Money: 50 grivna

This is Ukraine's 50 grivna note.

As of June 2012, it's worth about $6.50 US or €5.

The man is Mykhailo Hrushevsk, a Ukrainian politician and historian. He died way back in 1934 so I don't blame you if you don't recognize his face.

Quite the beard, no? Now you'll remember him : )

Here's the back of the 50 grivna note.

That is the building of the Центральна Рада, or the Central Council. Guess who was in charge? None other than Mykhailo Hrushevsk, the man with the beard.

Sometimes also called the Central Rada.

This was a short-lived group (1917-1918) that came into existence during Ukraine's very very brief taste of freedom after WWI. Prior to that Ukraine has been under the thumb of several neighboring countries. Shortly after that the Soviet Union came calling and Ukraine became the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. By the way, that's when Kharkov, the city I live in, was made the capital of the country for about two decades.

Wikipedia has a long list of what happened to the members of the Central Council (hint: not very happy endings.) Nowadays you'll hear talk of the Верховна Рада, or the Supreme Council. The Supreme Council is Ukraine's current parliament. It wasn't established until 1938.


The Central Council building is still around and you might want to consider seeing it if you are visiting Kiev. I'll ask my historian friend Lena to leave the address in the comment section of this post.

Keep reading:
10 and 20 grivna
100 grivna
500 grivna