That's not right at all. The people of the Soviet Union had the money through most of the country's history; however, they often couldn't easily exchange that m

That's not right at all. The people of the Soviet Union had the money through most of the country's history; however, they often couldn't easily exchange that money for useful, quality goods like food, kitchenware, furniture or cars [1] without the proper connections and bribery. Bribes were often (perhaps mostly) not payed in money, either. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_ruble#Economic_role https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_ruble#Economic_role https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortage_economy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortage_economy https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Товарный_дефицит_в_СССР https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Товарный_дефицит_в_СССР (http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fru.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F%D0%A2%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9_%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%84%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B8%D1%82_%D0%B2_%D0%A1%D0%A1%D0%A1%D0%A0 http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js...) [1] As opposed to less useful goods like political books with titles along the lines of "The Proceedings of the Nth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union", which were plenty, and which you sometimes had to buy by the dozen in order for the salesperson to agree to sell you a few more desirable books.