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I visited the Soviet Union right at the tail end, and it sounds similar. Official exchange rate (4 rubles to the dollar), street exchange rate (12+ rubles), a
by rwmj 3y ago
I visited the Soviet Union right at the tail end, and it sounds similar. Official exchange rate (4 rubles to the dollar), street exchange rate (12+ rubles), a mix of shops and restaurants taking dollars unofficially, and people were generally ... fine with it? The economy obviously wasn't working, but everyone was housed, fed and clothed.
- Wytwwww 3y agoThe ruble was not convertible to foreign currencies prior to that though. If you lived there you could only exchange it for dollars/marks/etc. if you were travelling and only a very limited amount (and of course only well-connected people were allowed to do that anyway). Besides international trade which was fully controlled by the state the USSR wasn't a part of the global financial system. The ruble was more like a token or a scrip (with very limited uses) rather than a real currency. Which is why the state managed to keep a lid on stuff there, there was almost no way for goods/money/people to get in or out at any significant scale.
- moltar 3y agoI remember that time. The prices were often set in “UE” (uslovniye edinitsi) translated as “conventional units”, which were of course understood by everyone to be USD. Because using any non-ruble currency for official purposes was illegal.