Ruble
The ruble or rouble (Russian рубль; see note on spelling below) is the name of the currencies of the Russian Federation and Belarus (and formerly, of the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire). One ruble is divided into 100 kopeks (копе´йка). The ISO 4217 currency code for the Russian ruble is now RUB; the former code, RUR, refers to the currency prior to 1997 denomination.
Origins
The ruble has been the Russian unit of currency for about 500 years. The word "ruble" is derived from the Russian verb рубить, rubit, i.e., to chop. Historically, "ruble" was a piece of a certain weight chopped off a silver ingot (grivna), hence the name. It was the Russian equivalent of the mark, a measurement of weight for silver and gold used in medieval western Europe.In Russian, a folk name for "ruble", tselkovyi (целковый, wholesome), is known, which is a shortening of the "целковый рубль" ("tselkovyi ruble"), i.e. a wholesome, uncut ruble.
Ruble and Kopek
The word kopek, kopeck or copeck (kopeyka) derives from the Russian kop'yo (копьё) - a spear. The first kopek coins, minted by Muscovy after the capture of Novgorod in 1478, carried the Moscow coat of arms with Saint George slaying a dragon with a spear. The modern Russian kopeck also carries this image.Around the 19-20th centuries, the coins of kopeck denominations had individual names: 2 kop.= dvushka, 3 kop.= altyn (mostly obsolete by the 1960s), 5 kop.= pyatak, 10 kop.= grivennik, 15 kop. = paytialtynny (5 altyn; the usage lived longer than "altyn"), 20 kop. = dvugrivenny (2 grivenniks), 50 kop. = poltina or poltinnik.
The amount of 10 rubles (in either bill or coin) is sometimes informally referred to as chervonets (черво´нец). Historically, it was the name for the first Russian 3-ruble gold coin issued for general circulation in 1701. The current meaning comes from Soviet golden chervonets (советский золотой червонец) issued in 1923 that was equivalent to 10 pre-revolution golden rubles.
All these names are obsolete. Nowadays the practice of using old kopeck coin names for amounts of rubles has very common usage. In modern Russian slang only these names are used:
- pyatyorka for 5 roubles bill
- chirik (чирик) simplified "chervonets" for 10 roubles bill
- poltinnik (полтинник) for 50 roubles bill
- pyatihatka (пятихатка) for 500 roubles bill
- shtuka (штука, the thing) for 1000 roubles bill and generally amount of 1000 roubles
Denominations
Currently, the ruble exists in the following denominations:Coins:
- 1 kopeck (rarely used)
- 5 kopecks (rarely used)
- 10 kopecks
- 50 kopecks
- 1 ruble
- 2 rubles
- 5 rubles
Russian banknotes
| Front \ | Back \ | Features |
|---|---|---|
| St. Sofia's Cathedral in Novgorod; Fortress wall of the Novgorod Kremlin (This note is uncommon, being replaced by 5-rouble coin.) | ||
| Bridge across the River Yenisei in Krasnoyarsk, Chapel; Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric plant | ||
| Sculpture at the foot of the Rostral Column on background of Petropavlosk Fortress; Former stock exchange building | ||
| Sculpture on the portico of the Bolshoi Theatre; the Bolshoi Theatre | ||
| Monument to Peter the Great, sailing ship and sea terminal in Arkhangelsk; Solovetsky Monastery | ||
| Monument to Yaroslav I the Wise and chapel of the Yaroslavl kremlin; Church of Precursor |
In 2006, 5000 rubles banknotes will be released.
History
Over time the amount of precious metal in a ruble varied. In a 1704 currency reform Peter I standardized the ruble coin to 28 grams of Silver. While ruble coins were mostly silver, sometimes they were minted of gold, and some 19th century coins were Platinum. The gold ruble introduced in 1897 was equal to 0.774235 g of gold. The Soviet ruble of 1961 was formally equal to 0.987412 g of Gold, but the exchange for gold was never available to the general public. The ruble is no longer linked to a gold standard.Following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the ruble remained the currency of the Russian Federation. During the period of high inflation of the early 1990s, the ruble was significantly devalued. The ruble was rebased on January 1, 1998, with one new ruble equaling 1,000 old rubles. Rebasing did not solve fundamental economic problems faced by the Russian economy at the time, and the currency was devalued in August 1998 following the Asian financial crisis. The ruble lost 70% of its value against US Dollar in 6 months following August 1998.
All Russian paper money is currently printed at the state-owned factory Goznak in Moscow, which was organized on June 6, 1919 and has continued to operate ever since. Coins are minted in the Monetny Dvor mint in St. Petersburg that operates since 1724 and in Moscow.
In November of 2004, the authorities of Dimitrovgrad (Ulyanovsk Oblast) erected a five-meter Monument to the ruble.
Ruble in Russian/Soviet subdivisions
In the Soviet period, the ruble had its own name in all languages of the Soviet Union, sometimes quite different from its Russian designation. All banknotes had their values printed in the languages of all Soviet Republics. This naming is preserved in modern Russia; for example: Tatar for ruble and kopek are sum and tien. The current names of several currencies of Central Asia are simply the local names of the ruble.
The name of the currency in the official languages of the 15 republics, in the order they appeared in the banknotes:
| Russian | рубль | копейка | rubl’ / kopeika |
| Ukrainian | карбованець | копійка | karbovanets’ / kopiyka |
| Belarusian | рубель | капейка | rubyel’ / kapeika |
| Uzbek | сўм | so'm | |
| Kazakh | сом | som | |
| Georgian | მანეთი | manati | |
| Azerbaijani | манат | manat | |
| Lithuanian | rublis | kapeika | |
| Moldavian | рублэ | rublă / copeică | |
| Latvian | rublis | kopeikas | |
| Kyrgyz | сом | тыйн | som / tyin |
| Tajik | сўм | sum | |
| Armenian | ռուբլի | roublee | |
| Turkmen | манат | manat | |
| Estonian | rubla | kopikas |
Note on spelling
Both the spellings "ruble" and "rouble" are used in English. The form "rouble" is preferred by the Oxford English Dictionary, but the earliest uses it records in English were the now completely obsolete "robble", followed by "ruble". The form "rouble" probably derives from the transliteration into French used among the Tsarist aristocracy. There is some tendency for North American authors to use "ruble" and other English speakers to use "rouble", and also some tendency for older sources to use "rouble" and more recent ones to use "ruble", but neither tendency is absolute. An accurate, but ungainly, English transliteration is rubl.See also
- Belarusian ruble
- Transnistrian Rouble
- Hryvnia