Рубли и червонци

Русский > Контекст > Экономический контекст > Рубли и червонци

Most people think that the rouble was the currency in the Soviet Union. And it was, although only partly. In The Master and Margarita Bulgakov always u-ses the word червонец (chernovets) to denote a so-called ten roubles bill. And in chapter 12, when the bank notes began falling from the ceiling of the Variety Theatre, the spectators are trying to find out if "the bills were real or some sort of magic ones". But that is a mistranslation. Because Bulgakov did not use the word ruble in this passage. He used the word chervontsy. And later in the novel, strange things happened with money. But those strange things never happened to rubles, only to chervontsi. This was an essential element of Bulgakov's satire. To understand this satire fully, one should know the story of the chervontsy.


A new currency

The Soviet Union did not have a stable currency at the end of the civil war, and the government realized that it could not achieve its ambitious econo-mic development plans of the New Economic Policy (NEP) without first sol-ving this pressing monetary problem. In Bulgakov's diary we can read that, on April 18th, 1922, the rent in Bolshaya Sadovaya was increased to one and a half million. And it was for "a room which is worth nothing, and the neighbours either". A pound of flour was 18 million roubles, a white bread was 375 thousand per pound, and butter was 1 million 200 thousand per pound. One year later, on July 11, 1923, the white bread reached 14 million per pound. Three months later, on October 18, 1923, it was at 65 million.

Accordingly, a decree of October 11, 1922, issued by the sovnarkom, the administrative branch of the Soviet government, authorized the Soviet state bank to issue the chervonets bank notes as the equivalent of the pre-re-volutionary ten roubles gold coin (7.74232 grams of pure gold). This legis-lation required at least 25 percent of chervontsy (plural) to be backed by precious metals and hard currency.

The first step, the issuing of chervonets bank notes, began at the end of November 1922. Chervontsy were bank notes sometimes referred to as sovznaki. Furthermore, the ratio of the chervontsy to the old rubles, also referred to as kaznaki, and not really backed by gold at all, was to be two to one. And not ten to one, as suggested by the wrong ten roubles bill transla-tion. Further, no exchange rate was established between the two curren-cies, so the gold-backed currency would eventually prevail.

And the chervontsy did drive the old paper money away. Whereas at the be-ginning of 1923 the chervontsy represented only 3 per cent of all money in circulation, the percentage increased to 83.6 per cent in February 1924, on the eve of the final act of currency reform.

Through the 1920s, the chervonets was officially quoted on foreign exchan-ges. However, this attempt to maintain a "hard" Soviet currency was contro-versial almost from its inception and quickly ended along with the NEP itself. On June 9, 1926, the government passed a resolution forbidding the export of Soviet currency abroad, and in February 1930 all transactions to sell gold and foreign currency to private individuals for chervonets at a fixed rate were banned, the Soviet currency was withdrawn from foreign exchan-ges and a quoting commission was set up under the State Bank’s Board to set the exchange rates of foreign currencies.

In 1937 Lenin’s portrait appeared on the chernovets bank notes. But the life of chervonets was not long. The rouble became main currency unit again. The word chervonets existed though untill 1947. To normalise money circu-lation a confiscatory monetary reform was then conducted, during which old money was exchanged for new roubles at the rate of 10 to 1.


Satire

In The Master and Margarita Bulgakov criticizes the use of the chervonets more than once. The money which changes into worthless paper, in labels of Narzan mineral water, in labels of Abrau-Durso wine, or in foreign cur-rency, always consists of chervontsy, never  of roubles. And the taxi-drivers at the Variety Theatre only wants to take Vasily Stepanovich Lastochkin if he pays with Трешки (treshki) or three-roubles bills. He accepts only good, solid roubles, not chervontsy. For the Soviet citizens did not trust this cur-rency imposed by the Soviet authorities.

It's a pity that most translators of The Master and Margarita always translate the word червонец (chernovets) by ten-rouble bill and, by doing so, miss a part of Bulgakov’s satire on the subject of money in the Soviet Union. Let's illustrate it with the passage in which the money swirls down from the ceiling of the Variety Theatre. Here's Bulgakov's original text, followed by the English translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (but it could have been any other translator):

Соседи навалились на него, а он в изумлении ковырял ногтем облож-ку, стараясь дознаться, настоящие ли это червонцы или какие-ни-будь волшебные.
- Ей богу, настоящие! Червонцы! - кричали с галерки радостно.

