20 Roubles Grodno

Grodno is one of Belarus's oldest cities, with documented history stretching back to the eleventh century, and was the site of the last session of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's Sejm in 1793 — the assembly at which the Second Partition was ratified under Russian military pressure. The city changed hands repeatedly through the twentieth century, administered under Tsarist Russia, briefly independent, then interwar Poland, then Soviet occupation beginning in 1939.

This piece belongs to the National Bank's long-running regional series commemorating Belarusian cities and their historical patrimony. Grodno's inclusion reflects its status as the administrative center of Hrodna Voblast, the westernmost region of the country bordering both Poland and Lithuania.