Ration card system β a system of supplying the population with consumer goods under conditions of shortage. Under this system, to purchase a product one had to not only pay money for it, but also present a single-use coupon granting the right to buy it. Cards (coupons) set specific per-person monthly consumption norms for goods.
The essence of the coupon system was that to buy 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 some consumer goods were obtained at the place of registration from the housing maintenance office. At the workplace (usually via the trade-union committee), distribution was arranged for certain foods and industrial goods received through barter between enterprises.
The reason the coupon system emerged 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 expected to decrease, since 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, although coupons were issued even for such items as salt.
Without a coupon, goods could be bought 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 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 norm of 2 kilograms of meat products per person per month, in Chelyabinsk Oblast in 1983 coupons were redeemed as 67% sausages, 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, eliminated the foreign trade monopoly, resulting in exporters and cooperatives accumulating large amounts of money not backed by ΡΠΎΠ²Π°Ρ supplies. This led to an increase in shortages of some goods and a certain expansion of the coupon system; and as shortages grew in 1989β1990, coupons for many food products and certain other goods were introduced almost everywhere (tobacco products, vodka, sausage, soap, tea, grains, salt, sugar, and in some cases, in remote areas, bread, milk, mayonnaise, laundry detergent, womenβs 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, meat and fish products) out of the city, the leadership of certain cities began proposing the idea of introducing meat coupons. In the late 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, as the food shortage 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 1990β1991, when the total shortage reached its peak, and not only meat products but also everyday goods that previously had not been in short supply began to disappear: sugar, grains, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded away from the beginning of 1992 due to the liberalization of prices, 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.