Ration card 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 one-time coupon granting the right to buy it. Cards (coupons) set specific monthly per-person consumption norms for goods.
The essence of the coupon system is that, to buy a scarce product, it is 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 registered residence (propiska) at the housing maintenance office (ZhEK). At the workplace (usually through the trade-union committee), distribution was organized for some food and manufactured goods received via in-kind exchange between enterprises.
The reason for the emergence of the coupon system was shortages of certain widely used consumer 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 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—for example, salt.
Without a coupon, goods could be purchased at markets and from speculators.
The presumed consumption norm could differ depending on the status of a населенный пункт; 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 населенные пункты 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 мясопродукты 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 инвалидов and diabetics); in 1985 the situation with meat-product supplies 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 monopoly on foreign trade, as a result of which exporting enterprises and cooperatives accumulated large amounts of money not backed by товарная масса. 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 for many food products and some other goods were introduced everywhere (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 (meat, мясные and fish products) out of the city, the authorities of certain cities began to propose introducing coupons for meat. In the late 1970s to the first half of the 1980s, due to the growing food shortage, in some cities and oblasts 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 reached its peak; both мясные products and ordinary goods that previously had not been scarce began to disappear: sugar, groats, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded out from early 1992 due to price liberalization, which triggered hyperinflation (in 1992 alone, prices rose 26-fold) and the spread of free trade. For a number of goods in some regions, coupons remained in use longer.