- published: 15 Jan 2015
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The Soviet ruble or rouble (Russian: рубль; see below for other languages of the USSR) was the currency of the Soviet Union. One ruble is divided into 100 kopeks, (also transliterated as kopecks or copecks Russian: копе́йка, pl. копе́йки - kopeyka, kopeyki).
In addition to standard banknotes, the Soviet ruble was available in the form of foreign rubles (Russian: инвалютный рубль); also, several forms of virtual rubles were used for inter-enterprise accounting and international settlement in the Comecon zone. Many of the ruble designs were created by Ivan Dubasov.
The word "ruble" is derived from the Slavic verb рубить, rubit', i.e., to chop. Historically, "ruble" was a piece of a certain weight chopped off a silver ingot (grivna), hence the name.
The Soviet currency had its own name in all Soviet languages, sometimes quite different from its Russian designation. All banknotes had the currency name and their nominal printed in the languages of every Soviet Republic. This naming is preserved in modern Russia; for example: Tatar for ruble and kopek are sum and tien. The current names of several currencies of Central Asia are simply the local names of the ruble.