Shops "Berezka" - oases of capitalist paradise in the Soviet Union

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The trading network with the patriotic name "Birch" was a unique phenomenon in the vastness of one-sixth of the land. Even during the period of total shortage, these stores had everything that your heart desires. The only problem with "Birch" was that they only accepted currency or checks, which meant that the way to ordinary citizens was closed. How much the USSR economy earned from the so-called Berezka stores is still a mystery.

The trading network with the patriotic name "Birch" was a unique phenomenon in the vastness of one-sixth of the land. Even during the period of total shortage, these stores had everything that your heart desires. The only problem with "Birch" was that they only accepted currency or checks, which meant that the way to ordinary citizens was closed.

Special ruble

The Berezka stores, which appeared in the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, were originally of two types. The first included the so-called currency "Birches", visitors to which were a very narrow and closed circle of extremely high-ranking diplomats who were allowed to have foreign currency on the territory of the USSR. The second belonged to the check shops. Here, goods were sold for special certificates.

The purpose of the first type of stores was simple: through them, the government of the state wanted to receive additional foreign currency to the treasury of the state. Such shops sold traditional souvenirs for tourists: Russian vodka, caviar, handicrafts. And also there you could get gold and diamonds. It was a truly different world, not like the everyday Soviet reality surrounding it. So, during the union, there was even a joke among the country's population that the Chukchi, having jumped over the counter of such a store, began to ask the saleswoman for political asylum.

As for the second type, everything here is much more complicated than it might seem. The fact is that by the early 1960s, the Soviet Union ceased to be a country behind the Iron Curtain. Squeaking with rusty hinges, a door opened at the border, through which a timid stream of domestic and foreign citizens began to flow in two directions. Some went to see the "evil empire", others were working abroad for the benefit of the Soviet homeland as experts: military specialists, teachers, builders and, of course, journalists. Of course, the lucky ones traveling abroad received their salaries not in "wooden", but in hard currency.

Gradually, foreign currency, which was so necessary for the state, began to accumulate in the hands of the “elite”. Moreover, even the most persistent and stress-resistant foreign workers could not resist the temptations of the West. They returned home with bulky suitcases filled to the brim with goods. But here imported luxury was literally “torn off with their hands”. This was already a real threat to domestic production, tk. Soviet products were inferior in quality to Western ones. In order to prevent criminal "shopping" and blackmailing, in 1958 the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted the following decision: Union citizens working abroad, from that moment on, had to transfer all their salaries to a special foreign currency account in a formed bank for foreign trade (Vneshtorgbank). As a result, with money from accounts, foreign workers could purchase foreign goods from special catalogs, later these goods were delivered to the USSR, where happy customers could receive them in specially designated departments of stores for checks. As a result, the much-needed currency remained exclusively in a non-cash state and did not fall into its hands.

So the state created a check system for foreign workers. The denomination of each check could be from 1 kopeck to 100 rubles. As a result, soon all foreign workers, from ambassadors to military consultants, began to receive their salaries in checks. True, the Ministry of Finance nevertheless issued part of the currency to the citizen - for current spending. But these were paltry pennies. Citizens still received the bulk of their earnings in checks, which were issued to them upon their return to their great homeland.

Officially, "currency" checks were not exchanged for the domestic ruble. However, they could be used for a number of utility payments, for example, for a housing or garage cooperative. However, the rate of checks in relation to the ruble was simply wild - 1 to 1. But they could be purchased in the shops of the Berezka chain, where there was practically everything.

Sapling of the Soviet economy

The certificates were differentiated: stripless and with stripes of different colors. Everything depended on which country the citizen worked in - capitalist or socialist. Mongolian certificates, for example, were the least valued. At the same time, a Soviet diplomat, a member of the Politburo or an international journalist who received his salary in checks, in fact, was the loser. After all, the price of imported goods in Berezki was several times higher than in foreign stores.

Vneshposyltorg checks were an effective way for the Soviet state to withdraw foreign currency from Soviet citizens who worked outside their homeland. For part of the currency obtained in this way, the state purchased Western consumer goods and sold it several times more expensive to those same citizens who returned from abroad. It was an unprecedented economic scam of the state.

It should be noted that the existence of check "Birch" and the checks themselves was very unprofitable for the highest state and party functionaries, as well as for the "promoted" representatives of Soviet culture. Suffice it to recall the interview of the singer Alla Pugacheva, who at that time was at the peak of her popularity, in which she indignantly recalled these "torgsin". The domestic star was forced to starve herself on foreign trips.

The singer received just enough foreign currency to eat normally, and the rest the singer received in checks, which could only be purchased after returning to the USSR in the notorious "Birches" at fantastic prices. So I had to eat sandwiches on foreign tours in order to buy something from the outfits in local stores for per diem.

How much the state put into the treasury through this economic deception is unknown. In the depths of the Ministry of Finance, it is possible that these figures are available, but they are strictly classified. In all likelihood, the amount was considerable. It is unlikely that she went to buy grain for the people. Most likely, the currency dissolved in the socialist countries, which the USSR provided all kinds of support.

Checks on the black market

Shops "Berezka" were created far from all over the Soviet Union. They could be found only in Moscow and Leningrad, the capitals of the republics, large ports, as well as some regional centers and, of course, in the resorts. The rumor about capitalist abundance, which was hidden somewhere very close, near the side of an ordinary citizen, still spread throughout the Union. Naturally, there were individuals who, with all their might, wanted to warm their hands on all this. As is known, a considerable period of time was threatened for the currency. Control in the stores themselves, both over buyers and over sellers, was no weaker. An employee of the state committee was represented at each store. If he noticed how one of the citizens uses currency, then such a buyer would be immediately seized and taken away for interrogation to find out the circumstances of the possession of such money. If a citizen owned them illegally, his fate in the future was unenviable. Checks are another matter. In contrast to the currency "Birches", there were much more check visitors. Moreover, there were not so few citizens who had checks on a legal basis. In addition, such a boil never attracted attention, since representatives of various social groups received checks instead of salaries.

For example, some cleaning lady from the Soviet embassy could easily be there. In the store itself, they could ask about the origin of the checks and ask for some supporting documents. But this rarely happened. Basically, the check itself was a kind of pass to the world of abundance.

It is not hard to guess that certificates soon became the subject of purchase and sale on the underground currency market. Thanks to simple but well-oiled mechanisms, the checks fell into the hands of fraudsters, who subsequently sold them for two or three rubles in the late 70s and for three to five rubles in the 80s.

For a short period of time, from 1960 to 1962, in addition to the well-known "Beryozok" in large port cities of international importance, there were also "Albatross" stores intended for sailors of foreign flights. Soviet sailors could exchange foreign currency for Vnesheconombank's checks, after which they had the right to quite calmly “stock up” in a port establishment. Almost immediately, a shadow market of check trading developed in such ports, and a new specialty appeared in the underworld, called "Check Crusher". This was the name of those swindlers who tried to slip the so-called "dolls" into citizens instead of ruble cash for checks.

Since such an exchange was initially illegal, as a rule, no one contacted the law enforcement agencies. And many of the people in civilian clothes who were in charge of "Birches" quite often were themselves, as they say, "in the share" of the "pawmakers".

The Berezka chain of stores existed until the late 1980s, when Mikhail Gorbachev declared a war on privileges. At about the same time, the authorities canceled the taboo on buying and selling foreign exchange, after which the existence of foreign exchange shops in the country's trading system became meaningless. All that is left is nostalgia for the times when the "fairy tale of beauty" turned into reality. It's a pity, not for everyone.