#but ocelot's is red because it's a spetsnaz beret

[fancyshooting]

epaulettes anon here, thanks so much for such a comprehensive answer!! I had wondered if perhaps the design process went something like "ok this guys a kgb spy so I'll put kgb on his uniform" > "oh shit they're not meant to KNOW he's kgb" > "quick change it" haha. a mystery for the ages, much like the choice of the captain design instead of the one for majors.

I really appreciate that diagram of the uniform too, since my (admittedly only cursory) searches of an actual historical example of that navy uniform has been pretty barren.

Trying to research a foreign country's military special forces and find out what was true during a very specific time period before digital archives is pretty hard, apparently! I appreciate all the effort you've put into this.

Do you speak Russian? I imagine id find much more information if I knew what keywords to search, but if you don't know the language its like... where to start lol. Definitely didn't download duolingo just to learn because of revolver ocelot. definitely not

no problem ^___^

I learned the cyrillic alphabet and did a tiny bit of duolingo too hehe..... but no I don't speak russian. I think it was on the mgs fandom wiki that I read about his uniform but finding pictures is quite difficult. I can't say for certain but it looks like it was actually a wwii uniform. there's nothing I can find to confirm that ocelot wearing that uniform in 1964 is period accurate but there's SO much information to wade through and tbh I don't have any interest in doing that :| all the different branches and years and battles and ranks... it confuses me LOL. it's such a massive topic but like... niche at the same time so I'm grateful for hobby sites and the like that make it slightly more digestible to the common ocie researcher. my knowledge does NOT go beyond the scope of ocelot I promise

searching Морская Пехота (marines in russian) might wield better results. there's a site on the very first page with these pictures:

the only thing about these is that they don't seem to be wearing the same trousers or boots as ocelot:

had to give him an undeserved angelic glow to show this sorry but his are much baggier, like riding breeches. they're called galife/galliffet/галифе and are worn with jackboots. the guy in the diagram before was wearing them, so maybe the unforms in the irl pics are from a different era or something. maybe the design of ocelot's uniform was a combination of multiple uniforms. idk but that's the best I can do right now o7