Service Chronology

The naval officer cadet uniform of the 1969 regulations was markedly different from its enlisted counterpart.  It made use of reverse colors whenever possible (black cap, white belt) and attempted to set the sailor apart with details like the white gloves.  It was a significant naval uniform for the latter half of the Cold War.

It is interesting that the uniform it replaced, the 1958 summer No. 3 uniform, was not nearly so different from the regular sailor uniform as the 1969 uniform was.  It was identical to the average sailor’s uniform, and only differed in that it was fitted with cadet shoulder boards.  Though white gloves and a white belt would be worn for inspections.  They also wore a naval cap with an officer’s emblem instead of the enlisted star.  The 1969 cadet uniform attempted to further differentiate officer cadets from their shipmates.

The cadet summer No. 3 uniform was phased out of service in 1994 along with all other Soviet era uniforms when the first Russian Federation uniform guidelines were established.  The new uniform dispensed with the bezkozirka entirely and took much of its look from the officer’s uniforms of that year.  Also, whereas the difference between the Soviet cadet and his enlisted counterpart was stark, Russian Federation naval cadets only differ from the other sailors by means of the shoulder boards they wear which were piped in white and marked ‘MKK,’ the rank devices are pinned to these boards.