25 Roubles Hero City Volgograd

Transdniester — the narrow strip of land between the Dniester River and the Ukrainian border — has issued its own currency since the early 1990s despite lacking any international recognition as a sovereign state. This Volgograd piece belongs to a series honoring Soviet "Hero Cities," a designation awarded by Stalin's government in 1945 to cities that held out under catastrophic siege or assault. Volgograd, then Stalingrad, saw roughly two million casualties across five months of fighting in 1942–43 — the single bloodiest battle in recorded history.