Ration card system — a system for supplying the population with consumer goods under conditions of shortage. Under this system, in order to buy a product it was necessary not only to pay money for it, but also to present a single-use coupon granting the right to purchase it. Ration cards (coupons) set specific per-person monthly consumption norms for goods.
The essence of the coupon system was that to purchase 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 certain consumer goods were obtained at the place of residence registration from the housing office. At the workplace (usually via the trade-union committee), distribution was organized for some food products and manufactured goods obtained through in-kind exchange between enterprises.
The reason the coupon system emerged was the shortage of certain widely used goods.
The purpose of introducing coupons was to provide the population with a minimally guaranteed set of goods. Demand was expected to decrease, since without a coupon the relevant goods were effectively 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 purchased 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 5 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 could 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 as 67% sausage, 23% poultry, and 10% beef and pork (mainly for war invalids and diabetics). In 1985 the supply situation for meat products worsened, and coupons were redeemed mainly 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 available goods. This led to an increase in shortages of certain goods and some expansion of the coupon system; and as shortages grew in 1989–1990, coupons were introduced almost 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" Soviet cities 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 some cities began proposing the introduction of 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 total shortage peaked, and both meat products and ordinary goods that had not previously been in short supply began to disappear: sugar, grains, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded out from early 1992 due to price liberalization, which caused 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. Cereal. December 1992.
Kostroma.
