Poster: "Welcome to 'Beriozka' Shops." USSR: Vneshtorgizdat, 1980s.

Poster: "Welcome to 'Beriozka' Shops." USSR: Vneshtorgizdat, 1980s. 58.8 × 41.9 cm. A small tear at the bottom of the poster. The poster is clean. "Beriozka" was a chain of branded retail stores in the USSR that sold food products and consumer goods for foreign currency (to foreigners) or for certificates, later checks from Vneshposyltorg and Vneshtorgbank (to Soviet overseas workers — diplomatic, military, and technical specialists, particularly specialists of "Zarubezhstroy," and their family members). There was a network of "Beriozka" stores accepting checks of the "D" series to serve the diplomatic corps, as well as a network of shops and kiosks at Intourist hotels that accepted foreign currency (selling souvenirs, furs, food, drinks, and cigarettes). Stores of this retail chain existed in Moscow, Leningrad, the capitals of the union republics, as well as in major regional centers and some port and resort cities (in Volgograd, Vyborg, Izmail, Nakhodka, Novosibirsk, Novorossiysk, Sevastopol, Sochi, and Yalta). In V. Vysotsky’s song "A Trip to the City," a naive provincial's visit to the hard-currency store "Beryozka" is described: "... Why should I return empty-handed? But then I stumbled upon the goods. — 'What currency do you have?' they say. — 'Don't worry,' I say, 'it's not dollars!'"