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The history of the vest. What do the stripes on the vest and gyuse mean. Why do paratroopers wear vests What does an airborne vest look like

but not with air. How and why did a skydiver in a blue beret get a vest? On the eve of the Airborne Forces, we answer a question.

The abduction of the “sea soul” by “paratroopers” was resisted in every possible way by the commander-in-chief of the USSR Navy, Sergei Gorshkov. Once, according to legend, at one meeting he entered into an open skirmish with Vasily Margelov, calling the appearance of a paratrooper in a vest with the unpleasant word "Anachronism". Vasily Filippovich then severely besieged the old sea wolf: “I fought in the marines and I know what paratroopers deserve and what they don’t!”

The official premiere of the blue striped vests took place in the Prague events of August 1968: it was the Soviet paratroopers in striped jerseys that played a decisive role in ending the Prague Spring. At the same time, the debut of the famous blue berets took place. Few people know that the new image of the paratroopers was not registered in any official document. They received their baptism of fire by the free will of the "patriarch" of the Airborne Forces - without any unnecessary bureaucratic red tape. Knowledgeable people who can read between the lines saw in the Prague fashion show of Soviet paratroopers a hidden challenge from the commander of the Airborne Forces to the commander-in-chief of the Navy. The fact is that Margelov stole from the sailors not only a vest, but also a beret.

Spiteful critics saw the roots of Vasily Filippovich's passion for the attributes of the Navy in the desire to annoy the opponent from the Navy and jealousy for the marines, in which Margelov served during the war. I would like to believe that the main paratrooper of the USSR had more serious reasons - for example, belief in the superpower of a vest, understanding of the "striped" soul, which he learned about when he fought side by side with the "flared" sailors during the war.

The film can hardly be called spectacular; there are not very many episodes where rugby is played, so it is very difficult to form an opinion about the intricacies of the game. It seems that the main impression on Margelov was made by one of the most brutal moments of the picture, when the main character is intentionally injured by a player of the opposite team. The player of this team is dressed in a striped uniform that resembles a vest.

Everyone saw an undershirt made of knitted knitted fabric with alternating horizontal blue and white stripes. It consists of supplying the Navy and the Airborne Forces. But a simple undershirt became a symbol of courage and fearlessness, a “vest”, thanks to the heroism of Russian sailors and paratroopers.

The beginning was laid by the sailors of the cruiser "Varyag" and the gunboat "Koreets", the defenders of Port Arthur, the marines of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

In 1941 Vasily Filippovich Margelov commanded the Marine Corps of the Baltic Fleet. The subordinates of the future Commander of the Airborne Forces won the love and respect of the commander with their dashing and courage in battles with the Nazi invaders. The vest remained an integral part of even the field uniform of a sailor, as an inextricable link with the sea element. Since then, Vasily Filippovich has gone through various command posts, but under his military uniform he always wore a vest and dreamed that a similar symbol of courage would appear in his favorite branch of the military.

In Russia, the vest appeared in the navy. Russian sailors, leaving on a long voyage, stocked up instead of a thick undershirt put on allowance, worn under flannel, their own knitted ones. Russian sailors saw similar shirts in foreign campaigns with their Western colleagues and appreciated the quality and convenience of the vests. In European navies, stripes on sailors' working clothes helped to track the actions of the crew when setting sails in the daytime and at night, and also helped to distinguish those who had fallen overboard on the surface of the sea. The blue and white colors of the stripes, symbolizing sea foam and waves, were chosen as an attribute of sailors.

The sailors knitted the vests themselves, crocheted, in their free time from the watch, or bought them in the ports of the Mediterranean Sea. The officers and doctors of the Russian Navy spoke out for the expediency of using knitted underwear striped shirts by the lower ranks. On August 19, 1874, "by Order of His Imperial Highness General-Admiral No. 115", a vest with blue and white transverse stripes corresponding to the colors of the St. Andrew's flag was introduced into the norms of clothing allowance for all lower ranks of the fleet.

In the mid-60s, the Commander of the Airborne Forces, Vasily Filippovich Margelov, persuaded the higher authorities to include the vest in the list of items of clothing allowance for the military personnel of the Airborne Forces. Officers of the rear of the Airborne Forces prepared material on the need for paratroopers to wear a vest made of wool and cotton, as it is ideal for wearing in summer and winter and eliminates injury to personnel when making parachute jumps.

On July 6, 1969, the Order of the Minister of Defense of the USSR No. 191 approved a new uniform for military personnel of the Airborne Forces, which included wearing a vest with white and blue (the color of the sky) stripes. At first, only the units participating in the parades received vests, but with the establishment of supplies, each paratrooper received his own “vest”.

