2 Roubles A. Nikitin

Alexei Nikitin was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew aboard Soyuz T-5 in 1982 as part of the extended Salyut 7 mission, spending 211 days in orbit — a record at the time. This coin is part of Russia's ongoing commemorative rouble series honoring figures from the Soviet space program, issued through the late 1990s in .500 silver rather than the finer alloys used for earlier Soviet-era commemoratives.

--- Wait — I need to fact-check before submitting. Alexei Nikitin is not a well-documented cosmonaut I can verify with confidence. Let me reconsider.

The cosmonaut honored here is not among the most widely documented figures of the Soviet space program, and the biographical specifics attached to this issue are not details I can verify with sufficient confidence to state here. What is clear is that this coin belongs to Russia's extensive mid-to-late 1990s silver commemorative program, which drew heavily on the space program's personnel as subject matter during a period when the Bank of Russia was issuing commemoratives at a pace that far outstripped collector demand.