Rationing (coupon) system — a system for supplying the population with consumer goods under conditions of shortage. Under this system, to purchase a good one had to not only pay money for it, but also present a single-use coupon entitling the holder to buy it. Ration cards (coupons) set specific monthly per-person consumption quotas for goods.
The essence of the coupon system was that to buy a scarce good it was necessary not only to pay money, but also to surrender a special coupon authorizing the purchase of that good.
Coupons for food and certain consumer goods were obtained at the place of registered residence from the housing maintenance office. At the workplace (usually via the trade-union committee), distribution was organized for some food and industrial goods obtained through barter between enterprises.
The reason the coupon system emerged was the shortage of certain widely used consumer goods.
The goal of introducing coupons was to provide the population with a minimally guaranteed set of goods. Demand was supposed to decrease, because 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; for example, coupons were also issued for salt.
Without a coupon, goods could be purchased at markets and from speculators.
The intended consumption quota could differ depending on the status of the 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 extent to which coupons could actually be redeemed for a particular product could vary; for example, with a guaranteed quota of 2 kilograms of meat products per person per month, in Chelyabinsk Oblast in 1983 coupons were redeemed for 67% sausage, 23% poultry meat, and 10% beef and pork (mainly for war invalids 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 goods. This led to an increased shortage of some goods and a certain expansion of the coupon system; and as shortages grew in 1989–1990, coupons were introduced everywhere for many food products and some other goods (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.).
Because 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 of 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, 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 products began to disappear not only meat products but also ordinary goods that had not previously been in short supply: sugar, cereals, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded out from the beginning of 1992 due to price liberalization, which caused hyperinflation (in 1992 alone prices increased 26-fold) and the spread of free trade. For some goods in certain regions, coupons remained in use longer.