In 1943, in the midst of World War II, Joseph Vissarionovich began to issue an order according to which the Red Army received a new uniform, new military ranks, and shoulder straps. Really, at that moment, the country had no other more important things to do, and why did the supreme commander-in-chief need to spend the time, forces and resources of the state on such a strange measure?
Not Stalin at all and not at all a "strange" measure
In fact, the initiative to provide troops with a new uniform did not come from Joseph Stalin at all. This issue was closely dealt with by Andrei Vasilyevich Khrulyov, a general, a specialist in logistics support for the troops. There is a staff legend that when Joseph Vissarionovich saw a new uniform for soldiers and officers with shoulder straps, he joked at the meeting, they say, Comrade Khrulev planned to return tsarism. And yes, it was in 1943, including thanks to the efforts of Khrulev, that shoulder straps returned to the army, which had not been in the Red Army since the Revolution.
Interesting fact: there is a misconception that the return of shoulder straps, ranks and the word "officer" in the Red Army was a necessary measure. In fact, this is not the case. The reform was initiated by the command, including at the suggestion of Stalin long before the war. Since the beginning of the 1930s, an ideological turn has been made in the USSR towards the "de-radicalization" of communism, which can be briefly described in the words: "under tsarism, not everything was bad." This was primarily reflected in school history textbooks. This political step was a continuation of the still Leninist cultural program. Few people know that a significant part (including modern) of the list of school literature Russian classics at one time was created personally by Vladimir Ilyich within the framework of the LikBez program for population.
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Patriotism and pragmatism
The new form was introduced in 1943 for several reasons. The first was, of course, ideological and patriotic. First, the command wanted to emphasize that the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army is the successor of the Russian imperial army. For this, in addition to the uniforms, (for example) the orders of Suvorov and Nakhimov were returned. Secondly, the return of "officers" and shoulder straps should have helped to raise morale, authority, and most importantly, discipline in the army.
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In addition, there were more utilitarian reasons for changing the form. Do not forget that the form wears out corny. Moreover, in wartime, it wears out much stronger and faster. The new form was constantly produced by Soviet industry, and therefore replacement was not only necessary, but also quite natural.
Continuing the topic read why World War II did not become a testing ground for chemical weapons and not only.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/021119/52278/