In 1921, the partnership “Laryok” was established for the retail sale of tobacco products. This was done on the initiative of F. E. Dzerzhinsky. At the time, he was the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee’s Children’s Commission. “Laryok,” in fact, was created mainly to combat the growing child speculation. Tobacco products, especially during periods of shortage, are a fast-moving and profitable commodity, and children are the first to understand this (pensioners are second; after them, law enforcement agencies step in).
The Share Partnership “Laryok” issued in Kyiv several series of primitive-type scrip, resembling improved shop receipts, but intended for repeated use.
Street trade is fully covered by “Laryok,” which operates in the city 35 kiosks, 15 shops, and several hundred stalls. In the very near future, the number of kiosks will be doubled, and the number of shops tripled. Private shops located near “Laryok” stores are being closed.”
There were several reasons for the emergence of private money in Ukraine. The main factor was the lack of a sufficient quantity of nationwide money in the required denominations to serve the population’s cash circulation. The main one, but not the only one. Thus, during the years of the Civil War in the cities of Kyiv and Zhytomyr, the system of power changed at least 11 times, and each new authority, as a rule, brought and introduced its own money. At the same time, the money of the previous authority was considered canceled and was not recognized by the new one. And the population lost trust in nationwide monetary issues of all types of authorities.
In addition, inflationary processes constantly made themselves felt. In the early 1920s, when Soviet power had already been established, inflation was at the level of 100% per month, and money simply depreciated.
Moreover, three systems of state money were simultaneously present in the country. Wages were paid in large sums in sovznaks. But they were not enough: goods and food cost much more. Therefore, workers’ supply was organized for working people, where essential goods and food cost only a few rubles. And the third type of money, which appeared in 1922 with the start of the monetary reform, was rubles in gold, each of which was equal to 50 billion sovznaks. Because of this, in order not to get confused in such a triple accounting system, hundreds of enterprises, organizations, shops, pharmacies, etc., within their areas of operation issued and used their own private money.