Miss Russian Army ( Beauties in Shoulder Straps)

Miss Russian Army is a beauty contest held by the Russian army in which female soldiers compete for a title of the same name. It is admittedly staged for the purposes of increasing interest in and recruitment for the army among young men.


The Russian Defense Ministry throw a first beauty contest in June 2005, nineteen female soldiers and sailors participated in the competition entitled "Beauties in Shoulder Straps", which was broadcast on live television. The event included the soldiers walking down the catwalk in uniform and singing songs while accompanied by guitarists a memorable lyric included the phrases, "Since we're soldiers, our first concern is automatic weapons; boys come second".

Other events, shown on film, saw the contestants competing in drills, crawling in combat uniform, entering tanks, and running with automatic weapons. The jury ultimately gave the title to Lieutenant Ksenya Agarkova, an engineer with Russia's Northern Fleet.