1000 Roubles

The Russian Provisional Government issued this note in the chaotic months between the February Revolution and the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917. Kerensky's government needed to finance a continuing war effort while the state apparatus was actively disintegrating — printing large-denomination paper was the predictable result. Inflation was already severe by the time these notes reached circulation, and the public had begun distinguishing between "old" Tsarist money and the new republican issues with considerable suspicion.

Nicknamed "Kerenki" by the population, though that name was more commonly applied to the small-format fractional issues. This 1000-rouble note circulated only briefly before the Bolsheviks invalidated Provisional Government currency following November 1917.