The uniforms of Soviet troops in Cuba

[cuprum]

The uniforms of Soviet troops in Cuba had little in common with standard Soviet uniforms.

After Operation Anadyr (1962) and the creation of the Group of Soviet Forces in Cuba, then the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which led to transformations in the Soviet contingent and its renaming (1963) into the “Group of Soviet Military Specialists in Cuba” (GSVSK), the basis which was formed in September 1962 by the 7th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade.

Until the autumn of 1969 (the arrival of USSR Minister of Defense A.A. Grechko in Cuba), Soviet military personnel in Cuba did not have any insignia, nor did they have uniform uniforms - they portrayed civilian specialists. This event can be considered the beginning of the 10-year period of existence of special sleeve insignia and uniforms. Since 1979, there has been an almost complete transition of the Soviet contingent to the uniform and insignia (shoulder straps) of the FAR (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba).


Visit to the 7th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade by the Soviet Minister of Defense (November 12-18, 1969).







Major GSVSK sleeve insignia model 1969



Pilot officer in standard Soviet uniform and GSVSK employees

At first the berets did not have any signs, but later they began to have standard stars attached to them by the Soviet army for pilotka, but the berets did not last long and in the early 70s they were replaced by special-style caps.





Description: olive green shirts without shoulder straps, with short or long (for cold weather) sleeves. Green trousers, black low shoes, green caps. The sleeve insignia indicating military rank was on the left sleeve, between the shoulder and elbow.








Special forces and reconnaissance units used the "gray lizard" camouflage:








Shoulder straps of the Soviet contingent in Cuba (field and everyday):

[carlos marighela]

Thank you! That's most helpful. I suspected they wore Cuban uniforms.

Not a lot of people realised that there was a whole Soviet motorised rifle brigade based in Cuba right up until the end of the Cold War and it probably didn't serve anyone's interersts to advertise the fact.

Do you know what colour the berets were? They look as if they match the olive green uniforms.

[cuprum]

I didn't come across such information, but your assumption seems reasonable.

More photos and videos of the Soviet contingent in Cuba:

https://cubanos.ru/ggallery/all

http://www.gsvsk.ru/photos/20/1-1

http://zwezda.net/article/2022/01/31/more-karibskoe-tanki-sovetskie-vospominaniya-sheksninca-o-sluzhbe-na-kube

https://youtu.be/pn_pn_BCwUA?si=gaxLT68jy8x9-881

https://yandex.ru/video/preview/17843039941002012534

[carlos marighela]

 

Thank you Cuprum, those are fabulous resources. Found the answer to my question in one of the galleries. The beret seems to be a sort of light khaki drill. It looks like in the late 1980s they adopted a khaki kepi type affair very similar to the afghanka version in addition to or replacing the Cuban style Walker cap.

http://www.gsvsk.ru/photos/20/1-6

It must have been a plum posting. Good weather, attractive people, rum, good food and beaches. I suspect that was heavily coveted in the army. I wonder how one managed to obtain a posting to Cuba?

I did laugh at the photo of a Bialetti type coffee pot (macchinetta) in the first link, it's such an everyday item for me but presumably a curiosity in the Soviet Union.

[cuprum]

One of the sites says that the beret existed for a very short time - about a year.

Indeed, this uniform strongly resembles the uniform of the Afghan army.

Any assignment to serve abroad was extremely attractive in the USSR (of course, with the exception of those places where real hostilities were taking place). However, only officers could seek such an appointment. The soldiers were ordinary conscripts and were recruited into this service at random.

Any item from behind the Iron Curtain was interesting simply because it was a rarity in the USSR))) Not because they didn’t have their own coffee pots, but because this one was not like the others. The costs of mass socialist production are the poverty of the model range.

[Tom Dulski]

 Very interesting, thanks for posting.

[trev]

Interesting stuff.  Nice posts.

In Congo Mercenary, Mike Hoare mentions several times that the Simbas confused his white mercenary troops with friendly Soviets, until it was too late.  I'm far from sure that there even were any Soviet troops in the Congo in 1964-5 but if there were, and they were dressed like the troops above, you could understand the confusion with men like these below.

[mikedemana]

Great research...thanks! I have 20mm Cubans for my forces, but no Sovietyskys! 

Mike Demana