Russian soldiers are finally getting some socks.

Inspite of the side effects, socks are pretty important - right? Well, now soldiers in the Russian military have also been ordered to use socks.

The traditional military foot wrap known as portyanki is a piece of cloth that is wrapped around the foot in place of socks.

Russia’s minister of defense is finally ousting the outmoded practice that has been part of the Russian military uniform for more than 3 hundred years.

Many new recruits are used to wearing socks and have to be trained in the proper way to wrap portyanki.

Back in 2007, the military began switching to socks and lace up boots, but not everyone successfully made the switch, so some soldiers still wear the potyanki cloth and boots with no laces.

Portyanki had a distinct advantage over socks in Russia’s military industrial planning, because resources that would go towards sewing up millions of socks could be used elsewhere, and soldiers in the field could just tear a piece of cloth from an old sheet to use as a portyanki if they needed it.

The foot cloths were implemented by Peter the Great, and continue to be used even after Russia has upgraded their weaponry to AK47 assault rifles and nuclear missiles.