Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Ukrainian People’s Republic (UPR) declared independence from Russia and issued banknotes to signal its national sovereignty and identity. The banknotes prominently display the trident symbol from medieval Kyivan coins and illustrate the diversity of Ukrainian cultural heritage. The 1917 note includes four languages: Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, and Yiddish. The inclusion of Yiddish on the note reflects the country’s large Jewish community, even in the context of violent and longstanding antisemitism. The UPR was forcibly subsumed into the Soviet Union in 1922.
