On the issue of the production of banknotes of the Far Eastern Republic in Irkutsk (July 1920 - March 1921)

One of the unexplored aspects of the functioning of the monetary system of the Far Eastern Republic is the economic assistance to the "buffer" on the part of the RSFSR, and, in particular, the production of "buffer" money by the Irkutsk Expedition of the Preparation of State Securities in 1920-1921. The aim of this work is to study the issue of printing the FER banknotes in Irkutsk. The key methods used in the study are problem-chronological and statistical. Their application allows considering the narrow question of money production in the general context of the events and economic conditions of the Civil War period, based on the quantitative data on the printing of paper money by the FER in Soviet Irkutsk. Although the reports on the production of the FER money in Irkutsk have not been fully preserved, the surviving sources make it possible to draw valuable conclusions about the economic emphasis of production and release of "buffer" money, to judge the financial policy of the FER and the economic situation in the region, to speak about the degree of influence of the RSFSR here. The source basis of the research was the unreported and unpublished statistical documents on the production of paper money in the FER in Soviet Irkutsk from the funds of the State Archive of the Russian Federation and the Russian State Archive of Economics. The course of the study led to the need to solve the following problems: (1) after considering the general economic situation in the region in the first half of the 1920s, to identify the reasons for the beginning of the "buffer" emission; (2) to determine the degree of influence of the RSFSR on the money-emission policy of the FER; (3) after analyzing the activities of the Irkutsk Expedition for the Preparation of State Securities associated with the printing of "buffer" money, to identify the key trends in the FER's monetary and emission policy in 1920-1921. Summing up, the author considers it necessary to note that the presented experience of studying the technical side of the FER money issuing leads to a more comprehensive interpretation of historical processes. The "buffer" ruble fulfilled its political and economic functions, ensuring the existence of the FER finance before Transbaikalia, the Amur region and the Far East entered the RSFSR and adopted the Soviet monetary system. Support for the "buffer" on the part of the RSFSR contributed to the implementation of the Leninist plan for the peaceful annexation of the Russian Far East. In turn, the work of the Irkutsk Expedition for the Preparation of State Securities, related to technical assistance in the implementation of the FER money issuing, was part of the strategic actions of the Soviet government in the final stage of the Civil War.

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