Ration-card 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 one-time coupon granting the right to buy it. Ration cards (coupons) set specific monthly consumption quotas per person.
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 some consumer goods were obtained at the place of registered residence from the housing office. At the workplace (usually through the trade-union committee), distribution was organized for certain foods and industrial goods received through barter between enterprises.
The reason for the emergence of the coupon system was the shortage of certain widely used 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 in the state retail network were effectively not sold. 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, although coupons were issued even for items such as salt.
Without a coupon, goods could be purchased 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, 150 grams; for most localities, 100 grams. The extent to which coupons could be redeemed for a specific type of 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 as 67% sausage, 23% poultry meat, and 10% beef and pork (mainly for war invalids and diabetics). In 1985 the situation with meat supplies worsened, and coupons were redeemed mostly for boiled sausage, pork, and lean mutton.
Perestroika, on the one hand, partially abolished mandatory state deliveries, and on the other, eliminated the foreign-trade monopoly, as a result of which exporting enterprises and cooperatives accumulated large amounts of money not backed by commodity supplies. 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, grains, 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 outsiders from taking scarce goods (meat, meat and fish products) out of the city, the leadership of some cities began to propose introducing coupons for meat. In the late 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, as food shortages intensified, 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 total shortages peaked; products began to disappear not only meat items but also ordinary goods that previously had not been scarce: 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 increased 26-fold) and the spread of free trade. For some goods, in certain regions, coupons remained in use longer.
Coupon (card) 1 Kopeck. Cereal. May. June 1992.
Kostroma.
