Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Ruble's Stories
Part I: The Age of Assignats
Chapter 1: Assignats: From Paper Substitutes to Paper Money
Chapter 2: Autocracy or Representation? The Political Philosophy of Money in the Age of Napoleon and After
Chapter 3: The End of Assignats
Part II: Autocratic Capitalism
Chapter 4: Paper Money in the Era of the "Great Reforms"
Chapter 5: Ruble's Wars
Part III: The Gold Reform
Chapter 6: Witte's Rollercoaster
Chapter 7: The Autocratic Standard
Chapter 8: Practicing the Gold Standard
Part IV: Ruble, Wars, and Revolutions
Chapter 9: The Gold Syndrome
Chapter 10: War and the End of the Gold Ruble
Chapter 11: A Revolution That Did Not Happen
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Ekaterina Pravilova is Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and Director of the Program in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at Princeton University. She is the author of the award-winning A Public Empire: Property and the Quest for the Common Good in Imperial Russia, as well as Legality and Individual Rights: Administrative Justice in Russia and Finances of Empire: Money and Power in Russian
Policy in the Imperial Borderlands, published in Russian. She is a native of St. Petersburg.

Reviews

Pravilova has carried out prodigious archival research.
*Simon Dixon, Literary Review*

Groundbreaking history of Russia - from empire to the Soviet era - viewed through the lens of its money. Important and timely in the face of recent events.
*Frederick Studemann, Books to Read in 2023, Financial Times*

This wonderfully intelligent, knowledgeable, and imaginative book on the ruble and financial policy fills an immense gap in our understanding of government, politics, and society in imperial Russia.
*Dominic Lieven, Trinity College, Cambridge University*

The Ruble: A Political History is a magisterial account of the Russian currency as a tool of autocratic control—from Catherine the Great to the early Soviet times. Today, when the Russian imperialism is back and when Russian ruble is once again returning to nonconvertibility, Ekaterina Pravilova's book is more timely than ever.
*Sergei Guriev, Sciences Po*

Award-winning author Ekaterina Pravilova asks, 'Can money have a story?' As regards the Russian imperial ruble from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century, she shows that most certainly it can—and what a story it can tell about a country, an economy, and a society! Her deeply researched and sharply argued book demonstrates how repeated Russian governments deployed currency and financial resources as a tool of domestic rule and geopolitical competition. Yet her work also elucidates unexpected and important currents of both liberal and conservative thought not visible in other accounts. A valuable and important account for historians of Russian imperial history, broader European history, and economic history.
*Peter Holquist, University of Pennsylvania*

...original, fascinating and meticulously researched.
*Eamonn Gearon, Wall Street Journal*

Ekaterina Pravilova's book displays admirable imagination and originality - as well as obvious, and dire, relevance to Russia's here and now.
*Catriona Kelly, TLS*

The Ruble: A Political History is an impressive accomplishment.
*The Russian Review*

Ekaterina Pravilova's The Ruble: A Political History persuasively offers Russia's currency as a case study in the entanglement of money and power, and in so doing, encourages us to understand what catalyzes these global trends. A 200-year 'biography of a currency,' the book positions the ruble as both an important part of imperial organization and an unexpected anchor of Soviet influence. The ruble also emerges, amid political and financial crisis, as a potential instrument of Russian democracy-yet its history ultimately demonstrates how a currency can become a primary tool for creating and maintaining an autocracy.
*Carey K. Mott, Foreign Policy*

The Ruble is a masterful achievement and an indispensable reading not only for anyone interested in Russia and its empire ... but to anyone looking for comparative, long-term historical accounts of monetary ideologies, practices and policies.
*Sergei Antonov, Central Banking*

A trailblazing work... Readers will be enthralled by Pravilova's seamless incorporation of political and cultural factors to give new meaning to this time period.
*Princeton Alumni Weekly*

Pravilova's new book serves as a magisterial example of how political, cultural, and economic history can inform one another. It also serves as a much needed crash course for understanding the imperial ambitions of the Russian state.
*Alex Royt, Wharton Initiative on Financial Policy and Regulation*

A satisfactory discussion of the ruble in Central Asia and the Russian Far East. Recommended.
*Choice*

Pravilova's book is a financial history of its own kind: on the one hand, it is a financial history of Russia, which describes fundamental developments in Russian monetary policy and their effects. On the other hand, it is the history of political ideas that were associated with the currency. Here, the ruble proves to be a floating signifier: it stood for the power of the autocracy, for Russia's geopolitical position, for the unity of the Russian people, or even for their otherness...The book thus provides information on many detailed questions of Russian history from a new perspective.
*David Feest, H-Soz-Kult*

The Ruble provides an original perspective on Russian history with fascinating insights into the nexus of power and money. It has many great stories. These qualities should guarantee it a place on the scholar's bookshelf.
*Mark Harrison, Journal of Modern History *

Pravilova dedicated The Ruble to her mentor, the late Boris Vasilevich Anan'ich. The book complements his life's work in terms of its theme, and in many ways exceeds it in scope. Like her mentor's work, the depth of what The Ruble uncovers offers new avenues for future research, and we can look forward to the author and others pursuing them. Money, as Pravilova demonstrates, matters a lot.
*David W. Darrow, American Historical Review*