Onuchi is an accessory of peasant and soldier's life

Onuchi was once an indispensable attribute of peasant clothes in Russia and in Eastern Europe. Windings and footcloths-close relatives of the school-were used in the army.

Meaning of the word of anuchi

Onuchi are long and fairly wide stripes of fabric used for winding legs, from the foot to the knee. Peasants in Russia wore them with bast shoes, boots and felt boots. In other countries they were worn with leather shoes. In the documents of the Frankish state of the time of Charlemagne this detail of clothing is mentioned. Windings can be seen on European miniatures of past centuries. But the greatest spread of the anuchi received in and in many countries of Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, the Baltic countries.

Dependent on the season, the use of onuchi from different types of tissue. Onuchi is an element of clothing designed to protect the lower legs. In the summer, windings were worn from canvas (linen or hemp) fabrics, and in winter - under linen cloths, and on top - by a second layer of cloth (woolen, linen weaving) fabric.

Bast shoes and arms (ties) were different for everyday socks and holidays. For each day, ropes were usually used, and on the holidays they put on bast and birch bast shoes and used bast shoes. Holiday attributes were painted white or red. Wedding onuchi is almost a work of art. They were made of bleached cloth, covered with colored embroidery. The bride herself had to make wedding gifts for the groom. They were put on for a wedding, and then kept as a relic in a chest.

How wore the leggings

Onuchi (photos of which can be seen below) were mostly worn with bast shoes. This light and comfortable footwear, due to the cheapness and unpretentiousness of manufacture, was widely distributed. They made it from an improvised material that was almost always available - vines, birch bark, linden, ropes.

But since it is not very convenient to wear bast shoes on a bare foot, and it is not practical, they preliminarily wrapped their feet onuchi. Men wrapped their ankles in the lower part of their trousers, and women - their bare legs. The length of the tape from the fabric could reach 5 meters (usually 1.5 - 2.5 m), width - about 10 cm. The leg was tightly wound from the fingers, gripping the shin and reaching the knee. The end of the tissue strip was turned and tucked under the winding. To the grinders did not unwind and did not fall off, they were fixed with a long cord (oboroy). We made knitted woven or crocheted fences from bast, rope. The end of the lace was threaded into the loop on the back of the shoe and twisted or tied crosswise from the ankle to the knee. Sometimes used pivots - narrow leather ribbons, which were tied under the knee.

Varieties of anecdotes

The ubiquitous use of anachuses is explained by the cheapness of bast shoes compared to leather boots. Boots were predominantly shoes of urban residents. Although the grandsons used and with boots.

Onuchi - these are the same windings and footcloths. But the latter is more like an army attribute. During the First and Second World Wars, the rank and file, and some field commanders, wore leather boots with windings. Boots were used less often, mostly closer to winter. And in the cold, the soldiers switched to felt boots. Preference for windings was given not only because of the shortage and high cost of boots for soldiers, but also because they were considered more convenient and practical. And during the First World War, the windings were used by soldiers of all belligerents.

In the post-war period, boots with windings become regular field shoes for the armies of some countries. These included Poland, Hungary, France and even Japan.

With boots in the army used footcloths. This detail of clothing was known even in ancient Rome. In the Russian Armed Forces, it was a long-liver, while in the armies of other countries it had long been replaced with ordinary socks. The transition of the Russian army from footcloths to socks occurred only in January 2013.