Savings banks in the USSR as a source of state credit and deterrent factor of consumer demand of the population
The article analyzes the role and place of the savings banks in the national economy of the USSR in the 1970-1980<sup>s</sup>. Special attention is paid to the period of restructuring («Perestroika») and banking reform of 1987, when savings banks were transformed to the specialized Bank of Labor Savings and Public Lending (Savings Bank of the USSR). The paper notes that dramatic increase in deposit operations in savings banks began in the late 1960s, which was due, on the one hand, to the growth of unsatisfied solvent demand of the population, on the other - to the government measures aimed at improving the welfare of citizens. By-turn, the government used the savings banks as a source of cheap state credit, taking away from them (and thereby accumulating domestic debt) huge amounts of money to finance the costs of inefficient economic system and other state needs.