Russian Assignation Bank

29 December 1768], Catherine signed the imperial decree establishing two state bank offices, respectively in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, each of them endowed with a capital of 500,000 rubles.

The State Loan Bank was consolidated at the same time, and the two institutions were statutorily directed to operate "as one, aiding each other for the successful prosecution of affairs".

[citation needed] In 1794 following the Partition of Poland, the issue of banknotes was extended to the annexed regions; new bank offices were thus established in Vilnius, Grodno, and Kovno.

[5]: 4 In the early 1810s, an attempt at reform was initiated by Russian Secretary of State Mikhail Speransky, which result in the establishment of the Bank of Finland but was cut short in Russia by the French invasion in mid-1812.

[6]: 71-72  Even after the bank ceased activity, its notes continued to circulate until they were withdrawn in the 1840s as part of the monetary reform [ru] initiated by finance minister Georg Ludwig Cancrin that temporarily returned Russia to the silver standard.