What is "sovznak"

Sovznaks were promissory notes issued in Soviet Russia in 1919 and used during 1919-1924. The name is an abbreviation of the expression "Sovetskiye znaki" (Советские знаки, Soviet tokens), which in its turn was an abbreviation of the official terms used during different periods. They were the de facto money of the time. The term "token" was an euphemism for "money", since the communism was supposed to abolish money, and sovznaks were considered to be a temporary, transitional instrument.