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Were any Russian Adrians blue?

Article about: Everything I've read says they are always tan. This one is on eBay.

  1. #1

    Default Were any Russian Adrians blue?

    Everything I've read says they were always painted tan prior to being issued to Russian soldiers. This one is on eBay.
    Kevin

    Were any Russian Adrians blue?

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  3. #2

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    "For those Russian soldiers who were fortunate enough to receive an Adrian helmet it was painted either Horizon blue or khaki. The French had painted their helmets horizon blue since they were first issued in late 1915. The color was used simply because it matched the French uniform at the time. A. Ignatiev was certainly aware of this fact, and likely preferred that the helmet be painted a color to match the khaki-olive color of the Russian army’s uniform. Due to the urgency in which helmets were needed, there was no time to wait for them to be repainted. Attesting to that urgency, A. Ignatius petitioned General Joffre, Commander and Chief of all French forces, that the first consignment of helmets be withdrawn directly from French reserves. Those first helmets were shipped to Russia painted horizon blue and were subsequently issued to Russian troops in that color despite not matching the uniform.
    Starting in mid 1916 the French ordered a change in the color of the uniforms worn by their colonial troops from horizon blue to a olive-khaki color called moutarde. The subsequent change in uniform necessitated that helmets issued to colonial units be painted the moutarde color to match the uniforms, and helmet factories started to stock the moutarde paint. This new color was a close match the khaki-olive uniforms the Russian army was wearing. It should be noted the color moutarde ranged in shades from yellow-brown to a darker olive depending on which of the eight different factories manufactured the helmet. After the first delivery of the 250,000 helmets, the moutarde color became available, and at the request of A. Ignatiev all subsequent deliveries of Adrian helmets destine for Russia were painted moutarde."
    Found this online.

  4. #3

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    Well, it's unlikely that this might be a real, unpainted, Adrian helmet, but it could be a Russian Adrian that was repainted blue by some random soldier/civilian because they thought this was a french adrian. I honestly think this is true because of the blue paint fading into what I believe is olive green color.

  5. #4
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    I saw this for sale and was checking the background, The Haselgrove & Radovic book confirms blue helmets with blue badges are known to exist, their writing differs in few ways to the to information Gunny supplied but the general story is the same. It looks convincing to me and I would think pretty rare in that condition.
    Steve.

  6. #5

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    Thanks everyone for the detailed responses. I also found this picture of Russian WWI soldiers with Adrians and eagle badges. No idea what color those helmets are, but they are definitely some dark color and definitely not tan. Interesting thing is one has a light-colored eagle badge on the front, and the other eagle badge matches the dark color of the helmet. Kevin

    Were any Russian Adrians blue?
    Last edited by pupapup; 02-26-2020 at 01:49 PM.

  7. #6
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    I have doubts that the first 250,000 helmets for the Russians were sourced from the reserves of the French army with Russian insignia. I know that these horizon blue adrians had a badge - the grenada of the french infantry. There are some doubts about the authenticity of the helmet.Were any Russian Adrians blue?

  8. #7

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    Thanks Mixer, do you believe that any Adrians with Russian eagle badges were blue? Kevin

  9. #8
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    I think that this could be. But they are very, very rare.

  10. #9

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    No idea with this helmet...two years ago, I was in Prague and saw the shop of one dealer. He had in hands one French Adrian and one CZ Badge for helmet . Two days after, the French helmet was CZ...
    So, it's easy to create Russian helmets and on ebay....
    The best Militaria forum in France is here : http://deutsch-militaria.forumactif.us/

  11. #10

    Default

    Hello,
    Nice thread
    The intial 250000 Adrian sent to Russia were bleu with the french grenade (coming from French reserve) but were supposed to be repainted Kaki in Russia.
    the other helmets sent to Russia were manufactured kaki and the insigna was provided separately.
    This may explain some diferentce in color in case a kaki insigna was set on a non repeinted adrian. But as said, they were not numeru and should have been repainted

    Bruno
    To follow up also on this post :
    Thoughts on this Blue Russian Adrian Helmet?

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