The Uniform and Insignia of the Committee of Sea Excursions in the Early Twentieth Century

Abstract

The relevance f the article is that after the defeat in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904 – 1905, state and public figures began to look for further ways for the full-fledged development of the Russian Imperial Fleet. Before the First World War, a number of public naval organizations were formed in Russia: the Fleet Renewal League, the Society of Fleet Officers, the Russian Maritime Union. The purpose of the article is to analysis of the reasons for the creation of uniforms and insignia for conducting training cruises and celebrations by the board of the Committee of Sea Excursions in the early twentieth century. Objectives: with the help of the documents of the Russian Archive of the Navy (RGA of the Navy), to analyze the process of creating uniforms and insignia for members and students of the public naval organization; to consider the activities of the Committee of Sea Excursions aimed at the implementation of educational programs for teaching secondary school students the basics of naval affairs; to analyze the measures taken by the naval public organization to popularize knowledge about the sea among the residents of the Russian provinces. Methodology. The work used traditional and general scientific methods together with an istrico-situational ap-proach in the study of the features of uniforms and insignia of the Russian public naval organization in the early twentieth century. Results. As a result, the following are characterized: uniforms for the command staff of the lower ranks, uniforms for the command staff of training vessels, uniforms for pupils in training swimming, uniforms for tourists in training swimming, an award system of insignia, award personal diplomas and special award pennants for small-sized watercraft. This shows the goals that the board of the Excursions Committee had when forming the system of uniforms and insignia at the beginning of the twentieth century. The conclusions. The formed system of uniforms and insignia was supposed to attract new lovers of studying maritime affairs to the ranks of the Russian public naval organization for the purpose of their subsequent professional orientation.