Rationing system — a system of supplying the population with consumer goods under conditions of shortage. Under this system, to purchase a product one must 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 quotas for goods.
The essence of the coupon system is that, to buy a scarce item, it is 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 through the housing office. At the workplace (usually through the trade-union committee), distribution was organized for certain food and industrial goods received via in-kind exchange between enterprises.
The reason the coupon system emerged was a shortage of some widely used goods.
The purpose of introducing coupons was to provide the population with a minimally guaranteed set of goods. Demand was supposed to fall, since without a coupon the relevant goods were in practice not sold in the state retail network. In practice, it was sometimes impossible to use coupons 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 them as well—for example, for salt.
Without a coupon, goods could be bought at markets and from speculators.
The intended consumption quota could differ depending on the status of a locality; for example, when butter rationing was introduced in Chelyabinsk Oblast in 1981, the quota 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 fulfillment of coupons with 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 meat, and 10% beef and pork (mainly for war disabled and diabetics). In 1985 the supply situation for meat products 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 товар supplies. This led to an increase in shortages of some goods and a certain expansion of the coupon system; and as the shortage grew in 1989–1990, coupons were introduced everywhere for many foodstuffs 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.).
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 to propose introducing meat coupons. In the late 1970s to 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 quotas 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 overall shortage reached its peak, and not only meat products but also everyday goods that had not previously been scarce began to disappear: sugar, groats, 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.
Coupon (card) 1 Kopeck. Butter. February 1992.
Kostroma.
