The image of a Russian and Soviet sailor is closely associated with wearing such a rather strange headdress as a peakless cap. Why does a sailor's hat have such a nominal look and shape? When did she appear? We will try to answer all these questions today, albeit in broad strokes.
For objective reasons, Russia acquired its own navy later than the maritime powers of Western and Northern Europe. The formation of the Russian fleet began under the grandfather of Peter I - Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. This process was inextricably linked with the desire of the Russian kingdom to gain a foothold in the Baltic, which, in fact, was the European "Caribbean" in terms of maritime trade. And as it was in any other fleet of the world, initially the sailors did not have any form established from above.
Beginning with Peter I, Russian sailors by and large wore anything, as long as it was convenient and practical, no different in this respect from their Western colleagues in the craft. The main headgear in the navy, not among the officers in the 18th century, was an ordinary hat with fields. Russian headdresses differed in form from European ones, but did not differ in essence. Most often, these were some variations of peasant headdresses. A hat with a brim was extremely useful for protecting the head from both the summer sun and the autumn downpour. However, it was not at all convenient both when working on masts and when working in the hold. Gradually, in the European manner, hats with fields turned into cocked hats.
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The royal hand touched the naval fashion in the sailor environment only at the end of the 18th century, when Emperor Paul I, son of Catherine II, was in office. Recall that Paul himself was killed by officers during a conspiracy on March 24, 1801. Nevertheless, it was under Paul I that the first attempt was made in the navy to introduce a uniform headgear for all sailors. They became a grenadier hat. True, due to its impracticality, it did not stay long in the navy, and already at the beginning of the 19th century it was replaced by a shako. Although both the grenadier hat and the shako looked extremely pretentious and beautiful, both headgear only prevented the sailors from performing their official duties. Russian admirals also spoke unflatteringly about the royal vision of the issue, for example, the shako was repeatedly criticized by the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Fedor Fedorovich Ushakov.
Very quickly, the first caps came to replace the shakos. The cap appeared in the Russian army as early as 1811, as a headdress for foragers (people involved in providing the army). At the same time, the cap turned out to be so practical that in a few years it always turned into the main everyday headdress of the army. She also got into the fleet as an everyday headdress. There it was supplemented with marine ribbons familiar to us today. And in 1874, everything unnecessary “fell off” from the naval cap in the face of the visor, as a result of which the peakless cap appeared: a cheap, comfortable and at the same time quite beautiful headdress for sailors.
In continuation of the topic, read about why the USSR marine space fleet, which was the pride of the country, was sent to scrap and has not yet been revived.
Source: https://novate.ru/blogs/200322/62469/