РСФСР расчётный знак, 500 рублей, reverse with the multilingual slogan (Soviet Russia, 1919)
Reverse of a 500-ruble 1919 note of Soviet Russia: the state arms (hammer and sickle in a wreath of grain) with the slogan 'Proletarians of all countries, unite' in Russian, and the slogan repeated at the edges in German, French, Italian and English and, apparently, in Chinese and Arabic script, beside a counterfeiting warning. The tell is a state's money doing the work of a political appeal: the slogan and emblem occupy the space a bank note would use for security text.
- Date
- 1919
- Period
- Interwar
- Made by
- Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (People's Commissariat of Finance), Soviet Russia
- Region
- Eastern Europe and Eurasia
- Country
- Soviet Russia
- Medium
- Banknotes and coins
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Soviet Russia
- Leader
- Vladimir Lenin
- Audience
- Mixed
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Economy and finance, Labor
- Event
- Russian Civil War
- Techniques
- TransferGlittering generalities
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons, retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (1919 state banknote; Commons PD-Russia, PD-US)
Scan by Commons user Suommi11 of a 1919 RSFSR 500-ruble note; Commons: Public domain, Copyrighted=False
Text on the object
PROLETARIER ALLER LÄNDER, VEREINIGT EUCH! PROLÉTAIRES DE TOUS LES PAYS, UNISSEZ-VOUS! [Arabic-script line, not read] [Chinese-character line, not read] ПРОЛЕТАРИИ ВСЕХ СТРАН СОЕДИНЯЙТЕСЬ ПОДДЕЛКА РАСЧЕТНЫХ ЗНАКОВ ПРЕСЛЕДУЕТСЯ ПО ЗАКОНУ. PROLETARI DI TUTTI I PAESI, UNITEVI! WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! РУБЛЕЙ 500
PROLETARIANS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE! [German] PROLETARIANS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE! [French] [Arabic-script line, not read] [Chinese-character line, not read] PROLETARIANS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE [Russian] FORGERY OF SETTLEMENT NOTES IS PROSECUTED BY LAW. PROLETARIANS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE! [Italian] WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! [English in the original] RUBLES 500
The Arabic-script and Chinese-character lines are visible at the right and left edges respectively but were not read by this record (their content is unverified) and should be checked by a reader of those scripts. The Russian slogan sits inside the ribbon under the arms; some Russian letters are hyphenated across lines in the original ('РАСЧЕТ-НЫХ ЗНАКОВ').
