P.K. Saha forwarded links to two articles on Russian community currency, commenting,:

A major problem in both the USSR and the Russian Federation has been the shortage of cash, the result of government policies which keep the monetarization of the economy "five to ten times less than in developed economies," a situation that reached its apogee in the years immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

One consequence of that decline in the 1990s when the rate of monetarization of the economy fell to 15 percent, the Tolkovatel blog points out today was the appearance of self-minted currency in 750 republics and cities of the Russian Federation as well as at about 25,000 enterprises

In a detailed post richly illustrated with pictures of some of these notes and coins, the blog explains that the appearance of such currencies, which took the place of the lack of state-sanctioned cash, had its roots in Soviet times and was exacerbated by the specific conditions of Boris Yeltsin's rule.

To read the complete article, see:750 Republic and Local Governments in Russia Issued Their Own Currencies in the 1990s(www.eesti.ca/?op=article&articleid=34913)

After the Revolution in the country are always shortages of money, were forced to overcome by printing banknotes surrogate. 1920 - the flowering of ersatz money. Their printed cities, factories, communities and institutions. Money substitutes were banned only in 1935, and only in the territory of the RSFSR decree of the CPC. And in Central Asia, for example, local "economic entities" coupons were printed and were circulated until 1941.

It is impossible to imagine any developed nation in the world where would parallel circulation of several kinds of legal money. This was observed in the occupied territories: for example, in the occupied Soviet territories in Germany 1941-44 legal tender were several kinds of money - Reichsmark, Soviet money specially printed for Ukraine karbovanetses, imperial gold coins. Perhaps, but still defeated Weimar Germany differed in the same (brand of various cities and lands in the 1920s).

To read the complete article, see:Libertarian paradise ersatz money Soviet Union and Russia(ttolk.ru/?p=9273)