3 Roubles Archangel - Red regime

The Archangel Branch of the State Bank issued this note in 1918 under the control of the anti-Bolshevik Northern Government, which had seized the city in August of that year with Allied military backing. The designation "Red regime" in cataloging refers to the pre-coup Soviet administration that originally authorized these notes — Archangel changed hands, but the paper kept circulating.

Currency issued during this period of dual authority is notoriously difficult to attribute cleanly. The same notes passed through Bolshevik and White-controlled hands within weeks of each other, which complicates any straightforward political reading of a surviving example.