The Reasons of the Collapse of the Ruble Zone

This paper has mainly a historical character and analyzes the causes of the monetary disintegration of the FSU, stages of this disintegration, and macroeconomic consequences of this process. The second section is devoted to a brief discussion of the economic and political condition of the successful existence of the common currency area. In section 3, I describe the process of monetary disintegration that already started at the end of 1990 when the Soviet Union still existed. Section 4 illustrates the process of monetary disintegration in 1992-1993, after the dissolution of USSR. Section 5 presents a picture about the most important initiative to rebuild the ruble area in 1992-1994. Finally, section 6 contains the discussion on macroeconomic and other consequences of continuing the common currency despite the political disintegration.