Ration card system β 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 granting the right to buy it. Cards (coupons) set specific monthly per-capita consumption norms for goods.
The essence of the coupon system is that to buy a scarce product it is 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 obtained at the place of registered residence from the housing office. At the workplace (usually through the trade-union committee), distribution was organized for certain food and industrial goods obtained through barter between enterprises.
The reason for the emergence of the coupon system was the shortage of certain mass-consumption goods.
The purpose of introducing coupons was to provide the population with a minimally guaranteed set of goods. Demand was expected to decrease, because without a coupon the relevant goods were in practice not sold in the state retail network. In practice, it was sometimes 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 themβfor example, coupons were also issued for salt.
Without a coupon, goods could be purchased at markets and from speculators.
The assumed consumption norm could differ depending on the status of the locality; for example, when butter rationing was introduced in Chelyabinsk Oblast in 1981, the norm for Chelyabinsk, Magnitogorsk, and 5 other large cities was 200 grams per person per month; for some smaller towns, 150 grams; for most localities, 100 grams. The ability to redeem coupons for a specific type of product could vary; for example, with a guaranteed norm of 2 kilograms of meat products per person per month, in Chelyabinsk Oblast in 1983 coupons were redeemed 67% with sausage, 23% with poultry meat, and 10% with beef and pork (mainly for disabled war veterans and diabetics). In 1985 the supply situation for meat products worsened, and coupons were redeemed mainly with boiled sausage, pork, and lean mutton.
Perestroika, on the one hand, partially abolished mandatory state deliveries, and on the other, eliminated the foreign-trade monopoly, as a result of which exporting enterprises and cooperatives accumulated large amounts of money not backed by available goods. This led to increased shortages of certain goods and some expansion of the coupon system; as shortages grew in 1989β1990, coupons were introduced everywhere for many food products and some other goods (tobacco products, vodka, sausage, soap, tea, cereals, salt, sugar; in some cases, in remote areas, bread, milk, mayonnaise, laundry detergent, women's underwear, etc.).
Since the large and "closed" cities of the USSR were supplied with food better than the provinces, in attempts to stop nonresidents from taking scarce goods (meat, meat and fish products) out of the city, the leadership of certain cities began to put forward ideas to introduce coupons for meat. In the late 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, in connection with the 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 1990β1991, when the total shortage reached its peak; both meat products and ordinary goods that had not previously been scarce began to disappear: sugar, cereals, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded away from the beginning of 1992 in connection with price liberalization, which caused hyperinflation (in 1992 alone prices increased 26-fold) and the spread of free trade. For some goods in certain regions, coupons remained in use longer.
Coupon (card) 1 Kopeck. Pasta. November 1992.
Kostroma.