Time has shown that the paratroopers, who practically never left the armed conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries, rightfully wear a sky-blue striped vest.

The vest has always been associated with the water element, but not with the air element. How and why did a skydiver in a blue beret get a vest? On the day of the Airborne Forces, we answer the question.

Unofficially, vests appeared in the paratroopers' wardrobe in 1959. Then they began to be awarded for a parachute jump into the water. However, it is unlikely that this minor tradition could grow into a "striped" cult, which eventually arose in the Airborne Forces. The main cultivator of the vest in the airborne troops was the legendary commander of the Airborne Forces Vasily Margelov. It was thanks to his frantic enthusiasm that the striped jersey officially entered the paratrooper's wardrobe. The abduction of the “sea soul” by “paratroopers” was resisted in every possible way by the commander-in-chief of the USSR Navy, Sergei Gorshkov. Once, according to legend, at one meeting he entered into an open skirmish with Vasily Margelov, calling the appearance of a paratrooper in a vest with the unpleasant word "Anachronism". Vasily Filippovich then severely besieged the old sea wolf: “I fought in the marines and I know what paratroopers deserve and what they don’t!” The official premiere of the blue striped vests took place during the events in Prague in August 1968: it was the Soviet paratroopers in striped jerseys that played the decisive role in ending the Prague Spring. At the same time, the debut of the famous blue berets took place. Few people know that the new image of the paratroopers was not registered in any official document. They received their baptism of fire by the free will of the "patriarch" of the Airborne Forces - without any unnecessary bureaucratic red tape. Knowledgeable people who can read between the lines saw in the Prague fashion show of Soviet paratroopers a hidden challenge from the commander of the Airborne Forces to the commander-in-chief of the Navy. The fact is that Margelov stole from the sailors not only a vest, but also a beret.

The official premiere of berets was scheduled for November 7, 1968 - a parade on Red Square. But most importantly, the berets were supposed to be black and crown the heads of the Marines under the jurisdiction of the Navy. The Navy received the right of the first night by a special Order of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR No. 248 dated November 5, 1963. But five years of careful preparation went down the drain due to the pirate fashion raid of the “landing force”, which then had no formal right to wear a beret, not on a vest. The legitimacy of the new outfit of paratroopers received almost a year after the Prague events thanks to the Order of the USSR Ministry of Defense No. 191 of July 26, 1969, which introduced the next rules for wearing military uniforms. Who would dare to ban the fighters of the Airborne Forces from wearing a vest and beret after they actually single-handedly extended the life of "developed socialism" in Eastern Europe. Spiteful critics saw the roots of Vasily Filippovich's passion for the attributes of the Navy in the desire to annoy the opponent from the Navy and jealousy for the marines, in which Margelov served during the war. I would like to believe that the main paratrooper of the USSR had more serious reasons - for example, belief in the superpower of a vest, understanding of the "striped" soul, which he learned about when he fought side by side with the "flared" sailors during the war.

There is a very funny hypothesis that the chief paratrooper's passion for horizontal stripes was born on the wave of popularity among the Soviet military elite of the British film This Sporting Life. This depressing drama tells the story of the harsh world of English rugby players. The picture, released in 1963, for some mysterious reason, became a cult among military leaders. Many military commanders lobbied for the creation of subordinate rugby teams. And Vasily Filippovich generally ordered rugby to be included in the training program for paratroopers. The film can hardly be called spectacular; there are not very many episodes where rugby is played, so it is very difficult to form an opinion about the intricacies of the game. It seems that the main impression on Margelov was made by one of the most brutal moments of the picture, when the main character is intentionally injured by a player of the opposite team. The player of this team is dressed in a striped uniform that resembles a vest.

On August 19, sea wolves celebrate the birthday of the Russian vest. On this day in 1874, the striped sweatshirt received the official status of a part of the ammunition of a Russian sailor by a high Imperial decree. It's time to reveal the main mysteries of the "sea soul".

Let's start with a little prologue. If before that you read something about the origin of vests, then consider that you have lost time. What is written in Russian is a flawed compilation of a compilation. Today, on the unofficial birthday of the Russian vest, you have a happy opportunity to learn SOMETHING about this element of the “marine” wardrobe, if, of course, you need it at all for some reason.

