Onuchi were once an indispensable attribute of peasant clothing in Russia and Eastern Europe. Windings and footcloths - close relatives of the onuch - were used in the army.
Meaning of the word onuchi
Onuchi are long and fairly wide strips of fabric used for wrapping the 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. The documents of the state of the Franks of the time of Charlemagne mentioned this detail of clothing. Windings can also be seen on European miniatures of past centuries. But the Onuchi gained the greatest distribution in Russia and in many countries of Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, the Baltic countries.
Depending on the season, onuchi from different types of fabric were used. Onuchi is an element of clothing designed to protect the lower legs. In summer, they wore windings from canvas (linen or hemp) fabric, and in winter - linen at the bottom, and on top - a second layer of cloth (woolen, linen weaving) fabric.
Bast shoes and headbands (ties) were different for everyday wear and holidays. For each day, rope ones were usually used, and on holidays they put on bast or birch bark bast shoes and used foreskin from bast. Party supplies were painted white or red. Wedding Onuchi is almost a work of art. They were made from bleached linen, covered with colored embroidery. The bride herself had to prepare a wedding onuch as a gift to the groom. They were put on for a wedding, and then stored as a relic in a chest.
How Onuchi Wore
Onuchi (photos of which can be seen below) were mostly worn with bast shoes. These light and comfortable shoes, due to the cheapness and unpretentiousness of manufacture, were widespread. They made it from improvised material almost always available - vines, birch bark, linden, rope.
But since it is not very convenient, and not practical, to put bast shoes on the bare foot, they pre-wrapped the legs with onuchi. Men onuchi wrapped the lower part of the legs , and women - bare legs. The length of the fabric ribbon could reach 5 meters (usually 1.5 - 2.5 m), width - about 10 cm. Starting from the fingers, the leg was wrapped tightly, grabbing the lower leg and reaching the knee. The end of the fabric strip was tucked and tucked under the winding. So that the onuchi did not unwind and did not fall, they were fixed with a long cord (rip). Woven or knitted obor made of bast, rope. The end of the lace was threaded into a loop on the backdrop of the bast shoes and twisted or tied crosswise leg from the ankle to the knee. Sometimes they used turns - narrow leather ribbons that were tied under the knee.
Varieties of Onuch
The widespread use of onuchi is explained by the cheapness of bast shoes compared to leather boots. The boots were mainly shoes of urban residents. Although onuchi used with boots.
Onuchi are the same windings and footcloths. But the latter are more likely an army attribute. During the First and Second World Wars, the rank and file, and even some field commanders, wore leather shoes with windings. Boots were used less often, mostly closer to winter. And in the cold, soldiers switched to boots. The preference for windings was given not only because of the shortage and high cost of boots for ordinary, but also because they were considered more convenient and practical. Moreover, during the First World War, windings were used by soldiers of all warring parties.
In the post-war period, boots with windings became 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 item of clothing was known in ancient Rome. In the Russian armed forces, footcloth was a long-liver, while in the armies of other countries it has long been replaced with ordinary socks. The transition of the Russian army from footcloths to socks occurred only in January 2013.