Uniforms of the People's Army Volga Flotilla

Reconstructions by A. Karevskiy unless noted otherwise.

No one wore shoulder straps either, and almost no one had a uniform. ... After the capture of Syzran on 11 June 1918, the officers voluntarily decided to wear khaki shoulder straps with black stripes, as established by the Provisional Government. They looked like junior NCOs in those shoulder straps.

Lieutenant M. (Meirer) in "The war on the Volga: The year 1918 // From the shores of America. Anniversary historical collection of the Society of Russian Naval Officers in America, 1923-1938", New York, 1939, p.291.

The cockade of the Volga battle flotilla was identical to the People's Army, that is, it was a St. George ribbon sewn diagonally on the band.

Ezeev, A. B. in "On the question of "admissibility", "legitimacy" and "authority" ... // Military Reality, No. 4", Moscow, 1993, p.15.

Reconstructions of rank insignia of the Volga Battle Flotilla:
1 – shoulder-strap of a midshipman; 2 – St. George ribbon cockade
3 – patch with anchor (introduced by the Provisional Government for military sailors);
Reconstruction by K. Kulagin

The crew of the Wolf, several naval officers and a small team of soldiers, adapted it for military purposes, mounting guns and machine guns on it.

Nikolaev, S. in "The People's Army in Simbirsk // The Will of Russia, No. 10-11", Prague, 1928, p.131.

It is worth dwelling in more detail on the specifics of the personnel of the flotilla. The ship's crews bore little resemblance to professional naval crews. They usually included the former crew of rivermen, mobilised along with the steamer itself and acting as the engine crew and pilots. These peaceful rivermen often found themselves in the ranks of the battle fleet against their will and were not distinguished by their fighting fervour. This disadvantage was usually balanced by the "deck" crew – the gunners, machine gunners and soldiers of the landing parties – who were almost always volunteers. However, these were strictly land-based people who had never dealt with boats before. The Whites were wary of including former sailors of the old navy, who they could have conscripted from the cities of the Volga region, thinking back to the behavior of the sailors in 1917. So the only bearers of the traditions of the Russian Imperial Navy on the vessels of the flotilla were several dozen naval officers.

Their appearance also matched the land units, as no special naval uniform was introduced. The rivermen continued to wear their usual clothes, and the volunteers continued to wear the land uniform of the People's Army. The uniform requirements for the lower ranks of the flotilla were quite simple, but naval traditions and collective spirit always played an important role for naval officers. The flotilla officers could not wear the shoulder-boards of the Russian Imperial Navy, as they wanted to, because of KOMUCH's Socialist orientation. In order to somehow outwardly differ from land officers, in mid-July midshipmen Meirer and Dmitriev, on their own initiative, began "wearing shoulder-straps of khaki with black patches as provided for by the Provisional Government". However, these shoulder straps were not widely used, and it is unknown whether they were worn by all officers of the Riverine Combat Fleet.

Kuznetsov, N. A. and Petrov, A. A. in "Admiral Kolchak's White Sailors: the history of the White Flotillas in Eastern Russia in 1918-1919 and the uniform of their crews // Sergeant, No. 24", Moscow, 2002, pp.41-42.

Shoulder-straps of the Volga Battle Flotilla: 1 – ensign; 2 – second lieutenant;
3 – midshipman (lieutenant); 4 – lieutenant (staff-captain); 5 – senior lieutenant (captain)

Shoulder straps of the Volga Battle Flotilla: 6 – captain of 2nd rank (lieutenant-colonel);
7 – Captain of 1st rank (colonel); 8 – Rear Admiral (major-general);
9 – vice admiral (lieutenant-general); 10 – admiral

1 and 2 – uniforms of the officers of the Volga Battle Flotilla;
3 – possible combination of naval and land uniforms