page_title: Gymnastyorka
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Gymnastyorka / Origins
caption_attribution_description: Suomi: Suomen kaarti kokoontuneena aamurukoukseen Kaartin kasarmin pihalle ennen lähtöään viimeistä kertaa Krasnoje Selon sotaharjoituksiin.
context_page_description: Gymnastyorka was a Russian military smock comprising a pullover-style garment with a standing collar having double button closure. Additionally, one or two upper chest pockets, with or without flaps, may have been worn. It had provision for shoulder boards and sometimes reinforced elbows and cuffs. The Tsarist version had the standing collar while the M35 version had a stand-and-fall collar which was replaced with the standing collar in the M43 version. The Soviet Army M35 version usually had hidden buttons. A double breasted version for officers of all ranks existed during the Tsarist period.
context_section_description: The gymnastyorka was originally introduced into the Imperial Russian Army in about 1870 for wear by regiments stationed in Turkestan during the hot summers. It took the form of a loose fitting white linen "shirt-tunic" and included the coloured shoulder-boards of the dark green tunic worn during the remainder of the year. The gymnastyorka was taken into use by all branches of the Imperial Russian Army at the time of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78.  Originally intended as a working dress during peacetime and patterned on the traditional Russian peasant smock, the gymnastyorka was subsequently adopted for ordinary duties and active service wear. It was worn as such by non-commissioned ranks in summer during the 1890s and early 1900s. The officers' equivalent was a white double breasted tunic or kitel.   During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 the white gymnastyorka with its red or blue shoulder-boards proved too conspicuous against modern weaponry and the garments were often dyed various shades of khaki. The smartness and comfort of the white gymnastyorka enabled it to survive for a few more years of peacetime wear until a light khaki version was adopted in 1907-09 and worn during World War I.
caption: The Guards' Rifle Battalion on parade in white gymnastyorka shirt-tunics April 1905.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "400", "Image YResolution": "400", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2013:08:08 16:06:31", "Image ExifOffset": "172", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "310", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8340", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1805", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1350"}