When bricks were rubles : Planet Money

https://www.npr.org/2022/04/01/ [login to see] /when-bricks-were-rubles
When the USSR collapsed, the ruble tanked and items like bricks became a more desirable form of payment. The post-Soviet economy became a laboratory for curious experiments in money. A barter economy briefly emerged. Then a gas-backed currency. All this in less than 10 years.

Today, what this strange, short period in Russia's history can teach us about all currencies, and about what makes an economy and its money valuable.