What is "sberkassa"

Sberkassa (, "sberegatelnaya kassa"; literally: "savings office") 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 (, "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.