This check is accepted as payment for goods and services on Soviet ships, aircraft, and trains operating on international routes.
From the early 1960s, the USSR began to develop active cooperation with socialist and developing countries. Thousands of Soviet specialists were sent abroad on assignments. The government faced the question of how to “protect” them from foreign currency.
A practical need emerged to create a system in which citizens would not receive currency in cash and would spend funds earned in foreign currency at home.
The most important parts of the new system were the USSR Bank for Foreign Trade (Vneshtorgbank of the USSR) and the all-Union association Vnesposyltorg. At the former, citizens were required to keep their foreign currency in the form of “foreign-currency rubles,” and to spend it through the network of Vnesposyltorg shops and firms.
It is important to note that, unlike other socialist countries, currency “substitutes” in the USSR were issued not for foreigners, but for its own citizens.
A detachable cruise cheque of the USSR Vnesheconombank (Vneshtorgbank) is a monetary obligation of the USSR Vnesheconombank (Vneshtorgbank) to pay the amount stated on the cheque. The cheques were bound into cheque books of the corresponding denomination. The detachable cheques were intended for settlements by certain categories of citizens for goods and services on Soviet cruise ships operating on international routes. All cheques were printed by GOZNAK.