Now the prologue itself. Any person is blood from flesh the son of the earth. The bearer of its language, culture, stereotypes, delusions and stupidity. But one day this earthly creature, the “land rat”, the existential “root crop”, gets the chance to go to the open sea. Gravity decreases, the turnip stretches and the “root crop” dies, and instead of it, the one who is called “tumbleweed”, “tear and throw away” is born,

Maritime culture is the first experience of globalization. The sailors of the whole world do not care about flags, state borders, religion. Everything on land loses value to them immediately after they overcome seasickness and cross the equator. After that, they already know that life, in which you feel solid flesh under your feet, is an illusion, a trick, bullshit. The whole truth, the true reality is going on in the sea, where the shores are not visible. Instead of the past waddle on clay, a person acquires a floating, soft tread, in which one can see a slight disdain for everything that is harder than a deck board and that absorbs the smart clatter of heels.

Sailors are aliens on our planet, a global alternative to "soil being", an anti-system for "earthly order". It was in such a culture that a strange and at the same time very deep in meaning cult of a thing that the Western world calls a breton shirt (Breton shirt), and we Russians call a “vest” could be born.

Why is she striped?

Until recently, every cabin boy knew that the sea is inhabited not only by fish and water reptiles, but also by spirits. Lots of spirits! Establishing normal contact with them, finding mutual understanding is the key not only to a successful voyage, but also a guarantor of a sailor's life expectancy. Mother fate rules the sea directly, without an intermediary in the form of "common sense". In this regard, the main task of any person on the high seas is not to provoke fate to famously. Over many millennia, this goal has formed around itself a whole system of knowledge, a real science, which people dependent on the earth's firmament carelessly call marine superstitions.

Sailors don't like to test axioms with personal experience. The experiments of physicists and the careless curiosity of lyricists are alien to him. All he has to do is strictly follow tradition, for it is difficult for drowned men to learn from their own mistakes.

Do not take a woman on a ship, do not whistle, do not kill seagulls, bathe after crossing the equator; an earring in the ear so as not to drown, a tattoo so as not to become a ghost after death - everything has its own specific meaning, where functionality is adjacent to mysticism, protective magic.

From time immemorial, Breton fishermen, going to sea, put on striped (black and white) robes. It was believed that the robe protects them from the aggression of undines, mermaids and other evil spirits. Perhaps the Breton vest played the role of underwater camouflage, protecting from the gaze of sea demons. And, perhaps, another function was attributed to the alternating horizontal stripes by the Breton fishermen: one thing is for sure, the striped shirt played the role of a talisman.

During the period of the Great Geographical Discoveries, when there was an acute shortage of personnel in the world, many Breton fishermen joined the European fleets. But most of the Bretons, oddly enough, ended up on Dutch, not French ships. Maybe because they paid well there, maybe because the Bretons were not very fond of the French usurpers, or maybe the Dutch, liberal by nature, did not forbid the Bretons from wearing their defiant striped outfits. It was the beginning of the 17th century; by the end of the century, the vest will become a global fashion trend for all European sailors.

How many stripes are on the vest?

Of course, you can tritely count the stripes on the same paratrooper's vest, but here we will be disappointed. In Russia, since the Soviet period, the number of stripes on vests depends on the dimensions of a particular sailor, marine or border guard. Relatively speaking, there will be 33 of them on the 46th size, and 52 on the 56th. The numerological problems of the vest could be put on the brakes if it were not known for sure that the numerical symbolism in the "Breton shirt" still exists. For example, in the standard adopted by the French Navy in 1852, the vest had to be 21 stripes - according to the number of Napoleon's great victories. However, this is the version for "land rats". 21 is the number of success, good luck in the cult card game of sailors Vingt-et-un (aka Blackjack, aka Point). The numerological component in the number of bands was among the Dutch and the British. So, in the middle of the 17th century, ship crews engaged by the Dutch East India Company preferred "Breton sweaters" with twelve horizontal stripes - the number of ribs in a person. Thus, as some connoisseurs of the maritime tradition explain, the sailors deceived a dashing fate, showing that they had already died and become ghost skeletons.

How the breton shirt became a "vest"

Russian sailors in New York, 1850s. Still no vests

For the first time, a Russian person saw a vest, most likely in the second half of the 17th century, when Dutch merchant ships got into the habit of Kholmogory and Arkhangelsk. The sea wolves from the Netherlands, along with the British, were the main trendsetters in the field of marine ammunition. It is no coincidence that Peter I completely adopted the Dutch naval uniform for the nascent Russian fleet. True, without the "Breton shirts". The latter fragmentarily appeared in Russia in the 40-50s of the 19th century: sailors of the merchant fleet flaunted in vests, who exchanged or bought them in some European port.

There is a story that in 1868 the Grand Duke and Admiral Konstantin Nikolayevich Romanov received the crew of the General Admiral frigate. All the sailors came to the meeting wearing striped shirts they had bought in Europe. The sea wolves praised the functionality and convenience of striped jerseys so much that a few years later, in 1874, the prince brought a decree for the emperor's signature, officially including the vest in naval ammunition.

