The contrasting policies of two Russian finance ministers, Nikolai Bunge and Ivan Vyshnegradsky, provide a case study in the Big Players effect. Bunge served from 1881 through 1886, Vyshnegradsky from 1887 through 1891.² Bunge was a strict rule-follower and thus not a Big Player. Vyshnegradsky was an interventionist and very much a Big Player in the international market for the ruble. Under Bunge's regime, as we shall see, the ruble exchange rate fluctuated more narrowly than under Vyshnegradsky. The statistical results of this chapter and Chapter 9 suggest that Big Player effects were stronger under Vyshnegradsky.