Checks of Vneshpoststorg and Vneshtorgbank

The main purpose of the introduction of certificates, and later of the checks of the AMT, was the desire of the Soviet state to limit foreign exchange expenses on the salaries of citizens working abroad (especially in capitalist countries, where otherwise the employees would completely withdraw their salaries in foreign currency and spend them all on the spot), and also reduce the flow of private clothing imports from uncontrolled sources into the country. During a stay abroad, part of the salary of foreign workers in foreign currency was voluntarily (but not more than 60%) transferred to an account with Vnesheconombank, from which it was possible on the spot (usually through an adviser on economic issues at the Embassy of the USSR ) or upon return to the USSR to receive a pre-ordered amount in the form of certificates (later - checks). Some categories of foreign workers of foreign trade organizations and diplomats could also import into the USSR a limited amount of foreign currency, which they were obliged to convert into certificates (checks) no later than the deadline, otherwise their currency was also considered illegal.

Certificates (for seafarers VTB checks or “bonds” on slang) appeared in 1964 . Earlier on the third floor of the GUM and in the Central Department Store there was a system of so-called. “Closed special departments”, where foreign workers or their relatives were given things ordered in advance from catalogs. The system was extremely cumbersome and practically did not allow to realize small consumer goods (for example, it was impossible to exchange shoes for a suitable size). As a result, a more flexible Vneshpostsorgtorg certificate system was introduced. They existed of three types: “certificates with a blue stripe” - were paid to citizens who worked in the CMEA countries (coefficient of crediting to the account 1: 1); “Yellow stripe certificates” - paid to foreign workers who worked in countries with non-convertible currencies, that is, in the third world, for example, India , Africa, etc. (coefficient 4.6: 1) and “non-striped certificates” - paid to employees in countries with SLE (4.6: 1 ratio). thus, the “yellow-striped” and “non-striped” certificates were behind the scenes a physical analogue of the conditionally countable foreign currency “golden” ruble, fulfilling the quasi-function of the “Soviet chervontsy ”, but, unlike their predecessors, they did not have official circulation in wide circulation either able to document a legal source of origin, equated to foreign currency, possession of which was criminally punished for Soviet citizens (for example, under Article 88 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR ).

Certificates and coupons (later checks) could be legally sold exclusively in a network of special stores - “ Birch ”, in addition, they could be made as a contribution to the HBC , but only at a ratio of 1: 1 to the ordinary ruble, which was also an additional article state revenue. The essence of the certificate system was that foreign workers in different countries, with formally comparable salaries (close to the Union average), actually received significantly different salaries in terms of purchasing power . For example, the salary of a Soviet translator in India, which was conditionally 200 rubles, was actually 920 rubles in the "yellow-striped certificates", and the translator’s salary, for example, in Hungary , equal to 400 rubles in the "blue-striped certificates", was the same 400 rubles. In Berezka, for blue and yellow-striped certificates, they sold not only clothes, carpets, crystal and other consumer goods manufactured by CMEA , but also automobiles.

For “strip-free certificates”, high-quality imported consumer goods were also sold, including Western audio and video equipment and scarce food products. The difference in the purchasing power of certificates on the example of cars was especially evident:

• The Volga GAZ-21 cost 5,500 rubles in "blue-striped" and only about 1,200 rubles in "non-striped" and "yellow-striped";
• "Moskvich" AZLK-408 cost 4,500 rubles in "blue-striped" and only about 980 rubles in "non-striped" and "yellow-striped";
• The “Zaporozhets” ZAZ-966 cost 3,500 rubles in “blue-striped” and only about 760 rubles in “non-striped” and “yellow-striped”.

This apparent inequality led to the accumulation of discontent among ordinary foreign workers and created a field for “speculative operations”, that is, exchanges of certificates of various types “between their own”, as well as a “black market”, which operated despite a strict ban on such operations (up to 8 years according to Article 88 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR), where the rate of certificates to the Soviet ruble in the early 1970s was 1: 1.5–2 for “blue-striped”, 1: 6–7 for “yellow-striped” and 1: 8–9 for “ hairless. " By the way, for senior diplomatic workers (from the adviser level and above) there were separate checks of the “D” series, which were accepted for payment on a par with cash from foreigners in the parallel system of foreign exchange stores - “ Birch ”.

