Rationing system — a system of supplying the population with consumer goods under conditions of shortage. Under this system, to buy a product one had to not only pay money for it, but also present a one-time coupon entitling the holder to purchase it. Ration cards (coupons) set specific monthly consumption norms per person.
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 certain 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 some foodstuffs and industrial goods obtained via in-kind exchange 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 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 relevant 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 profiteers.
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 cities it was 150 grams; for most localities it was 100 grams. The extent to which coupons were actually honored with a particular 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 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 monopoly on foreign trade, as a result of which exporting enterprises and cooperatives accumulated large amounts of money not backed by corresponding товар supplies. This led to an increase in the shortage 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 non-residents from taking scarce goods (meat, meat and fish products) out of the city, the leadership of certain cities began putting forward ideas to introduce coupons for meat. In the late 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, as the food shortage increased, 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 reached its peak, and goods began disappearing not only meat products but also ordinary items that previously had not been in short supply: sugar, groats, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded away starting in early 1992 due to the "liberalization" of prices, 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 1992.
Izhevsk.
