2 Roubles A.V. Koltsov

Alexei Koltsov, the Voronezh-born poet who died in 1842 at thirty-three, spent most of his short life as a cattle trader — a fact his literary contemporaries found either charming or embarrassing. Belinsky championed him anyway, forcing the St. Petersburg establishment to take seriously a man who had never attended university and composed verse between livestock markets. This coin was issued on the 200th anniversary of his birth.