Economic Role
The economy of the Soviet Union was a government-controlled planned economy, where the government controlled prices and the exchange of currency. Thus, its role was unlike that of a currency in a market economy, because distribution of goods was controlled by other mechanisms than currency, such as centrally planned quotas, queuing or blat. Only a limited set of products could be freely bought, thus the ruble had a role similar to trading stamps or food stamps. The currency was not internationally exchangeable and its export was illegal. The sudden transformation from a Soviet "non-currency" into a market currency contributed to the economic hardship following the collapse of the Soviet planned economy.
Read more about this topic: Soviet Ruble
Famous quotes containing the words economic and/or role:
“A society in which everyone works is not necessarily a free society and may indeed be a slave society; on the other hand, a society in which there is widespread economic insecurity can turn freedom into a barren and vapid right for the millions of people.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)
“In today’s world parents find themselves at the mercy of a society which imposes pressures and priorities that allow neither time nor place for meaningful activities and relations between children and adults, which downgrade the role of parents and the functions of parenthood, and which prevent the parent from doing things he wants to do as a guide, friend, and companion to his children.”
—Urie Bronfenbrenner (b. 1917)