Ration card system — a system of supplying the population with consumer goods under conditions of shortage. Under this system, in order to buy a product one had to not only pay money for it, but also present a single-use coupon entitling the holder to purchase it. Cards (coupons) set specific per-person monthly 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 residence registration from the housing office. At the workplace (usually through the trade-union committee) distribution was organized for certain foods and industrial goods obtained through in-kind exchange between enterprises.
The reason the coupon system emerged was a 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 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, 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 the 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 cities it was 150 grams; for most localities it was 100 grams. The extent to which coupons were actually 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 war invalids and diabetics). In 1985 the situation with meat-product supplies 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 товарная mass. This led to an increase in shortages of some goods and a certain expansion of the coupon system, and as shortages grew in 1989–1990, coupons for many food products and some other goods were introduced almost everywhere (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, and in an attempt to stop non-residents 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, as the food shortage intensified, attempts were made in some cities and regions of the country (Perm, Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Vologda, Zheleznogorsk, and others) 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, and not only meat products but also ordinary goods that had not previously been in short supply began to disappear: sugar, cereals, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded out starting in early 1992 due to price liberalization, which triggered hyperinflation (in 1992 alone prices increased 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. Pasta. June 1992.
Kostroma.
