Saint Petersburg Mint of Goznak (Russia)

2 rubles

17 g

33 mm

Silver 925°

3 000 pcs

Proof

Designers: E.V. Kramskaya (obverse), A.A. Brynza (reverse). Sculptors: A.A. Dolgopolova (obverse), A.N. Bessonov (reverse).

Saint Petersburg Mint of Goznak (Russia)

Obverse: the mirror field of the disc bears a relief image of the National Coat of Arms of the Russian Federation, over it along the rim there is the semicircular inscription ‘РОССИЙСКАЯ ФЕДЕРАЦИЯ’ (RUSSIAN FEDERATION) framed on both sides by doubled rhombuses, below under the coat of arms there are indications of the precious metal and its fineness on the left and the fine metal content and the mint trade mark on the right, at the bottom in the centre, in three lines, there is an inscription ‘БАНК РОССИИ’ (BANK OF RUSSIA), the denomination of the coin ‘2 РУБЛЯ’ (2 RUBLES), and the year of issue ‘2020 г.’ (2020). 

Ivan Bunin (1870-1953) was a writer, poet and translator. He was the first Russian writer awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. His first poem dedicated to another Russian writer Semyon Nadson was published in the literary magazine Rodina on 22 February 1887. Bunin’s debut book ‘Poems (1887-1891)’ was published in 1891 as a supplement to the Orlovsky Vestnik newspaper. In early 1901, the poetry collection ‘Falling Leaves’ along with the translation of Henry Longfellow’s ‘The Song of Hiawatha’ brought Bunin his first Pushkin Prize (established by the Russian Academy of Sciences). In autumn 1909, the Russian Academy of Sciences awarded Bunin with the second Pushkin Prize and elected him an honorary member. However, it was his short novel ‘The Village’ (1910) that made him famous and renowned. Bunin totally rejected the October Revolution of 1917. Together with his wife, he left Moscow and settled in Odessa in May 1918, then moved to Paris in 1920. The famous writer captured his feelings about the coup in the ‘Cursed Days’ diary, published during his emigration. Only one poetry collection – ‘Selected Poems’ – came out during Bunin’s exile. At the same time, ten new prose works saw the light, among which ‘Rose of Jerico’, ‘Mitya’s Love’ and ‘Sunstroke’. Bunin spent 1927-1933 writing his most prominent work – the novel ‘The Life of Arseniev’. In 1933, the writer won the Nobel Prize for Literature ‘for his talent to truthfully and artistically recreate in prose the essence of the Russian character’.