Ration card system — a system for 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. Cards (coupons) set specific monthly per-capita 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 one’s place of registered residence from the housing maintenance office. At the workplace (usually through the trade-union committee), distribution was organized for certain foods and industrial goods obtained through barter in kind between enterprises.
The reason the coupon system emerged was the shortage of certain mass-market goods.
The purpose of introducing coupons was to provide the population with a minimally guaranteed set of goods. Demand was expected to fall, since without a coupon the relevant goods were effectively not sold through the state retail network. In practice, sometimes coupons could not be used 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 example, coupons were also issued for 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 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 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 as 67% sausage, 23% poultry, and 10% beef and pork (mainly for disabled war veterans and diabetics). In 1985 the supply situation 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 increased shortages of some goods and some expansion of the coupon system; as shortages grew in 1989–1990, coupons were widely introduced for many food products and some other goods (tobacco products, vodka, sausage, soap, tea, grains, 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 out of the city (meat, meat and fish products), the leadership of some cities began putting forward ideas to introduce coupons for meat. In the late 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, as food shortages 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 overall shortage reached its peak, and not only meat products but also everyday items that had not previously been scarce began to disappear: sugar, grains, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded out starting in early 1992 in connection with price liberalization, which triggered hyperinflation (in 1992 alone, prices rose 26-fold) and the spread of free trade. For some goods in certain regions, coupons remained in use longer.