1 Rouble Victory

Issued to mark the 60th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, this Belarusian commemorative came at a politically charged moment — Lukashenko's government had made the war's memory a central pillar of national identity, and the 60th anniversary saw state-sponsored commemorations on a scale exceeding those of most former Soviet republics. Belarus lost an estimated quarter of its entire population during the German occupation, the highest proportional loss of any Soviet territory.