Sberkassa
Syllabic abbreviation
An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...
: russian: сберегательная касса, sberegatelnaya kassa, lit=savings office, links=no ( rus, сберкасса, p=zbʲɪrˈkasːə, a=Ru-сберкасса.ogg) in the
Soviet Union and modern Russia is a
financial institution to store the
savings 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 (russian: сберкнижка, сберегательная книжка, "savings booklet", usually translated as savings book or savings-bank book). The track of deposits, withdrawals and accrued
interest is written into the bankbook by a ''sberkassa'' clerk.
Imperial Russia
Credit and savings institutions (ссудная и сохранная казна) existed in
Imperial Russia
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
since the beginning of the 19th century. The first "saving banks" (''sberegatelnaya kassa'') were opened in Moscow and
St. 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, in
Petrograd
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
(now
St. Petersburg). Eventually, Soviet ''sberkassas'' were outlets of the only Soviet bank,
USSR State Bank
Gosbank (russian: Госбанк, Государственный банк СССР, ''Gosudarstvenny bank SSSR''—the State Bank of the USSR) was the central bank of the Soviet Union and the only bank in the entire country from 1922 to 1991. ...
, or ''
Gosbank'' until 1988 and ''
Sberbank'' (USSR Savings Bank) after the "
perestroika
''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...
" of the Soviet bank system. Additional functions included accepting various payments, e.g., for public utilities or
fine
Fine may refer to:
Characters
* Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny''
* Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano
Legal terms
* Fine (penalty), money to be paid as punishment for an offe ...
s, and depositing salaries.
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, like
postal savings systems in other countries, the system of ''sberkassas'' was a form of
government debt, a system where the Soviet state borrowed from the population.
Modern Russia
After the
dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
the term went back to its original meaning. The functions are performed by the outlets of the
Russian Federation Savings Bank. See also
Construction Savings Bank
Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and come ...
("строительная сберегательная касса", "строительно-сберегательная касса", ССК).
References
{{Portal, Banks
Economy of the Soviet Union
Banks of the Soviet Union
Banks of Russia