Types of Winter Clothing Worn by Descendants of the Russian Pioneers in Siberia (Late 19th to Early 20th Centuries)

Warm clothing was an important cultural adaptation, enabling the Russian pioneers to survive in the harsh climate of Siberia. The sources for the study are archival documents, including V.K. Multinov’s manuscript “Clothing of the Angara People” (1926), results of fi eld studies in the 1970s and 1980s by the present author, museum artifacts, and collection inventories compiled by A.N. Beloslyudov, S.P. Shvetsov, I.I. Baranova, and I.I. Shangina, as well as data collected by climatologists, technologists, and designers. Types of winter clothing, including outfi ts for hunting and fi shing, worn by the Russians living on the Angara, in the Altai, and Trans-Baikal, are described. These include cloth-covered and non-covered fur coats, short fur coats, those with the fur on the inside, robes, as well as warm pants, fur hats, boots, and mittens. Protection from the cold was ensured by the use of high-volume insulating materials, several layers, and by habits such as tucking one piece of clothing into another (the so-called “Siberian one-piece garment”). Specific features in Siberia are observed, including the use in winter hunting outfi ts of certain elements of native Siberian clothing (specifi cally that of the Tungus clothing on the Angara), and the women’s habit of wearing men’s garments with belts.