The Communist’s Currency By: Griffin Foley

The Russian Ruble Created in 1755 Divided into kopeks & chervonets 1 ruble = 100 kopeks 1 chervonets = 10 rubles

First Coins Silver Rubles Copper kopeks

Reformation of System 1839 Printed banknotes Created Gold Standard Introduced Gold coin

The Revolution 1905 – 1918 Crowd of protesters were fired upon Petitioned czarist regime Led to Civil war (1918 – 1920) between Communists and anti-Communists Communists were victorious

The Soviet Ruble 1922 Issued new paper currency Led to extremely high inflation (new replaced old at rate of 10 to 1) Created new coins called Chervonetzand backed them 25% with gold Kept reforming the Soviet Ruble until inflation went down 1923, 1924, 1947, 1961

The Fall of the Soviet Ruble 1989 Replaced with Russian ruble after dissolution of the Soviet Union More inflation

Reasons for Inflation 1993 Russian Central Bank stated all bank notes issued from 1961 – 1992 would no longer be valid At least 20% of cash in circulation People had two weeks

Why Abolish Old Bills? Halt Inflation Stop counterfeiting Eliminate bills bearing likenesses of Lenin and other former Communist leaders Prevent old rubles still circulating in other Soviet republics from flowing back into Russia and triggering inflation

Year US Ruble 1988 $ $ $ $ $ By the mid 90’s, One hundred-ruble notes were rare and only worth a few pennies. Kopeks disappeared from circulation.

Stabilization Inflation began to collapse in 1996 Took four years to switch to “deflated currency” Five-thousand ruble notes became five- ruble notes One-thousand ruble notes were replaced by coins