Objekt des Monats
Jedes Objekt in der Sammlung des Deutschen Auswandererhauses erzählt eine ganz persönliche Auswanderungs- oder Einwanderungsgeschichte. In dieser Rubrik stellen wir Ihnen jeden Monat ein anderes Objekt vor – eine Fotografie, ein Dokument oder ein persönliches Erinnerungsstück.
Every object in the collection of the German Emigration Center tells a very personal emigration or immigration story. In this section, we present a different object each month – a photograph, a document, or a personal memento.
July 2026
1-Ruble note, 1961
| Size | 5.3 x 10.3 cm |
| Material | Paper |
| Collection | Dr. Vera Dubina |
Historical context
On February 24, 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine begins. While in Ukraine, people die every day from combat actions, in Russia, for a long time, no one is threatened by attacks.
But even there, the war has consequences right from the start, especially for those who position themselves against the state’s policies or do not want to live in an increasingly repressive environment, such as scientists, journalists, artists, and staff of civil society organizations.
Among them is also historian Dr. Vera Dubina. At the start of the war, she decides to leave Russia with her daughter. At this time, she is working in Moscow and has been dealing with Soviet history, political repression, and culture of remembrance for many years. After two failed attempts, she succeeds in leaving for Germany via Istanbul in early March 2022.
Short biography
Vera Dubina was born in 1975 in Samara in the Russian Soviet Republic, now the Russian Federation, into a Russian-Ukrainian family. She later moves to Moscow. As a historian, she shapes the development of public history in Russia. She collaborates with the human rights organization Memorial and works in the field of historical-political education, many years for the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
Germany plays a role in her biography from childhood. Vera Dubina’s father grew up as the son of a doctor who worked for the military during the first years of his life near Berlin. Thus, as a child, she encounters the German language first through her father:
“In my father’s stories, Germany appeared to me like another, almost fairy-tale world. Small souvenirs from Germany reinforced this impression: my father’s children’s accordion, German sheet music and songs, small glass elephants that my grandmother kept in the cupboard and with which I wasn’t really allowed to play – which, of course, I did as soon as she wasn’t looking.”
At the age of 25, Vera Dubina begins to learn German. “The language was close to my heart,” she reflects. Later, she also gets to know Germany as a location for science. She spends several research stays here and establishes numerous personal and professional contacts with the country. However, she never imagined that one day she would seek refuge here.
The start of the war changes this. Through her engagement with Soviet history, she assesses the political development in Russia as dangerous. “Yes, I wanted to get out immediately,” she reflects on the beginning of the war.
Leaving is financially difficult and should not appear definitive, but rather like a research stay with a return. Therefore, Vera Dubina travels to Germany with a return flight ticket, which she has to purchase three times. The first two flights were canceled without reimbursement of costs. This is only affordable because the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation grants her a scholarship. She can only take 20 kilograms of luggage for herself and her daughter each. At this point, her daughter is five years old. She does not know upon departure that she will not return.
Significance of the object
The 1-ruble note was issued in the Soviet Union in 1961. That year, a currency reform came into effect: Ten old rubles were equivalent to one new ruble. The notes from this series remained in circulation for decades. The note reads ‘One Ruble’ in the languages spoken in the Soviet Union’s union republics.
Vera Dubina found the ruble as an adult among items from her childhood and youth that her mother had brought with her from Samara to Moscow. Thus, the note was preserved as a keepsake. She associates the note with a remark from her mother: ‘One ruble was a lot of money in my childhood. My mother said that with one ruble, you could feed yourself for a week.’
Later, Vera Dubina gives the note along with other currencies she brought back from her travels to her daughter to play with. When mother and daughter leave Russia in March 2022, the five-year-old girl is allowed to pack a small bag of her own. The mother does not check in detail what her daughter puts in there. It is only later that she notices that the ruble has traveled with them. Her daughter apparently brings the note because she thinks she can buy something with it in Germany. When Vera Dubina explains to her that the ruble has long ceased to be a valid currency and that they cannot use it in Germany either, her daughter is disappointed. Perhaps as a consolation: linguistically, the barrier is not as significant at the beginning as one might assume. At her mother’s temporary workplace, the Research Center for Eastern Europe in Bremen, so many researchers speak Russian to the little girl that she initially thinks this is the norm in Germany.
Dr. Vera Dubina is currently reorienting her career four years after leaving Russia. It is unclear whether she will continue her scientific career. Her daughter has settled into life in Bremen and primarily speaks German in her daily interactions.
The 1-ruble note connects two generations, their upbringing and coming of age during times of transformation: the mother’s youth in the Soviet Union and during the political shift around 1991, as well as the migration of the five-year-old daughter during wartime.
Do You Also Have …
… a story of emigration or immigration in your family that you would like to share with the German Emigration Center together with the related objects and documents for its collection? Then please contact Dr. Tanja Fittkau by phone at +49 471 / 90 22 0 – 0
or by e-mail at: t.fittkau@dah-bremerhaven.de