20 Roubles The church of Sts Boris and Gleb

Boris and Gleb were the first saints canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church after the Christianization of Kievan Rus, killed in 1015 during a succession struggle following the death of Vladimir the Great. Their refusal to take up arms against their brother Sviatopolk — who ordered their murders — established a model of Christian martyrdom rooted in passive suffering rather than militant resistance, an unusual theological position that resonated deeply across Slavic Orthodoxy for centuries.

This issue is part of Belarus's late-1990s commemorative silver program documenting Orthodox architectural heritage within its borders at a moment of post-Soviet religious and national identity reconstruction.