1 000 000 Roubles Short term certificate

The short-term certificates (kratkosrochnye obyazatelstva) of 1921 were a fiscal instrument distinct from ordinary currency — interest-bearing obligations issued by the Commissariat of Finance as the Soviet government attempted to manage catastrophic inflation while simultaneously refusing, on ideological grounds, to acknowledge that inflation was a problem. The million-rouble face value was a direct consequence of the monetary collapse inherited from the Civil War years, when the Sovznaks lost value faster than new denominations could be designed and printed.

These certificates circulated alongside ordinary banknotes but were technically debt instruments, redeemable at term. In practice the distinction mattered little — hyperinflation made the interest component meaningless within weeks of issue.