The KLMK — Kamuflirovannyy Letniy Maskirovochnyy Kombinezon, or Camouflaged Summer Disguise Coverall — names a garment form, not a pattern. Soviet lightweight oversuits in this format were printed with several different designs across three decades: a leaf pattern dating to around 1948, a blotch design introduced in 1960, and the stair-step birch pattern — solnechnye zaychiki, “sun bunnies” — which entered service in 1968. The birch design became so dominant in the KLMK format that the two names are now used interchangeably, though the pattern also appeared on two-piece uniforms, berets, field caps, and from 1981 on heavy cotton spetsodezhda issued to KGB Border Guard units. The yellow-sand variant carried in this collection is one of two documented color versions of the original birch pattern — the same stair-step geometry on a warmer ground, worn by successor state forces into the 21st century.
