Ration card system — a system of supplying the population with consumer goods under conditions of scarcity. Under this system, to purchase a product one had to not only pay money for it, but also present a single-use coupon granting the right to buy it. Ration cards (coupons) set specific monthly per-person consumption norms for goods.
The essence of the coupon system was that to buy a scarce item, it was necessary not only to pay money but also to hand over a special coupon authorizing the purchase of that item.
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 some food and industrial goods received via in-kind exchange between enterprises.
The reason the coupon system emerged was the shortage of certain widely used consumer goods.
The purpose 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, for salt.
Without a coupon, goods could be bought at markets and from speculators.
The intended consumption norm could differ depending on the status of the 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 towns it was 150 grams; for most localities it was 100 grams. The extent to which coupons could actually be redeemed for a specific type of product could vary; for instance, with a guaranteed norm of 2 kilograms of meat products per person per month, in the Chelyabinsk region in 1983 coupons were redeemed for 67% sausage products, 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 mainly for cooked sausages, 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 goods. This led to increased shortages of certain goods and some expansion of the coupon system; as shortages grew in 1989–1990, coupons were introduced almost everywhere for many food products and some other goods (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 (meat, meat products, and fish products) out of the city, the leadership of certain cities began proposing the idea of introducing meat coupons. In the late 1970s to the first half of the 1980s, as the food shortage intensified, 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, 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; not only meat products but also everyday items that previously had not been in short supply began to disappear: sugar, groats, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded out from early 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.