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 to not only pay money for it, but also present a one-time coupon granting the right to buy it. Cards (coupons) set specific monthly per-person consumption limits for goods.
The essence of the coupon system is that to buy a scarce item one must not only pay money, but also surrender a special coupon authorizing the purchase of that item.
Coupons for food and certain consumer goods were obtained at one’s place of registered residence from the housing office. 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 the shortage of certain mass-demand goods.
The goal of introducing coupons was to provide the population with a minimally guaranteed set of goods. Demand was expected to fall, 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, although coupons were issued even for items such as salt.
Without a coupon, goods could be bought at markets and from profiteers.
The assumed consumption norm could differ depending on the status of a 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 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 sausage, 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 goods. This led to greater shortages of certain items and some expansion of the coupon system; as shortages grew in 1989–1990, coupons for many foodstuffs and some other goods were introduced everywhere (tobacco products, vodka, sausage, soap, tea, cereals, 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 some cities began to propose the introduction of 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, 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; products began to disappear not only meat items but also ordinary staples that previously had not been scarce: sugar, cereals, 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 rose 26-fold) and the spread of free trade. For some goods in certain regions, coupons remained in use longer.