100 Roubles The Nutcracker

Issued to mark the 1996 centennial celebrations of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker — first performed at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on December 18, 1892 — this coin belongs to a broader Russian commemorative program that systematically documented national cultural heritage through precious-metal issues in the post-Soviet decade. The ballet's premiere was, by most contemporary accounts, poorly received; critics dismissed it, and Tchaikovsky himself expressed dissatisfaction with the production before his death the following year.