Vneshposyltorg checks (previously "certificates" and "vouchers") were a kind of "parallel currency" that existed in the USSR from 1964 to 1988. They were used to pay salaries to Soviet citizens working abroad: primarily specialists employed under USSR construction contracts, as well as specialists (for example, teachers, doctors, and military advisers) working under contracts with foreign state and private institutions (hospitals, universities, etc.), rank-and-file embassy staff, and other persons within the USSR who received fees or transfers in foreign currency.
The main purpose of introducing certificates, and later VPT checks, was the Soviet state's desire to limit foreign-currency wage spending on citizens working abroad (especially in capitalist countries, where otherwise employees would withdraw their entire salary in foreign currency and spend it locally), and also to reduce the inflow into the country of private imports of goods from uncontrolled sources. While abroad, part of overseas workers' salary in foreign currency was voluntarily (but no more than 60%) transferred to an account at Vnesheconombank, from which one could, on the spot (usually through the economic adviser at the USSR Embassy) or upon returning to the USSR, receive a pre-ordered amount in the form of certificates (later, checks). Some categories of overseas employees of foreign trade organizations and diplomats could also bring into the USSR a limited amount of foreign currency, which they were obliged to convert into certificates (checks) no later than the установленный deadline; otherwise, their possession of foreign currency was also considered illegal.
Certificates existed in three types: "blue-striped certificates" were paid to citizens working in CMEA countries (crediting ratio to the account 1:1); "yellow-striped certificates" were paid to overseas workers in countries with non-convertible currency, i.e., in the third world—for example, India, African countries, etc. (ratio 4.6:1); and "unstriped certificates" were paid to those working in countries with freely convertible currency (ratio 4.6:1). Thus, "yellow-striped" and "unstriped" certificates unofficially served as a physical analogue of the notional accounting foreign-currency "gold" ruble, performing a quasi-function of "Soviet chervonets."
Certificates and vouchers (later, checks) could legally be spent only in a network of special shops, the "Beryozka" stores; in addition, they could be paid as a contribution to a housing construction cooperative, but only at a 1:1 rate to the ordinary ruble, which was also an additional source of state revenue. The essence of the certificate system was that overseas workers in different countries, with formally comparable nominal salaries (close to the USSR average), in reality received wages with very different purchasing power. For example, the salary of a Soviet interpreter in India, условно 200 rubles, in fact amounted to 920 rubles in "yellow-striped certificates," while the salary of an interpreter, for example, in Hungary, equal to 400 rubles in "blue-striped certificates," amounted to the same 400 rubles. In "Beryozka," blue- and yellow-striped certificates could be used to buy not only clothing, carpets, crystal, and other CMEA-produced consumer goods, but also automobiles.
"For unstriped certificates," higher-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 was especially clear in the case of passenger cars:
"Volga" GAZ-21 cost 5,500 rubles in "blue-striped" and only about 1,200 rubles in "unstriped" and "yellow-striped";
"Moskvich" AZLK-408 cost 4,500 rubles in "blue-striped" and only about 980 rubles in "unstriped" and "yellow-striped";
"Zaporozhets" ZAZ-966 cost 3,500 rubles in "blue-striped" and only about 760 rubles in "unstriped" and "yellow-striped."