What, exactly, is Alekhine wearing here?

[MJMcCready]

Alekhine I mean.

[AustinElliott]

Getting back to the original question, I strongly suspect students at the pre-eminent Universities of Imperial Russia (like St Petersburg and Moscow) did wear a student uniform. For instance, see the photo here and caption (scroll down a page). The students at such institutions in pre-revolutionary times were overwhelmingly drawn from the aristocracy, so being marked out by a formal dress code was probably very natural to them. In addition, many of the elite academic state high schools of the time (Gymnasia, probably modelled on the German system) would also have had a uniform, so University uniforms may have felt like a continuation of that. Should we imagine this as too weird, remember that undergraduates at Oxbridge at a similar period would have been required to wear gowns to all lectures and other formal occasions (like dinner), and the full "sub fusc" to sit their exams.

As to why AA should be wearing the outfit to play chess, it may have been his most formal outfit, or perhaps he wore it to 'honour' the Law School he was attending.

[Gordon Cadden]

Getting back to the original question, I strongly suspect students at the pre-eminent Universities of Imperial Russia (like St Petersburg and Moscow) did wear a student uniform. For instance, see the photo here and caption (scroll down a page). The students at such institutions in pre-revolutionary times were overwhelmingly drawn from the aristocracy, so being marked out by a formal dress code was probably very natural to them. In addition, many of the elite academic state high schools of the time (Gymnasia, probably modelled on the German system) would also have had a uniform, so University uniforms may have felt like a continuation of that. Should we imagine this as too weird, remember that undergraduates at Oxbridge at a similar period would have been required to wear gowns to all lectures and other formal occasions (like dinner), and the full "sub fusc" to sit their exams.

As to why AA should be wearing the outfit to play chess, it may have been his most formal outfit, or perhaps he wore it to 'honour' the Law School he was attending.

The distinctive buttons indicate a military uniform, possibly an Academy for Nobles. Earlier photographs from 1909 also show Alekhine wearing this uniform. Alekhine did serve in the Russian Imperial Army during World War One, but not in active service.

[AustinElliott]

Getting back to the original question, I strongly suspect students at the pre-eminent Universities of Imperial Russia (like St Petersburg and Moscow) did wear a student uniform....

As to why AA should be wearing the outfit to play chess, it may have been his most formal outfit, or perhaps he wore it to 'honour' the Law School he was attending.

The distinctive buttons indicate a military uniform, possibly an Academy for Nobles. Earlier photographs from 1909 also show Alekhine wearing this uniform. Alekhine did serve in the Russian Imperial Army during World War One, but not in active service.

Thanks, Gordon. Wasn't aware of the significance of the button styles.

The Wiki bio of Alekhine says he attended Imperial law school in St Petersburg, which is what Wkipedia calls the "Imperial School of Jurisprudence'. That certains sounds like a place for scions of the Russian nobility, and it seems to have prepared them for high positions in the Imperial civil service.

I found a picture of the graduating class from a half century earlier, in 1859, whose uniform looks pretty similar to wha Alekhine is wearing in the 1913/14 photo (not sure about the buttons, hard to see in the photo). The 1859 photo contains another notable Russian who is famous for something other than law...

1859 Graduating Class

[MJMcCready]

Anyway, the lesson to be learnt from Alekhine's sad demise is that he should have been a vegetarian.