Step — Ukrainian analogue of the Russian kopeck, first printed in the 16th century, and then revived during the UPA uprising. A hundred years ago, “step” was printed from paper, and its popularity allowed the currency to be in circulation even abroad.
This is how Ukrainian historian and officer of the Third Assault Brigade Alexander Alferov explained the importance of the National Bank's initiative to rename currency “kopecks” to “steps”.
He shared his position with the host of the United News telethon, Yana Brenzei.
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A step instead of a kopeck — Historian Alferov's position
— This is a very cool idea. Let me remind you that a kopeck is a small change coin of the ruble zone. It exists in Russia, Belarus, Transnistria, and the occupied regions. The name itself, a kopeck, comes from the image of a horseman with a spear on silver Moscow coins of the 16th-17th centuries.
This is a purely Russian name, and it came to us during the occupation of the USSR. And in the same century, a step denoted a small change coin in Ukraine. And if we read Kotlyarevsky, Lesya Ukrainka, they all call a small coin a step, — Alferov said.
And although in Soviet times the authorities wanted to abolish this term, “steps” remained in Ukrainian proverbs, poems and prose, surviving from the 16th century to the end of the 20th.
— That is, we thus declare: Away from Moscow and rid our Ukraine of one of the last markers of the ruble zone, — the historian summed up.
