State Bank of the USSR
Государственный банк СССР

Headquarters	12 Neglinnaya str., Moscow, Soviet Union
Established	1922 (1922)
Dissolved	26 December 1991; 31 years ago (1991-12-26)
Central bank of	Soviet Union
Currency	Soviet ruble SUR (ISO 4217)
Preceded by	State Bank of the Russian Empire (1860–1917/1922)
Succeeded by	Bank of Russia National Bank of Ukraine (1991–present)

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. Gosbank was one of the three Soviet economic authorities, the other two being "Gosplan" (the State Planning Committee) and "Gossnab" (the State Committee for Material Technical Supply). The Gosbank closely collaborated with the Soviet Ministry of Finance to prepare the national state budget.

Exchange rate between the Soviet ruble and major world currencies, February 1985

Foundation

The foundation of the bank was part of the implementation of the New Economic Policy. On 3 October 1921, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK), passed a resolution for the founding of the State Bank of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. This was followed by a similar resolution passed by Sovnarkom on 10 October 1921. It began operations on 16 November 1921. In February 1922 Lenin described the State Bank as "a bureaucratic paper game", comparing it to a Potemkin village in a letter to Aron Sheinman whom he accused of "Communist-mandarin childishness".^[1] In 1923 it was transformed into the State Bank of the USSR. It was placed under the jurisdiction of Narkomfin.^[2] The Soviet state used Gosbank, primarily, as a tool to impose centralized control upon industry in general, using bank balances and transaction histories to monitor the activity of individual concerns and their compliance with five-year plans and directives. Gosbank did not act as a commercial bank in regard to the profit motive. It acted, theoretically, as an instrument of government policy. Instead of independently and impartially assessing the creditworthiness of the borrower, Gosbank would provide loan funds to favored individuals, groups and industries as directed by the central government.^[3]

In 1931 Boris Berlatsky, a senior official of the State Bank was put on trial for wrecking as part of the 1931 Menshevik Trial.^[4]

Daughters or "bins of the motherland"

Beginning in 1921 in Paris and prior to his death, Leonid Krasin created the first state controlled Soviet overseas bank. It was one of five "daughter" (Russian: "дочек") banks or "motherland bins" or "bins of the motherland" (Russian: Закрома Родины) which were established in Paris (1921) as the Commercial Bank for Northern Europe (French: Banque commerciale pour l'Europe du Nord) BCEN-Eurobank, in London as part of the Moscow Narodny Bank, in Vienna (1974) as the Donau Bank AG, in Frankfurt am Main as the Ost-West Handelsbank (OWH), and in Luxembourg (1974) as the East-West United Bank. In order to financially assist Communist Parties, anti-imperialism, and pro national liberation movements worldwide, these banks acted as subsidiaries or "daughters" to the "mother" bank or Gosbank, which was the central bank of Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russia) from 1921-1922 and the Soviet Union from 1923-1991.^{[5][6][7][a][b]}

In 1992 after the end of the Soviet Union, the Paris daughter bank BCEN-Eurobank had bad loans with Cuba, Morocco, and Mauritania and received a "silver plater" infusion of capital from Gosbank through a "participatory credit" (Russian: партисипационный кредит) of $1080.2 billion in various currencies.^[5][c]

The former Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) funds flowed through these daughter banks to overseas locations during the 1990s looting of Russia.^[5]

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, these daughter banks were absorbed into the VTB network and are very closely associated with the Bank of Russia (Russian: Банк России) which was the successor to Gosbank.^[5][11]

Perestroika

As part of Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika program, other banks were formed, including; "Promstroybank" (USSR Bank of Industrial Construction), "Zhilstoybank" (USSR Bank of Residential Construction), "Agrobank" (USSR Agricultural Bank), "Vneshekonombank" (USSR Internal Trade Bank), and "Sberbank" (USSR Savings Bank). "Sberbank" continues to this day as one of Russia's largest banks, retaining senior ex-Gosbank personnel and most of the present Russian government's banking business.

Senior executives

This is the list of the Chairmen of the Board of the State Bank.^[2][12]

The Chairman was appointed by the Premier of the Soviet Union.

№	Name (governor)	Photo	Term of office		Appointed by
			Start of term	End of term
1	Aron Sheinman[2]		1921	1924	Vladimir Lenin
2	Nikolai Tumanov		March 5, 1924	January 16, 1926	Alexei Rykov
3	Georgy Pyatakov		April 19, 1929	October 18, 1930
4	Moissei Kalmanovich		October 18, 1930	April 4, 1934	Vyacheslav Molotov
5	Lev Maryasin		April 4, 1934	July 14, 1936
6	Solomon Kruglikov		July 14, 1936	September 15, 1937
7	Alexey Grichmanov		September 15, 1937	July 16, 1938
8	Nikolai Bulganin		October 2, 1938	April 17, 1940
9	Nikolai K. Sokolov		April 17, 1940	October 12, 1940
10	N. Bulganin		October 12, 1940	May 23, 1945	Joseph Stalin
11	Yakov Golev		May 23, 1945	March 23, 1948
12	Vasily Popov		March 23, 1948	March 31, 1958	Georgy Malenkov and Nikolai Bulganin
13	N. Bulganin		March 31, 1958	August 15, 1958	Nikita Khrushchev
14	Alexander Korovushkin		August 15, 1958	August 14, 1963
15	Alexey Poskonov		1963	1969	Alexei Kosygin
16	Miefodiy Svieshnikov		1969	1976
17	Vladimir Alkhimov		October 11, 1976	January 10, 1986	Nikolai Tikhonov
18	Viktor Dementsev		January 10, 1986	August 22, 1987	Nikolai Ryzhkov
19	Nikolai Garetovsky		August 22, 1987	June 7, 1989
20	Viktor Gerashchenko		June 7, 1989	August 26, 1991	Valentin Pavlov
21	Andrei Zverev		August 26, 1991	December 20, 1991	Ivan Silayev