5 000 000 Roubles Short term certificate

The RSFSR's short-term certificates (kratkosrochnye obyazatelstva) of 1921 occupied an awkward middle ground between currency and state debt instrument — technically obligations of the Treasury rather than banknotes, but pressed into circulation as money because the Soviet economy had effectively collapsed the distinction. The People's Commissariat of Finance issued them in desperation during the hyperinflationary spiral that preceded the New Economic Policy, when denomination creep had made lower-value notes nearly useless for any meaningful transaction.

The 5,000,000 rouble face value reflects just how far the currency had deteriorated by 1921. The Soviet government conducted a redenomination the following year, with the 1922 sovznak series converting at 10,000 old roubles to one new — making this certificate worth roughly 500 new roubles at the moment of its obsolescence.