2020-09-09
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Walruses, or rubles of the Northern region
This money went both under the Bolsheviks and the interventionists
'Money is running out-send it urgently!' - such telegrams came to the Central office of the state Bank in early 1918 from all over Russia.
It seemed that what is the problem – in the hands of the Bolsheviks all the cliches - and the Tsar's money, and kerenok, and your revolutionary design can be quickly developed? Print money and make Russians happy!
At first, this is exactly what the Bolsheviks did.
Undeterred by the faces of the tsars on pre-revolutionary money, they printed a huge amount of tsarist money - to Finance what was later called the ' victorious March of the October revolution in Russia.'
Rifles for the red guards, salaries for workers and officials who agreed to cooperate – for these purposes, the new leadership of the state Bank stamped 25-ruble bills with Alexander III, and 50-ruble bills with Nicholas I, and 100 - ruble 'katenki', and 500-ruble 'petenki': the main thing-to take power into their own hands.
In 1918, something clicked in the minds of the revolutionaries: it's been a year since the tsars were overthrown, and their portraits on money are actively used – this is wrong. But on the other hand, the theory suggests that communism does not need money – it should die with a centralized distribution of everything to everyone.
The solution was found simple: if somewhere is very necessary - and the salary of workers and Soviet employees need to be issued! - you can print money, but without counter-revolutionary content…
Arkhangelsk, January 1918, shortage of cash. When asked to send cash from the state Bank, they replied: do not wait for money, we give permission to print surrogate money for the North of Russia. So there were 'checks of the Arkhangelsk branch of the State Bank'.
Based on the sketches of Repin's student, artist Sergei Vasilyevich Chekhov (1878-1936), the Petrograd printing house 'Golike and Vilborg' printed checks for 120.8 million rubles. Denominations of 3 rubles, 5 rubles and 10 rubles were issued without a drawing, but they won back on 25 rubles.
If the picture of Ivan Shishkin 'Morning in pine forest' to replace the brown bears on polar bear and walrus, and instead of a dense forest to depict the ice with hummocks in the Northern lights with the number 25 at the center of the picture, you get the front side of the bills, who people called 'Moravka' - why is a walrus the northerners gave above the bear.
There are no words – the checks turned out to be beautiful, and the word 'walruses' stuck to the checks in denominations of 3, 5 and 10 rubles, on which there were no walruses or bears.
Morzhovki stayed in the Soviet power for a short time – from may to August 1918, and on September 2, an English landing force landed in Arkhangelsk, and on August 3, a government without Bolsheviks was formed – the 'Supreme administration of the Northern region' (VUSO) headed by N. V. Tchaikovsky.
The Bolsheviks did not run away empty-handed – they took with them about 93 million walruses that were not put into circulation, leaving about 27 million walruses in the hands of the population.
Taking into account that the walruses did not call for proletarians of all countries to unite, and the faces of the walrus and bear did not display their political preferences, the VUSO decided to legalize them as money of the new government, obliging only the population to register them in the Arkhangelsk branch of the state Bank before October 1.
The Stamp 'REGISTERED' signed by the new Manager of the Arkhangelsk branch of the state Bank, Prince Ivan Anatolyevich Kurakin, was placed on bills that had the facsimile signature 'Commissar Dmitriev': better so than a new cash crisis.
In February 1920, the Bolsheviks returned to Arkhangelsk, and morzhovka ceased to be money: along with the Soviet government came sovznaki R. S. F. S. R.
My morzhovka m 084 series - without the stamp and signature of Prince I. A. Kurakin-is perfectly preserved. It is probably one of those walruses worth 93 million that the Bolsheviks took out during the retreat from Arkhangelsk and thus saved for collectors.
Моржовки, или рубли Северной области
25 рублей 1918 г.
Country
:
Россия
Denomination
:
Year
:
1918
Quantity
:
Issuer
:
Архангельское отделение Государственного банка
Series
:
Valid from
:
Valid till
:
Cancelled
:
Alexander R.
