Ration coupon system — a system of supplying the population with consumer goods under conditions of scarcity. Under this system, to purchase a product one had not only to pay money for it, but also to present a one-time coupon granting the right to buy it. Cards (coupons) set specific monthly per-person consumption norms for goods.
The essence of the coupon system is 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 local housing office. At the workplace (usually through the trade-union committee), distribution was organized for some food and industrial goods obtained via barter between enterprises.
The reason for the emergence of the coupon system was the shortage of certain mass-demand goods.
The purpose 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 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 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 presumed 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 cities it was 150 grams; for most localities it was 100 grams. The ability to redeem coupons 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 mainly 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 goods. This led to increased shortages of certain goods and some expansion of the coupon system, and as the shortage grew in 1989–1990, coupons for many food products and some 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, 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 proposing 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 total shortages reached their peak; both meat products and everyday items that previously had not been scarce began to disappear: sugar, grains, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded away from the beginning of 1992 in connection with 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.