RUSSIA--PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. Gosudarstvenniy Bank. 50 Rubles, 1919. P-39Ba. PMG Very Fine 25. A significant rainbow 50 Rubles from 1919 Russia. The year of 1919 marked a turbulent and trying time for the newly formed Russian Soviet Republic: the White Army was still engaged in a bitter war of attrition with the Reds in the South of Russia, the British and American Expeditionary Forces were fighting alongside the Whites against the Bolsheviks in the North of Russia, and the Red Army steamrolled the White Army in Siberia. During the Russian Civil War, many regions and Provisional Governments issued currency before the State Bank of the R.S.F.S.R. (later the State Bank of the U.S.S.R.) began issuing currency in 1921, which was implemented by Vladimir Lenins New Economic Policy. Lenin himself would describe the State Bank as a "bureaucratic paper game," and nothing more than a "Potemkin Village," which Lenin meant was to make people believe the newly formed R.S.F.S.R. was fairing quite well, when in reality it was not. This note is an anomaly of survival. We have only handled one other in our lengthy history and it was also in Very Fine condition. This note will likely be tucked away for quite some time once it crosses the block.
