From the early 1960s, the USSR began to develop active cooperation with socialist and developing countries. Thousands of Soviet specialists were sent abroad for work. The government faced the question of how to “protect” them from foreign currency.
A practical need arose to create a system in which citizens would not receive currency in hand and would spend funds earned in foreign currency at home.
The most important parts of the new system were the Bank for Foreign Trade of the USSR (Vneshtorgbank of the USSR) and the All-Union association Vnesposyltorg. In the first, citizens were required to keep foreign currency in the form of “invalyutny rubles,” and to spend it through the network of stores and firms of Vnesposyltorg.
It is important to note that, unlike other socialist countries, “substitutes” for foreign currency in the USSR were issued not for foreigners, but for its own citizens.
A detachable Series D check of Vnesheconombank (Vneshtorgbank) of the USSR is a monetary obligation of Vnesheconombank (Vneshtorgbank) of the USSR to pay the amount specified on the check. The checks were bound into checkbooks of the corresponding denomination. Detachable checks were intended for settlements by diplomatic employees for goods and services in specialized stores. All checks were printed by Goznak.
The Bank for Foreign Trade of the USSR (Vneshtorgbank of the USSR) was established in 1924. The terms for maintaining accounts changed constantly. The Bank’s clients included both legal entities and individuals.
For senior diplomatic employees (from the level of counselor and above), there were separate Series “D” checks, accepted for payment on a par with cash foreign currency from foreigners in the parallel system of foreign-currency stores—“Beryozka” stores.
Thus, in the USSR there were two completely separate (check-based and foreign-currency) retail systems. In foreign-currency stores, only foreigners, diplomats, and the highest party nomenklatura could legally shop. Ordinary overseas workers had to use only the check-based “Beryozka” stores, which in turn were closed to other Soviet citizens who had only Soviet rubles.