JRL NEWSWATCH: “‘The Ruble’ Review: Imperial Tender” – WSJ
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“Throughout its history, the Russian currency has been a symbol and an instrument of centralized and autocratic power.”
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“When reading Ekaterina Pravilova’s original, fascinating and meticulously researched ‘The Ruble’ it is a good idea to keep in mind its subtitle: ‘A Political History.’ For [her] multi-layered account of the evolution of the paper ruble from … the mid-18th century until the post-revolutionary reforms in the early 1920s goes beyond the … monetary. ‘The biography of the ruble’ … ‘is a history of the Russian state, written in the language of money.’ Regardless of the type of political system … she writes, ‘money does not simply reflect an existing (or imagined) social and political order but creates it; it is not a consequence or an attribute but an integral and constitutive part of any regime.’ … [The author] shows that the ruble has been, above all, a symbol and an instrument of centralized, autocratic and imperial power. …”