5 Roubles Battle of Berezina

The Battle of Berezina, fought November 26–29, 1812, saw Napoleon's retreating Grande Armée cross the Berezina River in Belarus under sustained Russian attack, losing perhaps 25,000 soldiers and camp followers in four days. This coin was issued as part of Russia's extensive commemorative program marking the bicentennial of the 1812 Patriotic War — a campaign the Russian state has consistently treated as a founding national trauma, funding dozens of circulating commemoratives across several base-metal series that year.

The nickel-plated steel composition placed these firmly in circulation rather than collector channels, though most were bought and hoarded immediately upon release.