Russia is the largest country in the world, which straddles the continents of Europe and Asia. Being very large, it is also very diverse. There are over twenty ethnic groups and over 100 languages, although Russian Slavs still have an 80% majority and 99% of the population has at least a decent understanding of Russian.
The history of Russia is a very, very long topic and it would take me forever to write even a "short" summery. If you want, here is an extremely short summery of Russian history which still has far more details than this topic.
The history of Russia, for our purposes, begins with Keivan Rus (founded 880), a Slavic state located in present-day European Russian and northern Ukraine. Keivan Rus adopted Orthodox Christianity (a major religion in modern Russia) from the Byzantine Empire, which is reflected on their Byzantine-style coins:
(Note the presence of the tryzub, a symbol of Ukraine)
In the 13th century, the Mongol Golden Horde took over Russia, beginning a period which has a tremendous influence on modern Russia and its culture. The sporadic invasion came as surprise to the powerful Rus' state. One historian living at the time considered the invasion to be God's punishment: "For our sins unknown nations arrived. No one knew their origin or whence they came, or what religion they practiced. That is known only to God, and perhaps to wise men learned in books". During the time of the Mongol occupation, regular Mongol coins and imitations thereof were used in most of Russia.
Also at this time, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, Velikoye Knyazhestvo Moskovskoy'e, emerged as a powerful vassal state to the Mongols. They rebelled against their occupiers and eventually, Ivan the Great, the Grand Duke of Moscow, emerged victorious and removed the last traces of Mongol domination. He named himself, "Grand Duke of All Russians", and attempted to create what he called a "Third Rome". He married a Byzantine princess, and adopted the Byzantine coat of arms:
(Ivan III's personal arms)
Finally, Ivan's son, Ivan Grozny (Ivan IV "The Terrible") completed the process by creating the Tsarstvo, or Tsardom (more accurately, "Caesardom", reflecting ideal of a Third Rome) of Russia. During this time, wire money was used. Wire money was made of a silver wire that was pressed flat and struck with a massive die. The wire was then cut into equal-weighted pieces which became coins.
Russia pursued an expansionist policy during the era of the Tsardom. Russia conquered many of the Khanates of the disintegrating Mongol Empire. Ivan the Terrible more than doubled Russia's territory and transformed it into a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and intercontinental state. He also "happened" to have committed brutal atrocities against his own citizens and even his own son, but we'll leave this for another time.
When all of Ivan's sons died, Russia was left without a leader. Chaos ensued, and finally Michael Romanov, a relative of Ivan's wife, was appointed the new Tsar. Michael I became the first Romanov, a dynasty which lasted over 300 years. During this time, there was very little change in coinage and wire money continued to be used.
Peter I, usually known as Peter the Great, established the Russian Empire, although in reality he continued to be called Tsar. He also pursued a policy of aggressive expansionism. He fought wars with Persians, the Ottoman Empire, and with Sweden. In these wars, he took over the Baltic states and the swamps that became St. Petersburg, a city which he named after himself. He also modernized Russia's coinage. Peter the Great introduced the Rouble of 100 Kopeks (the first decimal currency), and his coins were some of the first milled coins in the world.
After Peter the Great, Russia's Golden Age was not over. One of his successors, Catherine II (again, "The Great") is famous in the numismatic world for creating large coins made out of copper. However, she is also famous for the military victories (see the pattern yet
) she made over the Ottoman Empire, Persia, and the Khanate of Crimea. In these wars, she gained Azeribaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, among other territories. She was also a major figure in the Russian Enlightenment. Now, back to her large copper coins. During Catherine's reign, Siberia's and the Urals' copper mining industries were at their height. She decided to make coins out of copper rather than silver (because there was so much extra copper) which resulted in some pretty large coins, culminating in the massive Syestroryetsk'i Rubl', the Rouble of Sestroretsk (made out of 1 kg of copper!)
Years after Catherine the Great, a formidable threat rose for Russia: Napoleon. Napoleon's ambition took him across the European continent to Russia. However, he was defeated. This is probably due to the fact that Russia's cold winters were no match for the French troops, but also because Mikhail Kutuzov, a brilliant strategist fought Napoleon using very successful tactics. The French invasion left no impact on Russian coinage.
After the Napoleonic invasion, Russian coinage modernized slowly. This resulted in the reigning monarch not being featured on all coins Here are some examples:
At this time in Russian history, unrest sweeped the nation. In the process of modernization, the Tsars began creating more and more reforms, mainly giving more rights to the peasant class and abolishing serfdom. This in turn led to the rise of Socialist, Communist, and Labor movements (know the difference!) in the country. Tsar Alexander II was assassinated by terrorists from the left-wing terrorist group, Narodnaya Volya. His son, Alexander III attempted to appease the upper class nobility and apparently this worked, because his reign was also quite peaceful. During the reigns of Alexander II and Alexander III, Russia introduced some beautiful commemorative roubles:
After Alexander III's peaceful death, his son, Nicholas II, was crowned in a lavish coronation ceremony. As part of the ceremony, a handsome commemorative rouble was issued:
Nicholas II opposed all democratic reforms and wished for the Russian government to remain an absolute monarchy. He also pursued extremely anti-Semitic legislation (which led to the foundation of the Jewish Labor Bund), as well as anti-labor laws. His subjects, however, had different ideas. This led to the famous Revolution of 1905, which was really a wave of revolutions across Russia, each targeting a specific problem. Tsar Nicholas II responded with violence, but this didn't stop the revolts.
