Rationing system — 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 entitling the holder to buy it. Ration cards (coupons) set specific per-person monthly consumption norms for goods.
The essence of the coupon system was that to buy a scarce product it was 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 residence registration from the housing office. At the workplace (usually through the trade-union committee), distribution was organized for some food and industrial goods obtained via barter exchange between enterprises.
The reason for the emergence of the coupon system was the shortage of certain mass-consumption goods.
The aim of introducing coupons was to provide the population with a minimally guaranteed set of goods. Demand was supposed to decline, since without a coupon the relevant goods were in practice not sold in the state retail network. In practice, sometimes it was impossible to use coupons if the corresponding goods were not available in stores. Some goods, if they were in surplus, were sold without coupons, although coupons were issued, for example, even 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 cities, 150 grams; for most localities, 100 grams. The extent to which coupons could actually be redeemed 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 war invalids and diabetics). In 1985 the supply situation for meat products worsened, and coupons were redeemed mainly with 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 commodity supply. This led to increased shortages of certain goods and some expansion of the coupon system; and as the shortage grew in 1989–1990, coupons were introduced everywhere 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 (meat, meat and fish products) out of the city, the leadership of certain 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, 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 both meat products and everyday goods that previously had not been in shortage began to disappear: sugar, grains, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded away from the beginning of 1992 due to 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.