Uniforms of Police in the Territories of the Supreme Ruler
General issues

Provisional regulations on the Siberian police

10. All police officers must wear the prescribed uniform when performing their official duties.

11. Police officers shall be armed with cold steel and firearms.

"Siberian Herald [newspaper] No. 36", 3 October 1918, p.1

The Ministry of Internal Affairs informs the Ministry of Supply that the issue of supplying the police with warm clothing is acute. Fifteen thousand sets of greatcoats are required. According to a report from the Irkutsk provincial commissar, it is possible, among other things, to purchase black and blue cloth in Vladivostok, for which the commissar is requesting an advance of 62,720 rubles.

Bulletin of the All-Russian Provisional Government, No. 2, of 7 November 1918.

From the memoirs of Norwegian Consul Jonas Lid.

But it so happened that my audience with Kolchak in March 1919 turned out to be very promising, and I did not notice that his power would soon come to an end. The commander of the Siberian police, Rossiyanov, gave me orders and colour drawings for 50,000 uniforms for the Siberian gendarmerie. How pathetic! The tailors in New York laughed at the design, but they sewed a simple, unobtrusive uniform, tailored on American mannequins made to fit Siberian policemen – an unusual look, but not the uniform of the future!

Lid, J. in "Siberia: Strange Nostalgia", Moscow, 2009, p.233

Attempts to introduce uniforms for police officers were also subordinated to the achievement of this goal. Limited resources did not allow the Provisional Siberian Government to deal with this issue in detail. Police officers wore either civilian clothes or military uniforms, which caused complaints from the army, as the military did not want to be confused with the police.

The lack of a uniform prompted some police leaders to try to solve the problem on their own. For example, the governor of Tobolsk Province temporarily established a common military uniform for all types of police, but introduced special shoulder-boards.

It was only with the arrival of V. N. Pepelyaev at the Ministry of Internal Affairs that a special uniform for police officers was developed and approved by the Council of Ministers. It was necessary to clothe 50,000 employees. However, there was not enough cloth. They planned to purchase it from the United States, but only 75 million rubles was allocated for this purpose, which was clearly insufficient.

Malygin, A. Ya. and Nikitin, A. N. in "The Police of the White Governments // Lawyer, No. 9", 1997, pp.55-56.