The Practice of Foot Wrapping (Portyanki)

I recall as a child reading about Revolutionary War soldiers marching with only rags on their feet, feeling pity that they were so poor they couldn’t even afford socks.  Of course, my little elementary school brain didn’t realize that most probably didn’t have socks even on good days.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, socks were only worn by the rich.  Everyone else wore foot wraps—cloths wrapped around the feet.  And believe it or not, the Finnish military continued this practice into the 1990s.  Yeah, I found that kinda surprising.  So did the American soldiers encountering Russian soldiers at the end of WWII.

Proper foot wrapping was among the first tasks a Russian soldier had to learn.  Incorrectly done, it would be painful and might even cause blisters. 

Of course, this probably isn’t of much interest to most of us.  We’ve prepped with socks.  I’ve got at least fifty pairs, and Aaron’s probably got a hundred.  I’ve knit a dozen pairs of socks and have full confidence in my abilities.  I’ve got probably 30 sheep and alpaca fleeces in the basement.  I’ve got the carders and a spinning wheel to turn those fleeces into socks.  What I don’t and won’t have is time.  Socks take a heckuva long time to knit.  That’s one reason why only the rich could afford them pre-Industrial Revolution. 

I can’t say for sure why Russians and the military forces of other East European nations used the foot wraps so long into the 20^th century, but I can hazard a few guesses.  “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  The Russians had been fighting—and winning—wars for a couple of hundred years with soldiers wearing foot wraps.  For all their boasting, Russians didn’t industrialize very well, and to have poorly fitting socks (or none at all) put the national security at risk.  Foot wraps were easy to manufacture and one-size fits all.  The only variation was in using cotton for summer and flannel for winter. And even if the official supply ran out, they could be scrounged. 

Which is exactly why I thought this topic appropriate for the blog today.  We’ve got to be able to show others how to wrap their feet if they run out of socks.  Following is a translation from the Serzhant Russian military journal.

Directions

1.  Start with a clean cloth and lay it on the floor.  Put the foot on the cloth with one edge of the cloth under the heel.  The distance from the edge depends on the length of the cloth. 

2.  The short side by the heel gets tugged tightly.  If the width allows, the toes should be covered. 

3.  The corner of the short side turns around under the arch of the foot without folding and should hold when the long end is tugged. 

4.  The long side should fully be wrapped around the foot and the surplus/excess that doesn’t fold in nicely can be left in front, in front of the toes.

5.  The back end of the loose part should be wrapped around the ankle above the previous edge, around which it is fixed.  Keep on wrapping up the leg. 

6.  The end of the portion wrapped around the ankle is tucked in under the previous layer such that the cloth is secured in place. 

With practice, soldiers could put these wraps on very quickly.  It might be a skill worth learning so that it can be taught to others.  Of course, with a couple of generations of young people who have known nothing but slip-ons, Velcro, or simply not even tying their shoes, I’m not sure foot wrapping will take off. I probably shouldn’t hold my breath.

References:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2013/jan/16/russian-soldiers-replacing-foot-wraps-socks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footwrap

https://snarkynomad.com/portyanki-russian-footwraps/ (video demonstrating proper footwrapping)

https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/8125/how-to-put-on-footwraps-correctly (written instructions in Russian for putting the wraps on correctly)

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/odd-world-war-ii-fact-russian-soldiers-didn%E2%80%99t-wear-socks-193649