Sowsnak

The Sowsnak was de facto a currency of the Russian Soviet Republic during the period of war communism .

After the October Revolution , the newly formed Soviet state sought, in accordance with the program of the Communist Party of Russia , to abolish not only private property but also money. With this goal in mind , promissory notes called советские казначейские знаки ( sowjetskije kasnatscheijskie snaki , Soviet treasury bills ), abbreviated совзнак = Sowsnak , were introduced in 1919 , which became the actual money at that time. The attempt to compensate for budget deficits, which could not fail after the war and civil war, the loss of tax revenue and inflation of state administration through the takeover of the economy, through the printing press led to a hundredfold in the money supply between 1917 and 1921. The resulting inflation then actually only allowed so-called “proletarian natural economy ”. The financial crisis could only be remedied with the reopening of the State Bank on November 16, 1921. With the Chervonetz a new currency with 25 percent gold cover was introduced. Until the Sowsnaki were withdrawn from circulation in February 1924, they had a double currency.

credentials

• Richard Pipes : Russia under the Bolshevik regime 1919-1924 , London 1994, p. 393
• Manfred Hildermeier : History of the Soviet Union 1917–1991. Origin and decline of the first socialist state , Munich 1998, pp. 147 f., 237, 243