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A member of Russia's Spetsgruppa Al'fa jumps from an armoured personnel carrier during the rescue operation in the town of Byeslan, North Ossetia, 3 September 2004. He wears an oversuit camouflaged in the Russian «Partizan» pattern. [Image: Maxim Marmur/AFP/Getty Images.]

Partizan (summer, subdued)
Russian Federation

Both the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (Russian: Федеральная служба безопасности, trans. Federalnaya sluzhba bezopasnosti, FSB) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Russian: Министерство внутренних дел, trans. Ministerstvo vnutrennikh del, MVD) issue regular army uniforms to their interal forces and special operations units. At the time of writing, the latest camouflage pattern to be issued to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is Flora, which is very effective in central Russia.

Unfortunately, a camouflage pattern that works well in the fields near Moscow isn't necessarily suitable to all of the diverse environments, in which Russian special forces are required to operate. For this reason most special operations units supplement their issue uniforms with commercially produced camouflage uniforms purchased by sponsors or out of their own pockets.

The commercially produced Partizan camouflage pattern, shown here, first appeared around 2004. It was prominent during the Beslan school hostage crisis, during which it was worn by members of the FSB Spetsgruppa Al'fa.

Partizan is a four-colour camouflage, comprising dark brown, dark earth and yellow ochre elements on a medium green background. Overall, it is very similar in appearance to the war-time SS-Eichenlaubmuster ('SS oak-leaf pattern') camouflage pattern.

Oversuits printed in the Partizan camouflage pattern are reversible, as is evidenced by the duplication of fastenings and pocket flaps on the inside and outside of garments. The subdued variant, shown here, is presumably intended for wear in drier regions. It is produced simply, using only the bleed-through of colours from printing of the bright variant, on the other side of the yellow ochre base cloth. For this reason, it is not immediately obvious that the subdued variant of Partizan is intended to be used as a camouflage pattern in its own right.

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