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Clothing

 Russian Year Book, 1917

The traveller should take ordinary clothing – with the exception that a black morning coat is absolutely necessary, dress suits are much less worn than with us. A lady should take no thick underclothing except a pair of warm knickerbockers to wear out of doors, a fur or fur-lined coat, a golf jersey (very useful to wear under a fur coat) or else an undercoat of wadded material, a small fur toque, a motor veil to wear on cold days to protect the ears, snow-boots, fur gloves, and goloshes.

From the point of view of warmth, travellers may wear exactly the same underclothing, &c., as they wear at home, but a fur coat is essential. A walking coat thickly wadded and with a fur collar will be found very useful; it is advisable to have the collar made so that it can be turned up to reach above the tips of the ears. Pockets should be made in the length of the coat to allow the hands and wrists to be well submerged in their depths.

Travellers in Russia are especially warned that, in the matter of wearing furs and keeping their coats buttoned up, “Discretion is the better part of valour.” Britishers especially are apt to imagine that they can play with the climate, and disregard the natives’ advice born of experience, with the result that many of our countrymen have met their death here prematurely. There is no more treacherous climate in the world than one meets with in Petrograd. It is more variable than Moscow owing to its proximity to the Gulf of Finland. Rain and thaw will sometimes succeed 14-20 degrees of frost.

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