This voucher is accepted as payment for goods and services on Soviet vessels operating international cruises.
From the early 1960s, the USSR began developing active cooperation with socialist and developing countries. Thousands of Soviet specialists were sent abroad for work assignments. The government faced the question of how to “shield” them from foreign currency.
A practical need arose to create a system in which citizens would not receive foreign currency in hand and would spend earnings made 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. In the former, citizens were required to keep foreign currency in the form of “foreign-currency rubles,” and through the network of Vnesposyltorg shops and firms they would spend it.
It is important to note that, unlike in other socialist countries, currency “substitutes” in the USSR were issued not for foreigners, but for the country’s own citizens.
The detachable cruise voucher of Vnesheconombank (Vneshtorgbank) of the USSR is a monetary obligation of Vnesheconombank (Vneshtorgbank) of the USSR to pay the amount specified on the voucher. The vouchers were bound into checkbooks of the corresponding denomination. Detachable vouchers were intended for payments by certain categories of citizens for goods and services on Soviet cruise ships operating on international routes. All vouchers were printed by Goznak.