Ushanka

What it is

An ushanka is a cap covered in fur, with two flaps that fold down over the ears and, on many examples, a third flap at the back. The name comes from the Russian word for ears. When the weather is mild, the flaps are tied together on top of the crown. In bitter cold they are brought down and fastened under the chin, so the ears, jaw and lower chin are covered. A third way, called ski-style, bends the flaps back and ties them behind the head. That leaves the face clearer for fast skiing, though it shields less from wind. Thick fur also softens knocks to the head.

Fur and other materials

Most ushankas are sewn from fur. Sheepskin, karakul, rabbit, muskrat and mink all appear, and other pelts are used as well. Cheaper versions use artificial fur, which Russian speakers call fish fur, a joke about fur that came from no animal. The plainest of these hats have a wool pile surface over a cloth base, with cloth across the top, while the flaps show the pile. Mink ushankas worn in the far north of Russia keep the ears and chin warm in deep frost, when the air can fall to about minus 40 to minus 70 degrees Celsius.

Origins and history

Fur hats with flaps over the ears are old, but the round crown now associated with the ushanka took shape in the 1600s. People in central and northern Russia then wore the treukh, a hat with two earflaps and one at the back, its name meaning three-eared. The modern hat also owes something to the norvezhka, a design from Norwegian polar explorers, whose earflaps were longer than the treukh's. Cossacks of the Kuban shaped it too, through contact with peoples of Central Asia and the Caucasus. In 1917, during the civil war, the Siberian ruler Aleksandr Kolchak brought in a winter hat called the kolchakovka, close in look to the ushanka. His side lost, and the new Soviet state did not take up that headgear.

Into modern uniforms

The Red Army began with the budenovka, a felt hat modelled on old warrior helmets that gave little warmth. Losses from cold in the Winter War with Finland forced a rethink: Finland's army had its own fur hat, the turkislakki M36, and the improved M39 is still worn. Soviet winter kit was redesigned, and ushankas following the Finnish example replaced the budenovka. Officers received fur, other ranks plush or fish fur. German troops in the Russian winter started wearing Soviet-style gear. Colours now mark the wearer's job: grey for civilian police in America, green for camouflage, blue for police, the Coast Guard and the Postal Service, black for others. In 2013 the Russian army announced a rounder crown and small openings in the flaps for headphones.

Worn around the world

Canada's Mounted Police wear a muskrat fur cap of their own design, part fur hat and part flying cap, which replaced an older military fur wedge cap. Toronto Transit Commission staff wear similar hats in winter. The hat belonged to East German authorities before reunification and stayed in police winter dress afterwards. Finland's defence forces issue grey, green and black versions, and generals may wear white. A comparable cap is part of China's People's Liberation Army winter kit; a well-known image of the soldier Lei Feng wearing one led to the nickname Lei Feng hat. Poland's armed forces still use the ushanka. British airmen on Arctic convoy duty in the Kola Inlet are said to have adopted it, keeping the flaps up because Russian custom treated lowered flaps as unmanly.

How Ushanka is kept

There is no ceremony around the ushanka. In mild weather a wearer ties the two ear flaps together over the crown, so the hat sits like an ordinary fur cap. When the cold bites, the flaps come down and are fastened under the chin, covering ears, jaw and lower chin. Some people cross the flaps behind the head instead, a style called ski-style, which gives a clearer view but less warmth. Inside the Russian military, which flaps are worn and how is treated as part of the dress of the day, normally settled by a unit commander at the morning call.

When and where

It has no date of its own. Ushankas come out with the cold, from the first hard frosts of late autumn until the thaw in spring, and in the far north they are worn indoors when the air outside is dangerous. Russian troops are told each morning how to wear theirs.

Ushankas belong to Russia and to cold parts of northern Europe, including Finland, Sweden, Estonia and Norway, and to the wider Eastern European region. They later entered winter uniforms in Canada, the United States, Germany, Poland and China. In practice they are strongest wherever winters are long and sharp.

What Ushanka means

To the people who wear one, the ushanka is first of all warmth: a way of keeping the face and ears usable in weather that can kill. It carries other meanings too. For generations it was a mark of Soviet service, worn across the Warsaw Pact armies, so it can read as official or military. In China the same shape brings a different association, a well-known image of the soldier Lei Feng. Russian units still decide each day whether the flaps stay up, hang down, or cross behind.

Questions people ask about Ushanka

See also

Vyshyvanka DayAn annual day for wearing traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts across the worldRushnykA sacred embroidered cloth used in East Slavic rituals, weddings and daily life.Traditional tattooingThe ancient custom of marking the skin for protection, healing, status and sacred ritesGáktiA traditional coat worn by the Sámi people across northern Scandinavia and Russia, signaling origin and status through c

Good reading and sources

• Liberals step away as fur flies over Mountie order for 4,470 muskrat hatsCBC, Article
• Liberals step away as fur flies over Mountie order for 4,470 muskrat hatsCBC, Article

• Ushanka on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.