THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF MONETARY SYSTEMS OF RUSSIA IN EXTREME MILITARY-POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (IN CONNECTION WITH THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR)
Authors: Nazarova Irina A. 
Published: December 2021

The author of the article, addressed to those who teach and study in higher education economic theory, the history of economic thought and the socio-economic history of Russia, proceeds from the premise that changes in the socio-economic system of the country during the period of change in the dominant technological order actualize the development of the theory of money and the study of various stages of historical evolution of the domestic monetary economy (Russian monetary systems). In this context, an analysis of those periods of this evolution in the first half of the twentieth century, when the credit ruble becomes an extraordinary resource of the «war economy», unfolds. The article also examines the peculiarities of monetary circulation during the operation of the gold standard system and during the period of gold «leaving» to the state reserve fund. The author puts forward a hypothesis according to which the changes taking place in the monetary system in connection with the demonetization of gold are the accumulation of prerequisites for the transition to a post-industrial economic system.

Inclusion in the analysis of the events of the global military-political history of 1914–1917 and 1941–1945, i.e. events of the First and Second World Wars, helps to reveal the real basis on which a special type of economic relations was formed — the phenomenon of «war economy». The article identifies the key factors of instability in the twentieth century — industrial, monetary and world crises. The study of the peculiarities of the development of the crisis in peacetime and in the conditions of a «military-inflationary economy» in the works of prominent Russian economists deepens the understanding of the structural deformation of the national economy.

It is shown that the «price revolution», which characterizes the explosive growth of inflation, has become a vivid manifestation of the world economic instability during the development of extreme military-political events in Russia and in the countries of Western Europe. Attention is drawn to the fact that the «price revolution» in the conjuncture theory of M.I. Tugan-Baranovsky and the works of Z.S. Katsenelenbaum was considered as a function of qualitative changes that took place in the economic system as a result of the expansion of the sphere of money circulation during the transition from natural production to industrial production. The «price revolution» manifested itself with the greatest force in the conditions of the «war economy». The destruction of the national economy was accompanied by the development of «golden» inflation, indicating a chronic commodity deficit.

The author argues that the size of the accumulation of gold in 1920–1945, the emergence of large banks — custodians of the gold and foreign exchange reserves of the countries — members of the monetary unions — largely influenced the results of the competition between the three leading currencies (franc, pound and dollar), claiming to be the world leader. The conclusion is argued that the accumulation of gold and foreign exchange reserves in the conditions of the «war economy» accelerated the formation of a new monetary and financial «map» of the world in the second half of the twentieth century.