Hyperinflation/Archive

Cases / After the Great War / Soviet Russia

Soviet Russia
1921–1924

The Bolsheviks financed civil war and the state with paper money, and some of them saw that as a way to abolish money altogether ("war communism").

212%prices in the worst monthFebruary 1924
Jan 1922 – Feb 1924above 50% a monththe hyperinflation itself
1banknotes in the collectionPaper ruble (sovznak)

Currency reform: 1 gold ruble = 50 billion paper rubles · Cause: Civil war and "war communism" paid with paper money · Resolution: The gold-backed chervonets ran alongside, then replaced the paper ruble (1924)

In short

Hyperinflation in H&K's table runs from January 1922 to February 1924, peaking at 212 % in February 1924 (H&K). The way out was unusual: a new, gold-backed banknote, the chervonets (1922), circulated beside the collapsing paper ruble until the 1924 reform retired the paper. One gold ruble of 1924 was worth 50 billion rubles of the first Soviet issue.

The curve

No exchange-rate chart for this case yet: no series we could source month by month. The figures that matter are in the text and the key figures below, each with its source.

What happened

The events in order, with the banknotes at the date on them.

1919–1921
RSFSR "settlement notes" (raschetny znak) up to 100,000 rubles.
dated
1921
50,000 rubles, RSFSR settlement note (1921)
50,000 rubles, RSFSR settlement note (1921)
1922
Redenomination at 10,000 : 1; the gold chervonets is introduced alongside.
Jan 1922
Monthly inflation passes 50 % (H&K start).
1923
Another redenomination, 100 : 1 (1 ruble of 1923 = 1,000,000 of the first issue).
Feb 1924
Peak 212 % (H&K); the 1924 reform replaces the paper ruble with the gold ruble at 50,000 : 1.

Context: why it happened

  • Civil war (1918–1921) paid with the printing press.

How it ended

Two currencies ran side by side: people and firms moved to the chervonets, which was backed by gold and issued in limited amounts, while the paper ruble paid what remained of the deficit and collapsed.

Consequences & lessons

  • A hard parallel currency can rescue an economy before the state ends the bad one. It's the same pattern as people choosing dollars in Venezuela, or gold sovereigns in Greece.

The banknotes

50,000 rubles, RSFSR settlement note (1921)
50,000 rubles, RSFSR settlement note (1921)

The data

figurevaluesource
Hyperinflation (≥ 50%/month)Jan 1922 – Feb 1924H&K
Peak monthFebruary 1924H&K
Peak monthly inflation212 %H&K
NotesRSFSR notes 1919–1921 up to 100,000 rubles; treasury certificates up to 10,000,000Wikipedia (Soviet ruble)
Chervonets10 rubles = 8.602 g of 90 % fine gold (then US$5.14)Wikipedia (Soviet ruble)
1923 ruble= 1,000,000 paper rubles of 1917–1922Wikipedia (Soviet ruble)
1924 gold ruble= 50,000 rubles of 1923 = 50,000,000,000 rubles of the first issueWikipedia (Soviet ruble)
Case data (JSON)Banknotes (ZIP)
Cite this case
“Soviet Russia 1921–1924”, Hyperinflation Archive, hyperinflation.rogzy.org/soviet-russia-1921-1924/ (2026). Figures: Hanke & Krus (2012) and the sources listed below.

Sources

  1. Hanke & Krus (2012) — episode and peak.
  2. Wikipedia, "Soviet ruble" (read 2026-10-05): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_ruble

H&K = Hanke, S. H. & Krus, N. (2012), World Hyperinflations, Cato Institute Working Paper no. 8.