Rationing system is 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 single-use coupon granting the right to buy it. Ration cards (coupons) set specific monthly consumption norms 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 issued at the place of registration by the housing maintenance office. At workplaces (usually through the trade-union committee), distribution was organized for certain foodstuffs and manufactured goods obtained through in-kind exchange between enterprises.
The reason for the emergence of the coupon system was a shortage of certain mass-consumption goods.
The goal 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 corresponding 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 as well, for example, for 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 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 67% for sausage, 23% for poultry, and 10% for beef and pork (mainly for disabled war veterans and diabetics). In 1985 the supply situation 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 commodity output. This led to increased shortages of some goods and to a certain expansion of the coupon system; 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 out of the city (meat, meat and fish products), the leadership of certain cities began to propose 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 not only meat products but also ordinary goods that had not previously been in short supply began to disappear: sugar, groats, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded away from the beginning of 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.