A Different Kind Of "Stars" & "Stripes"
We'll start from the top of your new winter outfit and work our way down, да comrade?
The Ushankas (especially the rabbit fur variety) are a staple of Russian fashion that will genuinely save your ears in the wind.
Another Russian military tradition is adorning the Telnyashka's stripes underneath your favorite Russian kit — more on that later.
The sitting pads have a surprising amount of history and online cult of cloners of their own.
And credit where credit is due, they make any task with repeated sitting in the cold or wet conditions a whole lot more enjoyable...
But despite their Ruskie origins, we get them re-made in Ukraine instead of scouring for surplus.
Why Ukraine? It's just about the closest thing to Russia as you can get at the current moment — we don't think it gets any closer than having overlapped national borders due to current events...
Getting the new production stock also guarantees a certain degree of 'factory fresh' quality that you just can't find in second hand slav gear without it being confined to 'curio' status nowadays.
We can just stock more than enough for all of you guys to enjoy instead :)
But we've sold truckloads of Telnyashkas and an unbelievable amount of Ushankas. We'll tell you the whys of the Ushanka and a short ditty on the humble Telnyashka...
THE УШАНКА
Let's start with this iconic piece of Soviet headwear. Or was it Kazakhstani...?
This is an item with one of the oldest origins we've ever had on the store, so let's investigate exactly what's going on here with this hat.
To start off, the Russian word Ushanka (pronounced, ʊˈʂankə, "ooo-shahnka") is from the root word from "ear" to describe the hat's ear-covering flaps. It's predominance in Soviet-era and onward Russia as both a luxury item and utilitarian piece is obvious, so let's talk about everyone else's take on the same idea...
The Kazakhs have an equivalent hat, the Malahai (малақай in Kazakh). It's known for having a pretty similar design with the addition of different head shapes and flaps to protect the neck as well as a "visor" flap.
Both it's etymological roots and design roots can be traced as far back as the behemoth that was the Mongol empire, who famously employed a variety of furs into their headwear for one key purpose: It's a nearly unbeatable solution to stop the wind.
A Kazakh hunter with his trusty avian sidekick sporting an immense amount of fur to stop the harsh winds...
Insulation is one other side effect of fur but perhaps it's greatest utility around the ears and face is to completely disrupt the cold winds.
Another common place you'll see fur used is around the brim of a jacket's hood to reduce side-wind's impact on the wearer's face. Its even had its fair share of tactical applications such as the hood on the Alpha Industries USGI 'snorkel' parka and more recently on the Hill People Gear Coyote Ruff WindCheater.
In other words, fur is no joke, especially when it's the real deal...
The non-acrylic fur performs better than any faux alternative could and sports a unique look that will make PETA/Vegan activists quake in their flimsy vegan-leather boots as an added bonus.
So whether you're looking for your next ultra-comfortable hunting headwear or you're trying to cosplay as the bully from A Christmas Story it's pretty hard to go wrong with one of these...
So why not spoil your noggin with some luxurious fur?
Even if you don't go for the fur-version, we do have the more traditional wool type in stock if that's more your jam too (But PETA will squirm anyways).
It's not even fair to compare them to the surplus lot unless you're really looking for that soviet star adorned on the front...
How the Soviets got their stripes
Let's talk about those Telnyashkas. (Tell-knee-ahshka, we think)
The history of these shirts for Russia goes back all the way to their imperial navy but the true origin is a little further back, and a little more western European
The striped sailor's shirt is an icon that goes all the way back to the late 1800s, with northern-French "Breton" sailors donning them to be spotted amongst the waves easier when they fell overboard.
And because the French are so full of themselves, there were exactly 21 white stripes on the shirt to symbolize each of Napoleon's victories.
Given the history of Russia and Napoleon butting heads, it may come as no surprise that Russia made an interpretation of it themselves to stick it to them harder than the Russian winter stuck it to Emperor Bonaparte.
They did away with the exact number and size of the French stripes and standardized almost the exact Telnyashka you're seeing today.
You can see the similarities here. A lot of sailor uniforms ended up copying the French, even the infamous Japanese Sailor-gone-school-uniforms. In other words, Kawaii Seifuku is a wartime relic worn by some of the toughest sailors to ever live, but also the iconic uniform from Lucky Star and countless other CGDCT Anime. Go figure.
Since its debut, it's quite literally been seen in any conflict Russia's been involved with since, with it still being given to VDV (paratroopers) and GRU Spetsnaz troops as a historically symbolic part of their uniform.
Even outlying soviet bloc & other commie countries still use them, including the people they fought against...
Now our twist on it — these aren't Russian Surplus, rather we found a Ukrainian company that made the Soviet OGs (and now faithful reproductions) with the correct wide-neck that harkened back to the surplus we used to stock half a decade ago.
Feel free to argue amongst yourselves and leak top-secret military documents, we know how some of you are. If Putin himself can talk for 2 hours straight about non-sequitur Russian history we're sure some of you guys could outdo him.
But rest assured, each shirt is still imbued with a copious amount of Slavic energy, just not the Russian flavor...