50 Roubles The Savings Business in Russia

Issued as part of the Bank of Russia's long-running historical series on Russian banking and finance, this piece commemorates organized savings institutions that trace back to the state savings banks established under Nicholas I in 1841. Those early sberegatel'nye kassy were explicitly designed to encourage thrift among the lower classes, operating initially through just two branches — one in St. Petersburg, one in Moscow — before expanding across the empire over the following decades.