Ration coupon system — a system for supplying the population with consumer goods under conditions of shortage. Under this system, in order to buy a product one had not only to pay money for it, but also to present a single-use coupon granting the right to purchase it. Ration cards (coupons) set specific monthly per-person 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 one’s place of registered residence at the housing maintenance office. At the workplace (usually via the trade-union committee), distribution was organized for certain foods and manufactured goods obtained through in-kind exchange between enterprises.
The reason the coupon system emerged was the shortage of certain mass-demand consumer goods.
The aim of introducing coupons was to provide the population with a minimally guaranteed set of goods. Demand was supposed to decrease, since without a coupon the corresponding goods were effectively not sold in the state retail network. In practice, it was sometimes impossible to use coupons if the relevant 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, salt.
Without a coupon, goods could be bought at markets and from speculators.
The assumed consumption norm could differ depending on the status of a locality; for example, when butter rationing was introduced in the Chelyabinsk Region in 1981, the norm for Chelyabinsk, Magnitogorsk, and five other large cities was 200 grams per person per month; for some smaller cities it was 150 grams; for most localities it was 100 grams. The actual fulfillment of coupons with a specific type of product could vary; thus, with a guaranteed norm of 2 kilograms of meat products per person per month, in the Chelyabinsk Region 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 situation with meat-product supplies worsened, and coupons were redeemed mostly for boiled sausage, 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 available 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 were introduced everywhere for many food products and some other goods (tobacco products, vodka, sausage, soap, tea, cereals, salt, sugar, and in some cases, in remote areas, bread, milk, mayonnaise, laundry detergent, women’s underwear, etc.).
Since 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 some cities began to propose introducing meat coupons. In the late 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, due to 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 1990–1991, when the total shortage reached its peak; foods began to disappear both in the meat category and also ordinary items that previously had not been in short supply: sugar, grains, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded out 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. Tea. January 1992.
Kostroma.
