Sovznaks were promissory note

Promissory note

A promissory note is a negotiable instrument, wherein one party makes an unconditional promise in writing to pay a determinate sum of money to the other , either at a fixed or determinable future time or on demand of the payee, under specific terms.Referred to as a note payable in accounting, or...

s issued in Soviet Russia

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....

 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 (советские казначейские знаки, расчётные знаки РСФСР, денежные знаки РСФСР (СССР) ) used during different periods. They were the de-facto money

Money

Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past,...

 of the time. The term "token" was an euphemism

Euphemism

A euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...

 for "money", since the communism

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

was supposed to abolish money, and sovznaks were considered to be a temporary, transitional instrument.