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Soviet black leather laced combat/field boots (botas rusas)
Clothing/Dress/Costume
Pair of black leather lace-up military/field boots, ankle-to-mid height. Uppers are grained black leather with a stitched toe cap and front eyelet lacing; the stiff shaft leather has curled and folded outward at the top, exposing the tan flesh side and lining. Soles are black rubber with a distinctive molded tread: concentric chevron/angular ridges across the forefoot, a perimeter band of round studs, and a heel set with multiple recessed circular cavities. The sole carries a diamond logo and embossed alphanumerics.
2025.1.346
Belonged to Leopoldo Arús Gálvez, probably from the time he was a militia member in the early 1960s.
Soviet-manufactured laced leather field/combat boots, identified by the Cyrillic sole markings and a Soviet factory trademark. Within a Cuban collection this is unsurprising: the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias and affiliated bodies were equipped substantially with Soviet matériel, and Soviet army footwear circulated through Cuban military and compulsory-service contexts (and beyond, into civilian reuse). Soviet army leather boots of the period were typically derby-laced with cemented rubber soles, made at state footwear factories. The specific plant here is not yet identified.
The Cabrera Arús family collection
Leopoldo Arús Gálvez collection
2025.1
Boots
Male
Leather
Black
U.S.S.R.
Eastern Europe
Europe
Maker / brand: unidentified Soviet (USSR) state footwear/rubber factory, indicated by the molded diamond/lozenge trademark and Cyrillic markings. Specific factory not determined. Date: circa 1960s–1980s — tentative. No explicit date confirmed; the molded "59" is most likely an article/size-system or lot code, though a 1959 reading cannot be fully excluded (which would sit at the edge of the collection's range). Not asserted.
A molded maker's trademark — a vertical diamond/lozenge filled with "кип" inside (Soviet factory device; specific factory unidentified). A molded line including Cyrillic Л (el — on footwear typically левый / left foot) with numerals read approximately as "035A–39" (size-system / article / GOST or lot code — unresolved).
size 11 (US men's shoe size)
Two boots (left, right)
Fair
Leopoldo Arús Gálvez
owner
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
use, acquisition
The sole brand may refer to the Roman hero кип (Kip), whose tale is described in Ovid's Metamorphoses