I want to point out here that the red army used foot rags instead of socks. This was normal in that part of the world, and was even a point of pride. There’s a special way you wrap and tie them. It’s a whole thing.

This is to say that using strips of fabric as socks, sometimes called “foot rags”, shouldn’t be looked at as evidence of “supply issues” in the red army. A fairly thick sanitary napkin could be folded from these long strips of fabric, but I’m not able to weigh in on their likely effectiveness as menstrual products.