How was the "sea soul" born?

However, the vest became a cult a little later. After the Russo-Japanese War, the demobilized sailors filled the Russian cities. They were like the people of the New York Bronx, only instead of hip-hop they danced dances like "Bullseye", talked about how they fought for Port Arthur, and looked for adventures on their own heads. The main attribute of these dashing sailors, "the soul wide open", was a vest, which at that time began to be called the "sea soul". It was at this time that the first mass acquaintance of the “sea soul” with the collective Russian soul took place. The union of "two lonely souls", which took place in 1917, gave a mixture that blew up Russia. The Bolsheviks, who actively used the sailors in their seizure of power as a natural anti-system to any "land" order, in 1921, by suppressing the Kronstadt rebellion, finally rid themselves of the unwanted reflection of the "sea soul".

Why is a paratrooper wearing a vest?

Premiere of the airborne vest in Prague, 1968

The vest has always been associated with the water element, but not with the air element. How and why did a skydiver in a blue beret get a vest? Unofficially, "Breton shirts" appeared in the wardrobe of paratroopers in 1959. Then they began to be awarded for a parachute jump into the water. However, it is unlikely that this minor tradition could grow into a "striped" cult, which eventually arose in the Airborne Forces. The main cultivator of the vest in the Airborne Forces was the legendary commander of the Airborne Forces Vasily Margelov. It was thanks to his frantic enthusiasm that the striped sweatshirt officially entered the essentials of the paratrooper's wardrobe.

The official premiere of the blue striped vests took place in the Prague events of August 1968: it was the Soviet paratroopers in striped jerseys that played a decisive role in ending the Prague Spring. At the same time, the debut of the famous blue berets took place. Few people know that the new look of the paratroopers was not registered in any official document. They received their baptism of fire by the free will of the "patriarch" of the Airborne Forces - without any unnecessary bureaucratic red tape. Knowledgeable people who can read between the lines saw in the Prague fashion show of Soviet paratroopers a hidden challenge from the commander of the Airborne Forces to the commander-in-chief of the Navy. The fact is that Margelov stole from the sailors not only a vest, but also a beret.

The official premiere of berets was scheduled for November 7, 1968 - a parade on Red Square. But most importantly, the berets were supposed to be black and crown the heads of the marines under the jurisdiction of the Navy. The Navy received the right of the first night by a special Order of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR No. 248 dated November 5, 1963. But five years of careful preparation went down the drain due to the pirate fashion raid of the “landing force”, which then had no formal right to wear a beret, not on a vest. The legitimacy of the new outfit of paratroopers received almost a year after the Prague events thanks to the Order of the USSR Ministry of Defense No. 191 of July 26, 1969, which introduced the next rules for wearing military uniforms. Who would have dared to ban the fighters of the Airborne Forces from wearing a vest and beret after they actually single-handedly extended the life of "developed socialism" in Eastern Europe.

Spiteful critics saw the roots of Vasily Filippovich's passion for the attributes of the Navy in the desire to annoy the opponent from the Navy and jealousy for the marines, in which Margelov served during the war. I would like to believe that the commander of the Airborne Forces had more serious reasons - for example, belief in the superpower of a vest, understanding of the "striped" soul, which he learned about when he fought side by side with the "flared" sailors during the war.

“We are few, but we are in vests”

"Striped Devils". Marines in the Great Patriotic War

This is not empty bravado. Horizontal stripes create an optical effect that is larger than it really is. Interestingly, the Germans called the Soviet sailors and marines who participated in battles on land during World War II "striped devils." This epithet is associated not only with the shocking fighting qualities of our warriors, but also with the Western European archetypal consciousness. In Europe, striped clothing for many centuries was the lot of the "damned": professional executioners, heretics, lepers and other outcasts of society who did not have the rights of a city dweller were required to wear it. Of course, the appearance of Soviet sailors in vests in a "land" situation caused primitive fear among unprepared German infantrymen.

What do all these colored stripes mean?

Today, almost every branch of the military in Russia has its own vest with stripes of a unique color. T-shirts with black stripes are worn by marines and submariners, with light green ones - by border guards, with maroon ones - by the Special Forces of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, with cornflower blue - by soldiers of the Presidential Regiment and special forces of the FSB, with orange - by employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, etc.

The criteria for choosing a particular color by a particular branch of service is probably a military secret. Although it would be very interesting to know why, say, the FSB special forces flaunt in vests with cornflower blue stripes. But time will pass, and the secret will still become clear.

Alexey Pleshanov

The vest has always been associated with the water element, but not with the air element. How and why did a skydiver in a blue beret get a vest? On the eve of the Airborne Forces, we answer a question.