1 Rouble WWII Victory

Belarus has issued commemorative roubles in this format repeatedly since the 1990s, but this particular release marks the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany — a date observed with unusual political weight in Minsk, where Lukashenko's government has increasingly anchored national identity to the memory of the Great Patriotic War. Belarus lost an estimated quarter of its entire population between 1941 and 1944, a per-capita figure that exceeds any other country involved in the conflict.