Kirza, the material used to make Soviet boots, is widely regarding as having been a critical material for the Russian war effort, both saving soldier's feet from trench rot and saving billions of rubles from genuine leather construction of older styles of boots.

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However, when looking into it more in depth, it seems it's almost a mystery as to how it is made. Wikipedia simply says it was multiple layers of textile (no mention as to what kind of textile, how many layers, etc), " modified by membrane-like substances " which is even less descriptive.

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I'm curious if someone has sources for this material in English, how it was made, what it was made of, what the 'membrane-like substance' was... basically, if I were planning on making a patch of Kirza for my own personal satisfaction, where would I go to find more information on it?

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A bonus question: Was Kirza really so critical to the Russian war effort? What was used before? What was used after? Why was it ultimately replaced in the 1970/80's?

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Any help is greatly appreciated.

Edit:

I found a few sources that were somewhat helpful in at least narrowing down what was used, if not a specific method of manufacture. Shared below, hopefully it helps someone else scratching their head about needlessly secretive Soviet boot factories.

https://textiletrend.ru/pro-tkani/raznyiy-sostav/kirza.html

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https://elementy.ru/nauchno-populyarnaya_biblioteka/431941/Kirza

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https://rg.ru/2019/10/07/rodina-legendy-kirzaci.html

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