Th e Ris e an d Fall o f th e USSR
A Collection of Fifteen Notes
This collection
includes the
first full-size
issues of all 15
former
members of
the Soviet
Union.
No country suffered m ore losses in the Second World War than the Soviet Union . The num ber of war dead
is estim ated at a staggerin g 24 m illion—som e 14 percen t of the pre-war population. The m aterial losses were
just as horrific. But for all this devastation, the Soviet Union som ehow em erged from World War II as the
m ost dom inant force in con tinental Europe—one of two superpowers that dom inated the world stage in the
second half of the 20 th Century.
The 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germ any had allowed Soviet spheres of influence in Rom an ia,
Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland. Soon after, the Soviets had occupied Eastern Poland and
the Baltic states. Despite the m ass destruction during and im m ediately after the war, Stalin m anaged to
consolidate power, as the U.S., Great Britain , and the other Allied powers had no desire to m ake war on the
USSR. From 1945 and 1949, East Germ any, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Rom an ia, and
Albania all becam e Soviet satellite states. It was, in Winston Churchill’s fam ous phrase, as if an “iron
curtain” had been drawn across that part of the continent.
Thus began the Cold War, when the USSR and its Warsaw Pact affiliates vied for global suprem acy against
the United States and its NATO allies. With both sides capable of wiping each other out—and destroyin g the
world in the process—n either were inclined to push the button. This concept of m utually assured
destruction, or MAD, prom pted both governm ents to adopt different, m ore subtle m eans of warfare. The
U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. n ever join ed in battle like, say, Rom e and Persia did. Instead, they fought each other
through contained proxy wars and covert operations. In places like Korea, Vietnam , and Afghan istan,
Marxist/ Com m un ist governm ents aligned with Russia fought bloody civil wars against Western-backed procapitalist (and often Fascist) regim es. The two sides com peted for technological superiority. The Soviets
launched Sputnik 1, the first satellite, in 1957, an event m et with near-hysteria in the Un ited States. The
Am ericans ram ped up their own space program , creating NASA and in vestin g heavily in research and
developm ent. J ust 12 years after Sputnik, the US landed a m an on the m oon .
Meanwhile, all around the world, the CIA, the KGB, an d their affiliated agencies worked through sabotage,
propaganda, and, som etim es, assassination. One of the m ost fam ous of these operations, the botched Bay of
Pigs in vasion , was launched in 1961. In that sam e year, the Berlin Wall was built, and J ohn F. Kenn edy
becam e president.
In the four-and-a-half decades between the end of the Second World War and the collapse of the Soviet
Union, there were a num ber of revolts against authoritarian rule: the Tito-Stalin split in Yugoslavia in ’48 ,
East Germ any in ‘53, the H ungarian Revolution of ’56, Prague Spring in ’68. The Solidarity m ovem ent in
Poland in 1989 com prised the first real crack in the Iron Curtain . The Berlin Wall fell later that year, and
then, one by one, the nations of Eastern Europe began to break free.
On Christm as Day, 1991, the Soviet Un ion itself officially collapsed, ending the Cold War. On e “Union” of
Soviet Socialist Republics was now 15 independent nations: the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, and
Estonia; the Eastern European countries of Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine; Arm enia, Azerbaijan , and
Georgia, in the Caucasus; the sprawling Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan ,
Turkm en istan, and Uzbekistan; and Russia itself.
Th e n o te s :
1. Arm e n ia │25 Dram │ P34
Obv: Frieze with lion from Erebuni castle │Rev: Arched ornament
Dim ensions: 126 x 62 m m
2 . Aze rba ija n │250 Manat │ P13
Obv: Building and value │Rev: Alerbay Can Millibanki
Dim ensions: 125 x 63 m m
3 . Be la ru s │ 25 Rublei │ P6
Obv: Warrior wielding sword on horseback │Rev: Moose
Dim ensions: 116 x 54 m m
9 . Lith u a n ia │ 3 Talonu │ P33
Obv: Num eral with juniper branch │Rev: Two grey herons
Dim ensions: 121 x 77 m m
10 . Mo ldo va │ 1 Leu │ P8a
Obv: King Stefan │Rev: Mon astery at Capriana
Dim ensions: 114 x 58 .5 m m
11. Ru s s ia │ 5 Rubles │ P239
Obv: Krem lin Spasski Tower │Rev: Value
Dim ensions: 114 x 58 m m
4 . Es to n ia │ 10 Krooni P77
Obv: J . Hurt at center, arm s at upper right, ascen ding serial n um ber
at right│Rev: Tree
Dim ensions: 140 x 69 m m
12 . Ta d jikis ta n │ 1 Ruble │ P1
Obv: Arm s │Rev: Majlisi - Parliam ent
Dim ensions: 10 2 x 55 m m
5 . Ge o rgia │ 5 0 0 La ris │ P29
Obv: View of Tbilisi with statue at center right │Rev: Cave dwellings
Dim ensions: 10 5 x 54 m m
13 . Tu rkm e n is ta n │5 Manat │P2
Obv: Building, Value │Rev: Building
Dim ensions: 126.5 x 63 m m
6 . Ka za kh s ta n │ 1 Tyin │ P1
Obv: Orn ate den om ination in circle │Rev: Circular arms
Dim ensions: 10 2 x 66 m m
14 . U kra in e │ 1 Ka rbo va n e t │ P81
Obv: Viking sister, value │Rev: Cathedral of St. Sophia In Kiev
Dim ensions: 10 5.5 x 54 m m
7. Kyrgyzs ta n │ 1 Tyiyn │ P1
Obv: Bald eagle │Rev: Ornate design
Dim ensions: 90 x 71 m m
15 . U zbe kis ta n │ 1 Sum │ P61
Obv: Arm s │Rev: Mosque
Dim ensions: 121 x 61.5 m m
8 . La tvia │ 10 Rubli │ P38
Obv: Value │Rev: Denomination within symmetrical design
Dim ensions: 120 x 60 m m
Ord e r co d e : RISE&FALLU SSRBN FOLIO
All m ultiple historical banknote sets are in a handsom e leatherette folio w ith hot-stam ped gold
logo. The set includes stand-alone story card and certificate of authenticity . Shipped in a
beautiful black branded box.
Im age show s ty pical banknotes, not to scale and is for illustration purpose only .
Banknotes in the album s w ill vary .