The Ruble: A Political History

The Russian ruble's history is told through the lens of money, revealing intimate dramas and grand historical processes. Ekaterina Pravilova argues that politics and culture must be considered alongside economic factors to explain why the currency was inconvertible for so long. The book offers a new history of Russia's imperial expansion and collapse.

Format: Hardback
Length: 576 pages
Publication date: 27 June 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

From empire to the Soviet era, Russia's history is examined in this groundbreaking book through the lens of its money. Money appears passive, a silent witness to the actions and wrongdoings of its owners, but its history can reveal intimate dramas and grand historical processes. This sweeping narrative of the ruble's story, from Catherine the Great to Lenin, argues that politics and culture must be considered alongside economic factors.

The history of the Russian ruble offers an opportunity to explore the political reasons behind the preservation of a supposedly backward financial system and to show how politicians used monetary reforms to block or enact political transformations.

The Ruble is a history of Russia written in the language of money. It shows how economists, landowners, merchants, and peasants understood, perceived, and used financial mechanisms. In her definitive account, Pravilova interprets the well-known political events of the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries--wars, attempts at constitutional transformations, revolutions--through the ideas and politics of currency reforms and offers a new history of Russia's imperial expansion and collapse.

Weight: 822g
Dimension: 165 x 242 x 50 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780197663714