Rationing system — a system of supplying the population with consumer goods under conditions of shortage. Under this system, to purchase a product one had not only to pay money for it, but also to present a single-use coupon entitling the holder to buy it. Ration cards (coupons) set specific per-person monthly consumption norms for goods.
The essence of the coupon system was that to buy a scarce product it was necessary not only to pay money, but also to hand over a special coupon authorizing the purchase of that product.
Coupons for food and some consumer goods were issued at the place of registered residence through the housing office. At the workplace (usually via the trade-union committee), distribution was organized for certain food and industrial goods obtained through in-kind exchange between enterprises.
The reason the coupon system emerged was the shortage of certain mass-demand goods.
The goal of introducing coupons was to provide the population with a minimally guaranteed set of goods. Demand was supposed to decline, because without a coupon the relevant goods were in practice not sold in the state retail network. In practice, sometimes it was impossible to use coupons if the corresponding goods were not available in stores. Some goods, if they were in surplus, were sold without coupons even though coupons were issued for them as well, for example, for salt.
Without a coupon, a product could be purchased at markets and from profiteers.
The intended consumption norm could differ depending on the status of a locality; for example, when butter rationing was introduced in Chelyabinsk Oblast in 1981, the norm for Chelyabinsk, Magnitogorsk, and five other large cities was 200 grams per person per month; for some smaller towns it was 150 grams; for most localities it was 100 grams. The extent to which coupons were backed by specific products could vary; thus, with a guaranteed norm of 2 kilograms of meat products per person per month, in Chelyabinsk Oblast in 1983 coupons were redeemed as 67% sausage, 23% poultry meat, and 10% beef and pork (mainly for war invalids and diabetics). In 1985 the supply situation for meat products worsened, and coupons were redeemed mostly for boiled sausages, pork, and lean mutton.
Perestroika, on the one hand, partially abolished mandatory state deliveries, and on the other hand eliminated the foreign-trade monopoly, as a result of which exporting enterprises and cooperatives accumulated large amounts of money not backed by goods. This led to an increase in shortages of certain goods and some expansion of the coupon system; and as shortages grew in 1989–1990, coupons for many food products and some other goods were introduced everywhere (tobacco products, vodka, sausage, soap, tea, groats, salt, sugar, and in some cases, in remote areas, bread, milk, mayonnaise, laundry detergent, women's underwear, etc.).
Because large and "closed" cities of the USSR were supplied with food better than the provinces, in attempts to stop non-residents from taking scarce goods out of the city (meat, meat and fish products), the leadership of certain cities began to put forward ideas of introducing meat coupons. In the late 1970s to the first half of the 1980s, due to a growing food shortage, in some cities and regions of the country (Perm, Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Vologda, Zheleznogorsk, and others) attempts were made to regulate consumption by introducing rationing and coupons for certain types of food (meat, meat products, sausage, animal butter).
The coupon system began to be introduced on a large scale in 1989 and became most widespread in 1990–1991, when the total shortage reached its peak; products began to disappear both meat-related and everyday items that previously had not been in short supply: sugar, groats, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded away from the beginning of 1992 due to price liberalization, which triggered hyperinflation (in 1992 alone prices rose 26-fold) and the spread of free trade. For a number of goods in some regions, coupons remained in use longer.
Coupon (card) 1 Kopeck. Cereal. March 1993.
Kostroma.
