Soviet Leaf Camouflage: KLMK, Berezka and the “Sun Bunnies” the West Never Understood

Long before digital camouflage existed, the Soviet Union issued a pattern whose angular, stepped shapes look as if they were designed on a computer. It was called many names — Berezka (“birch tree”), silver leaf, sun bunnies, spetsodezhda — and it was worn by KGB border guards on the Chinese frontier, by Soviet engineers in Afghanistan, and by spetsnaz long after the USSR collapsed. This is the story of the Soviet leaf camouflage family: what it is, what the names mean, and why collectors still hunt it today.

Introduction: a family, not a pattern

If you search for “Soviet leaf camouflage” you will quickly run into a tangle of names: KLMK, Berezka, Berezhka, serebryanyi list, solnechnyye zaychiki, KZS, spetsodezhda. These are not different patterns so much as one visual family — a light, angular, leaf-shaped spot on a darker background — worn on different garments by different branches over more than half a century. Understanding the family means understanding the names, because the names tell you which garment, which unit and which era you are looking at.

The family descends from a long Soviet tradition of experimental camouflage. The USSR had fielded printed camouflage for specialists (paratroops, engineers, snipers) as early as 1938 with the “amoeba” MKK pattern, and experimented through the war with leaf prints, reversible designs and the distinctive “stair-step” shapes that would define Soviet design for decades. The post-war leaf patterns are the refined, mass-produced descendants of those experiments — and one of them, the KLMK, became one of the most widely used camouflage uniforms in the Soviet Army.

What the KLMK is

KLMK stands for Kamuflirovannyi Letnii Maskirovochnyi Kombinezon — the “camouflaged summer disguise coverall”. It is a one-piece, lightweight, hooded coverall, developed in 1968. It was issued initially to the KGB Border Guards, and later became a standard item for airborne troops (VDV) and many others; examples were photographed in Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War (1979–1989), and the design remained in production well into the 21st century — two-piece KLMK-style suits were still being made after 2010.

The pattern itself is a two-colour design: light, angular “toothed” spots in the shape of leaves on a darker olive-green background. There are two classic colour versions: spots of light grey (the best-known “silver leaf” look) and spots of yellow-sand (associated mainly with the KGB border guards). The background is always darker than the spots — the reverse of most Western camouflage, where light shapes sit on a darker base… which is precisely what makes the family so distinctive at a glance.

Berezka, silver leaf, sun bunnies: decoding the names

The pattern’s many names reflect its many contexts:

• Berezka / Berezhka — Russian for “birch tree” (or little birch). The most common collector name today, evoking the pale, angular leaf shapes against darker forest. Some sources apply it specifically to the grey-spotted version.
• Serebryanyi list — “silver leaf”, the name often used for the light-grey KLMK variant, which really does look like silver leaves on green.
• Solnechnyye zaychiki — “sunshine rays” or, more literally, “sun bunnies” (the little light patches you see when sunlight flickers through leaves). This name is attached to the stair-step version of the pattern — jagged, ray-like tan shapes on a grass-green field — issued on reversible KLMK coveralls from 1968, with a grid pattern on the reverse side.
• Spetsodezhda — “special purpose clothing”, the term attached to the 1981 variant with yellowish-green or bright yellow stair-step shapes on an olive field, issued as a durable six-pocket combat uniform to KGB border units, MVD spetsnaz and Internal Troops.
• KZS — kostium zashchitnoi seti, “protective net suit”: the two-piece suit of coarse, burlap-like loose-weave cotton issued from 1975, designed originally for chemical troops and later used by engineers and reconnaissance personnel in Afghanistan. It is the same visual family printed on a very different, disposable fabric.

The sheer number of names is a reminder that the Soviet system never treated camouflage as a single “national pattern” in the way Western armies did. Patterns were often referred to by project, unit or garment — and collectors still argue about which name belongs to which variant.

Digital before digital?

One of the most interesting claims about the KLMK pattern is that the Soviets “did digital camouflage first”. The stepped, square-edged outlines of the leaf shapes certainly look digital at a distance. But the claim needs qualification: the pattern was developed in 1968 by printing methods, long before computer-generated patterns existed, and the square edges are a product of the printing and artwork process rather than computer design. Specialist writers have explicitly warned against the “computer pattern” nickname for the 1981 variant: there is no evidence the design was produced by a computer. The KLMK is best described as a pattern that looks digital — an aesthetic ancestor, not a true digital pattern.

