RUSSIA 1 RUBLE from 1919 P-81

During the czar rule Russian rubles were one of the worlds highly valued currencies as they were backed by serious stockpiles of gold. During the Bolshevik revolution, most of that gold was shipped out of Russia, so the Soviet ruble’s did not have much value. It did not matter anyway as the Soviet rules kept fixed rate of ruble. In 1993 Russian government has removed price fixing, but it continues to intervene into currency markets to keep the value of ruble at a lower rate than it actually is to stimulate Russian export producers.

The paper money of the USSR period underwent many emissions and changed its outlook very much. Most of it was printed on white paper and had watermarks, but the format and style of different series varies very much. For example, the 1918-1922 series are quite simplistic, while the 1923 one continues the traditions of the Imperial period. From 1925, the banknotes contained, in addition to the state symbols, pictures of people and their life (the worker and the farmer reading Karl Marx, a seeder, scenes of harvest, etc.). In 1937 for the first time Lenin himself appeared on the notes, and stayed there until 1992.