Finally, he was forced to enact massive reforms, one of which included creating the democratically-elected Imperatorski Duma, the Imperial Duma (a legislative body). He also granted the freedom of speech and assembly. He also fought two wars, the Russo-Japanese War (which he lost) and WWI (which he one but at a heavy cost to the nation). In addition, the Russian government began to print millions of roubles in banknotes without minting coins to back them up with, which caused inflation and a food shortage. All these events set the stage for the Russian Revolution.
The Russian Revolution was in fact a series of related primarily Socialist rebellions and wars. The first of these, the February Revolution, broke out in the streets of Petrograd (St. Petersburg). The February Revolution deposed the Tsar and created the Russian Provisional Government, which was partially democratic, as well as the Petrograd Soviet, an influential legislative body. The Russian Provisional Government eventually ordered the execution of the Tsar and his entire family. Unfortunately for the Soviet, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, took down the Provisional Government in the October Revolution. Lenin and his followers established the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). The RSFSR was the world's first socialist state, which completely overhauled the government and the economy to comply with socialist models. The RSFSR also produced coins in 1921, the first since the fall of the Tsarist government.
Finally, the Soviet Union was established as a union of the formerly independent RSFSR, Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic, the Byelorussian Socialist Soviet Republic, and the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (a federation of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia). RSFSR coinage continued for a few years and then the Soviet Union issued distinctive coins, including a pictorial 50 Kopeks and 1 Rouble.
Lenin died in 1924, and Joseph Stalin took power. Stalin murdered many of his own people (he killed more Russians than Hitler) and imposed harsh agricultural "reforms" which led to many famines. Among the people he didn't kill, he exiled many to Siberia for being "enemies of the state" (including many members of my family). Stalin also fought WWII which brought a wave on intense patriotism as well as tremendous suffering for ordinary people. He also abolished circulating silver coinage in 1931.
The Stalinist regime came to end when he died in 1953 and Nikita Khruschev and later Leonid Brezhnev became the new leader of the USSR. During this time, the USSR experienced tremendous economic and industrial growth, in an effort to keep up with the capitalist USA. However, this era of Soviet history is marked by the Cold War, the "frozen conflict" with America and the West. The USSR showed off their military power on a set of coins commemorating 50 years since the revolution.
After 1967, the Soviet Union began a long series of circulating commemorative roubles (the first coin was actually issued in 1965 to commemorate the end of WWII). See the rest here.
Despite the large number of commemoratives and monetary reforms, the coins under 1 rouble basically stayed the same.
During the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras, the USSR and USA fought proxy wars, namely the Korean, Vietnam, and Soviet-Afghanistan wars. Although they left a big impact on history, they had no impact on Soviet coinage. The Soviet Union also maintained control over its Eastern European puppet states, which will each get its own WCC topic.
In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev was selected as leader of the Soviet Union. He engaged in talks with America, established more political (Peristroika) and personal (Glasnost - the reduction of censorship) freedoms, and slowly began the process of dismantling the socialist economy. Between 1989 and 1991, the Soviet Union began the process of collapse. Each of the 15 republics declared Independence, and finally, the RSFSR did so as well under the leadership of Boris Yeltsin. The Soviet Union came to an end in 1991
Gosbank, the State Bank of the USSR issued a set of coins in 1991, and the independent Russian Federation issued its own coins starting in 1991. Eventually, all the former Soviet republics issued coins.
The Russian Federation was plagued with economic problems. Those people with connections to power during the Soviet Union became the "oligarchs" who controlled a large percentage of the economy while the ordinary people were left in poverty. In addition, rebellions in the North Caucasus (especially in Chechnya) further crippled the Russian state. In 1998, another financial crisis rocked the country. This crisis resulted in a revaluation of the Russian rouble.
Russia also began a series of commemorative 10 rouble coins (both bimetallic and monometallic).
In 1999, Yeltsin resigned, leaving Vladimir Putin to lead the country. Although Putin held various posts of power since then, he was almost always the driving force behind all of Russia's politics (he is still in power today). Although Putin reversed many of processes of democratization, he created relative stability which made him popular in Russia. In 2014, Putin authorized the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea. In addition, in 2014, a new symbol was created for the ruble: ₽, which was commemorated on a coin.
Now we come to the end of a one-thousand year saga of Russian history - finally!
Here are some added materials:
The territorial evolution of Russia from 1866:
Symbols of Russia:
Tsardom:
Empire:
RSFSR:
Soviet Union:
Russian Federation:
I hope you enjoyed this WCC topic! I'll be covering Ukraine next. If you want to learn more about Russian history (or debate it) feel free to contact me
. Also, I have to recommend the show, Russia: Land of the Tsars, by History Channel. You can watch it for free online here. 
As a result, after finally adding my Russian coins to Numista, I searched the forum and found this thread. Excellent summary, dptashny. Thank you! 