Thus, in the USSR there were two completely separate (check and currency) trading trading systems (in the RSFSR - “ Birch ”, in the Ukrainian SSR - “Kashtan”, in the Latvian SSR - “Dzintars”, and in the Azerbaijan SSR - “Chinar”). In foreign exchange stores, only foreigners, diplomats and the highest party nomenclature could legally sell. Ordinary foreign workers had to use only the check "Birch", which in turn was closed to the rest of Soviet citizens who had only Soviet rubles .

Most ordinary Soviet foreign workers regularly transferred a significant part of their salaries abroad to Vnesheconombank's accounts, which was also facilitated by strict customs restrictions on the import of durable goods into the USSR by private individuals, as well as selling exclusively for checks of such prestigious and scarce goods as Volga cars. With a significant expansion in the 1970s, the number of citizens traveling abroad to work and to simplify the operation of the Birch System in 1974 ^{[ specify ]} certificates of all types were replaced by Vneshtorgbank checks of a single sample.

When receiving money transfers from abroad, they necessarily passed through Vneshtorgbank and inside the USSR were also issued with checks, and not in the source currency.

Officially, Vneshpostorg’s checks were not exchanged for ordinary Soviet rubles (they could only be counted at the rate of 1: 1 for contributions to the housing cooperative or garage), and the black market rate ranged from 1: 1.5-2 (at the end of the 1970s) to 1: 3 (in the second half of the 1980s), which, however, did not prevent this type of “shadow business” in Moscow and Leningrad from expanding to a mass socio-economic phenomenon by the mid-1980s .

These negative phenomena became known to the general public in the era of Glasnost , causing a massive "wave of indignation", not so much the fact of the existence of "Birch" as the difference in the actual wage of "ordinary drillers in Karakum and Sahara ." As a result, the system of trading for cash checks in Beryozka stores was recognized by the leadership of the USSR as socially unfair, and was liquidated at the beginning of 1988 (this was done in order to divert public attention from nomenclature special distributors and mask the general deterioration in the state of Soviet trade after the introduction of " dry law "). This liquidation was accompanied by rush demand - all goods (often with overpayments to store employees) were swept from the Beryozok shelves, for which long lines lined up from the night - the lack of intelligible information from the Soviet leadership created the impression that the check deposits were canceled (zeroed) altogether.

As a result, the former Beryozka check stores switched to a non-cash payment trading system (payment for goods written out in the store had to be made directly at the bank by transferring the cost of the goods from the personal account to the store’s account, that is, it was actually revived the system of "special departments", operating until 1964), but the currency stores "Birch" did not affect these changes.

In the spring of 1991, the “market rate” of the ruble was introduced in the USSR and at the same time the cash circulation regime was relaxed (although the effect of Article 88 was not formally canceled), the first official currency exchange points appeared, and in 1993 the check accounts of foreign workers at Vnesheconombank were converted in hard currency .

A similar check system existed in all CMEA countries , for example, bonds in Czechoslovakia and Poland , forum checks in the German Democratic Republic , dots in the NRB , Cuban convertible pesos in Cuba , etc.

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  One-sided detachable check for 5 kopecks for cruise ships. 1985 year

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  Foreign exchange check for 3 rubles 1976 year

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  Foreign exchange checks of Vneshpoststorg for 1 and 10 kopecks. 1976 year

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  Vneshposlostorg currency check for 2 kopecks. 1976 year

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  Series A checks for seafarers

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  Vneshpostoshtorg check for 10 kopecks for military trade. 1976 year

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  Polish bon

• Government securities
• Check stores
• Foreign exchange ruble
• Golden youth
• Forum Check
• Additional currency

• On the procedure for banking operations with foreign currency (as amended on March 31, 1989) . - Instruction of the State Bank of the USSR dated 04/27/1979 No. 64. - The State Bank of the USSR , 1979.

• Description of the currency trading system in the USSR
• Samples of Vneshtorgbank checks
• Stages of a long way: from fartsing to checks of Vneshtorgbank of the USSR
• Underground members of the Soviet economy
• Catalog of certificates and checks of Vneshpoststorg