The KZS: burlap for the battlefield

The KZS deserves special attention because it is the family’s most extreme expression. Issued from 1975, the KZS is a two-piece suit made of loose-weave cotton often compared to burlap — cheap, breathable, and designed to be disposable: once exposed to a chemical environment, it could not be reused. It was printed in variations of the stair-step/sun-ray pattern, and the large number of colour variations documented reflects poor quality control across many factories (with some speculation that lighter colours were intended for arid or beach environments). In Afghanistan, the KZS saw extensive service with engineers and reconnaissance personnel — the “burlap suit” became one of the most recognisable Soviet items of the war.

A quiet, stubborn longevity

The Soviet leaf family has an unusual record of persistence:

• The original KLMK entered service in 1968; late-pattern suits (circa late 1980s and early 1990s) were produced without the reversible grid, and remained popular with spetsnaz and airborne personnel long after the USSR’s collapse in 1991.
• The 1981 spetsodezhda variant continued in service into the present era, and derivatives are documented across the former Soviet space.
• During the Soviet-Afghan War, the pattern was used by the Soviet forces and by the Afghan government army.
• After 1991, the family spread across the successor states: Belarus (special forces and border guards), Tajikistan (border guard), Ukraine (KLMK-based patterns, seen even in recent years), Armenia, Azerbaijan.
• In the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, pro-Russian irregulars in South Ossetia wore the pattern; in the Donbas conflict, pro-Russian forces wore white KLMK-style suits.
• Today, the Berezka look is still produced commercially, and it appears in Western pop culture — clones of the KLMK were made for the films Red Dawn and Rambo III.

That longevity is partly practical (cheap, effective, easy to print) and partly cultural: the pattern is a visual shorthand for “Soviet special forces” in the way the lizard pattern is shorthand for French paras.

What the pattern teaches us

The Soviet leaf family matters for three reasons.

First, it is a masterclass in naming and identification. Half the difficulty of collecting or studying Soviet camouflage is the names — and half the fun is decoding them. The same visual family is called Berezka, silver leaf, sun bunnies and spetsodezhda depending on the garment and the era. Learning the family is learning how the Soviet system organised (or failed to organise) its camouflage.

Second, it challenges the “digital pattern” narrative. The West treats digital camouflage as a 1990s innovation (CADPAT, MARPAT). The Soviet Union was printing square-edged patterns decades earlier — but for practical printing reasons, not computer simulation. It is a useful correction to a too-neat history.

Third, it is a case study in design under constraints. The KZS is camouflage as consumable: cheap, disposable, mass-produced. The Soviet approach to camouflage was never about fashion or prestige; it was about equipping large forces cheaply and effectively. The leaf family shows what that industrial logic produced — and why, sixty years later, the pattern still turns heads.

The variants you will meet today

Modern commercial production keeps several versions of the family alive, and MegaCamo’s own range reflects the naming chaos:

• Solnechnye Zaychiki (“sun bunnies”) — the stair-step version, olive with light ray-like shapes;
• Serebryanyi List (“silver leaf”) — the grey-spotted version;
• Yellow-green — the border-guard yellow-sand version;
• Green Pink / Green White / Snow Silver Grey — commercial colour variations of the Berezka look, popular for their soft, faded aesthetic.

These are modern apparel designations, not official Soviet nomenclature — but they let you choose the exact look you want.

Explore Soviet leaf gear on MegaCamo

If the story has made you want to wear the pattern, MegaCamo’s Soviet/Russian leaf range is made to order:

• Russian KLMK Berezka Serebryanyi List Fleece Hoodie and the Solnechnye Zaychiki hoodie
• KLMK Berezka Pink Green O-Neck T-Shirt (190 GSM Cotton)
• Soviet Russian KLMK Berezka Solnechnye Zaychiki Quilted Lining Windbreaker
• Russian Spetznaz KLMK European Camouflage Neck Gaiter

Browse the full Soviet Leaf / KLMK collection, the Russia country page, or the USSR country page for the wider range.