100 Roubles Belarusian Ballet

Belarus has issued commemorative silver in large formats fairly consistently since the late 1990s, but the ballet series occupies a particular niche — the country's academic ballet tradition, centered on the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus in Minsk, dates to 1933 and survived the near-total destruction of the city during the Second World War. The company rebuilt from almost nothing after 1944 and by the Soviet late period had developed a reputation distinct enough from Moscow to warrant its own identity.

KM#452 is one of several high-relief 500-gram-range issues from this run. The National Bank produced these primarily for the collector export market.