1 Rouble

The 1922 RSFSR 1 Rouble belongs to a brief window when Soviet monetary policy was in open contradiction with itself. The State Bank had been abolished in 1918 as incompatible with communist doctrine, yet runaway inflation forced the Bolsheviks to reconstitute it in October 1921 — this note is a direct product of that reversal. The 1922 series was part of a first redenomination attempt, with one new rouble replacing 10,000 of the Sovznaks that had hemorrhaged value throughout the civil war years.

A second, more drastic redenomination followed in 1923, making this issue obsolete within roughly twelve months of printing.