On July 24, 1993, just days after this scene, the Central Bank of Russia abruptly announced the withdrawal of all Soviet-era and early-Russian ruble notes issued before 1993, giving citizens a mere two weeks (later extended after public outcry) to exchange old bills for new ones, capped, as Zhorik describes, at a strict limit per person, officially 35,000 rubles, worth roughly thirty-five dollars at the time. The reform, intended to curb inflation and cut off a flood of old Soviet currency circulating from other former republics, instead triggered chaotic bank lines, panic, and real hardship for ordinary citizens sitting on cash savings suddenly capped or frozen, precisely the kind of confusion and desperation that made people receptive to a fund promising to convert their soon-to-be-worthless old bills into full-value new ones.
The July 1993 Currency Reform
