On April 1, 1942, Red Army privates and sergeants in rear units ceased receiving greatcoats and switched to padded jackets (ватники)

🔻These jackets accompanied the soldiers on all fronts of the Great Patriotic War.  Germany, however, failed to establish production of similarly cheap and warm uniforms, resulting in approximately 40 percent of German soldiers suffering frostbite near Stalingrad.

🔻The first mention of "cotton-padded jackets" as clothing for Russian army soldiers and officers appeared during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878.  References to the vatnik are found in official documents and diaries of the heroes of Plevna and Shipka.

🔻Later, in 1885, Emperor Alexander III, appreciating the effectiveness of the frost-resistant equipment, significantly upgraded the Russian army's winter clothing, and Caucasian Cossacks wore padded beshmets and half-coats (теплушки). The Emperor himself often wore them.

🔻Before the Great Patriotic War, the padded jacket underwent improvements – the materials changed, convenient details were added, and in August 1941, the Red Army received a new version of the vatnik – with a turn-down collar.

🔻This inexpensive and reasonably comfortable garment was extremely popular among the soldiers, and alongside the PPSh submachine gun, the T-34 tank, and the Il-2 ground-attack aircraft, the vatnik became one of the main symbols of Victory!

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