Alexander Smolensky, one of the original seven oligarchs that rose to prominence under former president Boris Yeltsin, has died at the age of 71, Kommersant reported on October 14.

A banker, Smolensky rapidly became a billionaire along with his fellow oligarchs in the chaos of the 90s by speculating against hyperinflation. Bankers would take ruble deposits and convert them into dollars; then by delaying payments as long as possible, by the time they paid out their obligations, hyperinflation had significantly reduced the value of their ruble liabilities, leaving a healthy profit in dollars.

Smolensky founded SBS Agro bank that grew to become one of Russia’s largest privately owned banks. He was also a key member of the influential group of businessmen known as the “Semibankirschina,” or seven bankers, which funded Yeltsin’s re-election campaign in the 1996 returning him to office.

Born to Austrian immigrants, Smolensky’s early career began far from the world of finance. He graduated from the Dzhambul Geological and Technological Institute in Kazakhstan and worked in printing houses before moving into trade. In 1981, his career took a controversial turn when he was accused of embezzling state property, allegedly using six kilograms of printing ink to produce copies of the Bible. As a result, Smolensky was sentenced to two years in prison.

In 1987, he founded one of Moscow's first construction cooperatives, and in 1989 he established Stolichny Bank, which would later evolve into SBS-Agro, one of the largest financial institutions in Russia before its collapse following the 1998 Russian financial crisis.

The seven bankers included other top oligarchs such as Boris Berezovsky, who died in 2013 in London after being driven into exile by Russian President Vladimir Putin; Vladimir Potanin, who remains in Russia at the helm of Norilsk Nickel and is still one of Russia’s richest men, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is an oligarch turned dissident and lives in self-imposed exile London.

After the default of SBS-Agro in 1998, Smolensky continued to be active in the financial sector, heading the DEC financial group before selling the holding to fellow oligarch Potanin in 2003, who also has extensive banking assets. After Putin’s ascent to power, Smolensky is one of several Yeltsin-era oligarchs that left Russia and retired from active business, telling journalists: “I have left the stage.”

Throughout his career, Smolensky also held several public roles, including a position on the Board of Directors of Russian Television and as a member of the Advisory Council on Banking Activities under the Russian government. His contributions to Russian society were recognised with the Order of Friendship of Peoples in 1994.

In his later years, Smolensky turned to writing, co-authoring a series of books with journalist Eduard Krasnyansky between 2006 and 2011. His legacy, however, will be remembered primarily for his role in shaping the chaotic but formative years of Russia’s banking industry in the 1990s.