central management were put forward during all the waves of Soviet reform discussion until the 1980s. Still, in the early 1980s the system functioned very much as it had fifty years earlier, with one crucial difference: Mass terror had been abolished and increased consumption had become a priority. On one hand, this had made ruble control more important. On the other, by weakening other controls and by increasing the autonomy both of managers and households, these developments had made ruble control more difficult. There were markets and quasi-markets, but market-based policy instruments remained absent. See also: HARD BUDGET CONSTRAINTS; MONETARY SYSTEM, SOVIET; REPRESSED INFLATION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kornai, Janos. (1992). The Socialist System. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Nove, Alec. (1977). The Soviet Economic System, 2nd edition. London: Allen amp; Unwin.
(c. 1360-1430), fifteenth century Russian artist.
Among all the known icon painters in Russian history, Andrei Rublev stands out as most prominent. Early in his life he joined the Trinity-Sergius Lavra Monastery, becoming a monk and a pupil of the artist Prokhor of Gorodets. Later he moved near Moscow, to the Spaso Andronikov Monastery, where he died on January 29, 1430, after painting frescoes in that monastery’s Church of the Savior. He was buried in the altar crypt beside the artist, Daniel Chorni.
Rublev is considered the founder of the Moscow School of painting. The earliest reference to Rublev’s work is to paintings in the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Here in 1405 he worked with the eminent Theophanes the Greek (who strongly influenced his style) and the monk Prokhov of Gorodets. On the iconostasis (the screen separating the church nave from the altar area) Rublev is credited with the scenes of the annunci1308
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ation to the Virgin Mary and scenes from the life of Christ that show his nativity, baptism, transfiguration, the resurrection of Lazarus, entry into Jerusalem, and the presentation in the Temple.
Rublev worked extensively outside of Moscow as well. In about 1400, in the Dormition Cathedral on Gorodok in Zvenigorod, Rublev, assisted by Daniel Chroni, painted a number of wall frescoes, including those of St. Laurus and St. Florus, and several panel icons, including Archangel Michael, Apostle Paul, and the Christ. In the Cathedral of the Dormition in Vladimir, assisted again by Daniel Chorni, he painted frescoes of the Last Judgment in 1408. He is also credited with five surviving icons.
The last reference to Rublev’s work refers to his work on the iconostasis in the Cathedral of the Trinity at Zagorsk (Trinity-Sergius Monastery), where he was assisted once again by Daniel Chorni. It was here that he produced his most famous icon, the Old Testament Trinity (1411; now in the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). Ordered by Nikon and painted in honor of Father Sergius of Radonezh (d. 1392), it was originally displayed at the latter’s grave. The ethereal and beautifully-integrated group of three angels has never been surpassed. Of the other icons on this iconostasis, Rublev was credited with those depicting the Archangel Gabriel, St. Paul, and the Baptism of Christ. Rublev is believed to have painted two more icons for other venues: a Christ in Majesty (c. 1411, now at the Tretyakov Gallery) and a version of the Vladimir Mother of God (c. 1409, Vladimir Museum).
Rublev’s fame continued to increase after his death. The Church Council held in Moscow in 1551 prescribed the official canon for the correct representation of the Trinity: “. . . to paint from ancient models, as painted by the Greek painters and as painted by Andrei Rublev.” It is the other-worldly, spiritual, and contemplative quality of Rublev’s painting that sets him apart from his contemporaries. His Old Testament Trinity has had by far had the strongest impact on subsequent icon painting up through the twentieth century, not only in the Russian Orthodox Church, but in Catholic and Protestant circles as well. In Soviet Russia, gifted filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky produced an epic-length, classic film titled Andrei Rublev in 1966. It was widely acclaimed, and continues to be shown in art theaters and at Russian conferences. See also: DIONISY; ICONS; THEOPHANES THE GREEK
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lazarev, Viktor Nikitich. (1966). Old Russian Murals amp; Mosaics from the XI to the XVI Century. London: Phaidon. Lazarev, Viktor Nikitich. (1980). Moscow School of Icon Painting. Moscow: Iskusstvo.
“Ruble zone” refers to the accidental currency union that emerged when the Soviet Union broke up in December 1991, after which several independent states (former republics) each used the ruble as their primary currency. This sparked an intense debate among the Central Bank of Russia (CBR), the Russian government, the other post-Soviet governments, and the international financial institutions over the pros and cons of retaining the ruble zone. The ruble zone at first encompassed all fifteen former Soviet republics, grew progressively smaller through 1992 and 1993 as the new states introduced their own currencies, and disappeared completely in 1995 when Tajikistan adopted the Tajik ruble as its sole legal tender. The three Baltic states, having no intention of staying in the ruble zone, introduced their own currencies in mid-1992, but the other post-Soviet states initially chose to remain.
The ruble zone’s existence presented a significant dilemma for the CBR, because it prevented the CBR from controlling the Russian money supply. Only the CBR could print cash rubles, because all of the printing presses were on Russian territory. However, a legacy of the Soviet-style currency system (called the dual monetary circuit) allowed any central bank in the ruble zone to freely issue ruble credits to its domestic banks. These banks then loaned the credits to domestic enterprises, which could in turn use them to purchase goods from other ruble zone states (primarily Russia). In effect, the ruble zone states self-financed their trade deficits with Russia through these credit emissions. In addition, several ruble zone states issued so-called “coupons” or parallel currencies to circulate alongside the ruble in 1992 and 1993, thereby increasing the cash money supply in the ruble zone as well.
In an attempt to mitigate the impact of this credit expansion on the Russian economy, as of
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July 1992 the CBR began keeping separate ruble credit accounts for each state. In August 1992 it announced that Russian goods could be purchased only with CBR-issued credits, and it suspended the other banks’ credit- granting privileges entirely in May 1993. During this process, Ukraine and Kyr-gyzstan left the ruble zone. The CBR then fatally undermined the ruble zone through a currency reform in July 1993. It began to print new Russian ruble notes (circulating at equivalency with the old Soviet ones) in early 1993, but did not send these new rubles to the other states; they received their cash shipments solely in Soviet rubles. On July 24, the CBR announced that all pre-1993 ruble notes would become invalid in Russia, forcing the other ruble zone members either to leave or to cede all monetary sovereignty to the CBR. Azerbaijan and Georgia left the ruble zone immediately, while Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan left in November 1993 after talks on creating a ruble zone of a new type broke down. Although this effectively destroyed the ruble zone, its formal end came in May 1995 when war-torn Tajikistan finally introduced its own currency. See also: MONETARY SYSTEM, SOVIET; RUBLE
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abdelal, Rawi. (2001). National Purpose in the World Economy: Post-Soviet States in Comparative Perspective. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Chavin, James. (1995). “The Disintegration of the Soviet Ruble Zone, 1991-1995.” Ph.D. diss. Berkeley, CA: University of California, Berkeley. Goldberg, Linda; Ickes, Barry; and Ryterman, Randi. (1994). “Departures from the Ruble Zone: The Implications of Adopting Independent Currencies.” World Economy 17 (3):239-322. Johnson, Juliet. (2000). A Fistful of Rubles: The Rise and Fall of the Russian Banking System. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
(1725-1796), military commander, from 1774 known as Rumiantsev-Zadunaisky for his military victories “across the Danube.”
