Monetary policy in Russia has for many decades been discussed in a different language from those of other countries. During the Soviet era, monetary policy was an incidental and insignificant aspect of economic planning. In the decade after the collapse of communism the Russian financial system was chaotic. The financial crisis of 1998, in which the government defaulted on its domestic-currency debt, banks failed and the rouble was massively devalued, marked the climax of that chaotic era, but