His neighbours hovered over him, and he, in amazement, picked at the wrapper with his fingernail, trying to find out if the bills were real or some sort of magic ones.
- By God, they're real! Ten-rouble bills! - joyful cries came from the gallery.

A correct translation of this passage should look like this:

His neighbours hovered over him, and he, in amazement, picked at the wrapper with his fingernail, trying to find out if the bills were real chervontsy or some sort of magic tricks.
- By God, they're real! Chervontsy! - joyful cries came from the gallery.

Why does it matter? First of all because chervontsy were no ten-rouble bills at all. When the chervonets was introduced, the initial value of one chervo-nets was two roubles. There were notes of 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 and 25 chervontsy, just as there were several rouble notes. After the introduction of the chervo-nets, the chervonets and the rouble existed totally separately and there was no mutual exchange rate. But the first one was the new money imposed by the Soviet government, in which the citizens had no faith, and to which strange things happen throughout Bulgakov's novel. The second was the old, solid rouble. Let's have a look at another illustration of this difference: the passage in which Vasily Lastochkin tries to catch a taxi. Here's the ori-ginal text of Bulgakov and the English translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky:

- Деньги покажите, - со злобой ответил шофер, не глядя на пасса-жира. Все более поражаясь, бухгалтер, зажав драгоценный порт-фель под мышкой, вытащил из бумажника червонец и показал его шоферу.
- Не поеду! - кратко сказал тот.
- Я извиняюсь… - начал было бухгалтер, но шофер его перебил:
- Трешки есть?
Совершенно сбитый с толку бухгалтер вынул из бумажника две трешки и показал шоферу.
- Садитесь

- Show your money,' - the driver replied angrily, without looking at the pas-senger. With increasing amazement, the bookkeeper, pressing the pre-cious briefcase under his arm, pulled a ten-rouble bill from his wallet and showed it to the driver.
- I won't go!' the man said curtly.
- I beg your pardon...' the bookkeeper tried to begin, but the driver interrup-ted him.
- Got any threes?
The completely bewildered bookkeeper took two three-rouble bills from his wallet and showed them to the driver.
- Get in

A correct translation of this passage should look like this:

- Show your money,' - the driver replied angrily, without looking at the pas-senger. With increasing amazement, the bookkeeper, pressing the pre-cious briefcase under his arm, pulled a chervonets from his wallet and sho-wed it to the driver.
- I won't go!' the man said curtly.
- I beg your pardon...' the bookkeeper tried to begin, but the driver interrup-ted him.
- Got any threes?
The completely bewildered bookkeeper took two three-rouble bills from his wallet and showed them to the driver.
- Get in

In their hearts many Russians did not like the decisions of the Soviet au-thorities to replace pre-revolutionary values by new norms and standards which often were at odds with the people’s feelings. But they could not ea-sily criticize it openly. The denial of the reality which was created by the authorities could be considered as subversive - exile to labour camps or e-ven execution could be the result of it. But yet disaffection needed to be ex-pressed. Which often happened through clandestine behaviour or humo-rous speech in veiled terms.

There are many more examples in The Master and Margarita, but it should be clear now to the reader that, troughout the novel, it becomes apparent that, in Bulgakov’s opinion, there was a huge difference between the newly introduced chervontsy and the good old rouble bills in the Soviet Union. In the novel, chervontsy mean trouble, roubles don’t. Russian readers find an obvious satire in what happened to the chervontsy, but English, French and Dutch readers don’t.

In real life, chervontsy were issued by a new regime which had, in a brutal way, no respect for the traditions of the Russian soul, society, religion or culture and, by doing so, thrown their lives upside down. In the novel, cher-vontsy were introduced by the devil who would, also in a brutal way, upturn the life of the Muscovites totally.

In the real life of his time and place, Mikhail Bulgakov used linguistic instru-ments to denounce the ridiculous character of the official discourse by ge-nerating a hierarchical shift between language and reality, which was, in fact, what the authorities did themselves constantly. What was true or false in the language of the Soviet authorities ruled over what was true or false in reality. So Bulgakov did fight the enemy with his own weapons. Yet with mo-re linguistic feeling, more sense of perspective, more sense of beauty, less arbitrariness and more respect for the reader or the listener. It’s a pity that the translators did not catch it all…



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