- Sberkassa
Sberkassa ( _ru. сберкасса, сберегательная касса, "sberegatelnaya kassa"; literally: "savings office") in the
Soviet Union and modernRussia is afinancial institution to store thesavings of the population. The term is traditionally translated as "savings bank "; however "sberkassas" in the Soviet Union were not banks in the usual sense.A personal document for keeping track of person's savings is a kind of a
bankbook ( _ru. сберкнижка, сберегательная книжка, "savings booklet", usually translated as savings book or savings-bank book). The track of deposits, withdrawals and accruedinterest is written into the bankbook by a "sberkassa" clerk.Imperial Russia
Credit and savings institutions (сохранная и ссудная казна) existed in
Imperial Russia since the beginning of the 19th century. The first "saving banks" ("sberegatelnaya kassa") were opened inMoscow andSt. Petersburg in 1842.Stolypin reform , among other things aimed at the improvement of the saving and credit systems of Russia.Soviet Union
In the
Soviet Union the system of "State Labour Saving Offices" (государственная трудовая сберегательная касса) was instituted in 1922. The first was opened in February 1923, inPetrograd .Eventually, Soviet "sberkassas" were outlets of the only Soviet bank, USSR State Bank, or "
Gosbank " until 1988 and "Sberbank " (USSR Savings Bank) after the "perestroika " of the Soviet bank system.Additional functions included accepting various payments, e.g., for public utilities or
fine s, and depositingsalaries .Since the system of consumer credit was virtually absent in the Soviet Union, in order to make a major purchase an ordinary Soviet citizen had to save for a long time. Therefore the system of "sberkassas" was in fact a system of crediting the Soviet state by the population. This is reflected in Soviet dictionary definitions of the term, e.g.::"A savings office is a credit establishment serving the primary purpose of the attraction of monetary savings and free cash assets of the population."
Modern Russia
After the
dissolution of the Soviet Union the term went back to its original meaning. The functions are performed by the outlets of theRussian Federation Savings Bank . See alsoConstruction Savings Bank ("строительная сберегательная касса", "строительно-сберегательная касса", ССК).
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