar to American children wearing pajamas after waking up in the morning or before going to bed at night. We are not sure if tights were worn like pajamas by Russian boys.
HBC has noted Russian boys wearing both long stockings and tights with both short and long pants. While it is sometimes difficult to tell if boys in available images are wearing long stockings or tights, the date of the image using the above chronology can help determine this. Once tights appeared in the early 1970s, they rapidly replaced long stockings.
Tights appear to have been widely worn, although apparently not as commonly as long stockings. It is somewhat difficult to assess this as many boys apparently worn them with long trousers. It was the mothers who primarily insisted on tights. Their primary concern was keeping their children warm, although tights could also be worn for a dressy look.
We see Russian boys wearing tights for a range of different occassions. Russian boys were worn for play, school, and dress occasions. They were even worn with Young Pioneer uniforms. Here are information is still fairly limited. Hopefully our Russian readers will provide us more insights. They were also often commonly worn at home. They were worn with both short and long pants. Again it is difficult to fully assess how common it was for any of these circumstances because many boys wore long pants. This was especially true for the older boys. We note that they were very common in kindergarten and the early primary years. Afterwards it is more difficult to tell as more boys wear long pants. This is especially true by the 1990s.
German sources report that some younger boys at home might wear tights without pants. Our Russian sources vary on this subject. Russian sources indicate that this was not the case in the Soviet Union, except for very young todler-age children. Some available images, however, suggest that it was the case. We suspect this may have been somewhat similar to American children wearing pajamas after waking up in the morning or before going to bed at night. We are not sure if tights were worn like pajamas by Russian boys. But available images suggest that this may have been the case. Tights in someway are similar to footed pajamas.
We note girls and younger boys wearing white tights for formal occassions. Girls commonly wore white tights to school. This was not common for boys, but we see younger boys wearing them for special occassions. We note a class group of younger children wearing white tights as part of their costume in a presentation. We also notice an unidentified boy involved in a May Day program.
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