kamouflage.net camouflage data

Razvedchik Sergeant F. I. Anikin, in Berlin, May 1945. During World War 2, Russian reconnaissance units were one of the select few types of soldier who were issued MKK camouflage suits patterned in Type I leaf pattern camouflage. [Image: Raboche-Krest'yaskaya Krasnaya Armiya.]

1941 summer camouflage
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Late in 1940 or early in 1941, the Soviet army began to issue another two-piece camouflage uniform. Like the two-piece camouflaged suit that was issued in 1937–1938, this newer uniform was also designated 'deceptive camouflage suit' (Russian: маскировочный камуфлированный костюм, trans. maskirovochnyy kamuflirovannyy kostyum, MKK).

Although the cut and construction of the smock might have been based on early examples of the German Tarnjacke, the pattern employed was distinctly Soviet. Rather than being disruptive in nature, the three-colour (it is not so easily seen in the specimen on this page, but the centres of the leaves and flowers are printed in a shade of green different from that which surrounds them) Soviet 'leaf pattern' camouflage was mimetic, with semi-realistic representations of leaves, grasses and twigs on a light green background.

As with the earlier 1938 amoeba pattern camouflage, one-piece 'leaf pattern' camouflage coveralls — (Russian: маскировочный камуфлированный комбинезон, trans. maskirovochnyy kamuflirovannyy kombinezon, MKK) — were also issued. Some issues were reversible, with a sandy background on the other side for use in desert and mountain environments.

During the Second World War, assault engineers, snipers, airborne forces (Russian: Воздушно-десантные войска, trans. Vozdushno-desantnyye voyska, VDV) and reconnaissance units of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (Russian: Народный комиссариат внутренних дел, trans. Narodnyy komissariat vnutrennikh del, NKVD) were the most common recipients of summer camouflage garments.

In his book, Camouflage uniforms of the Soviet Union and Russia, 1937 to present, Dennis Desmond claims that the one-piece 'leaf pattern' MKK continues to be used by reservists, both in Russia and in Romania.

camouflage data