Rationing (coupon) 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 single-use coupon granting the right to buy it. Ration cards (coupons) set specific monthly per-person 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 certain consumer goods were issued at the place of residence registration through the housing maintenance office (ZhEK). At the workplace (usually through the trade-union committee), distribution was organized for some foodstuffs and manufactured goods obtained via in-kind exchange between enterprises.
The reason the coupon system emerged was the shortage of certain widely used consumer goods.
The purpose 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 relevant goods were effectively 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, salt.
Without a coupon, goods could be bought at markets and from speculators.
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 67% with sausages, 23% with poultry meat, and 10% with beef and pork (mainly for war invalids and diabetics). In 1985 the supply situation for meat products worsened, and coupons were redeemed mostly with 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 available goods. This led to an increased shortage of certain goods and some expansion of the coupon system; and as shortages grew in 1989–1990, coupons for many foodstuffs and some other goods (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.) were introduced everywhere.
Because large and "closed" Soviet cities 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 town, the leadership of some cities began proposing the introduction of meat coupons. In the late 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, as food shortages 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 1990–1991, when the total shortage reached its peak, and both meat products and ordinary items that previously had not been in short supply began disappearing: sugar, cereals, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded away starting in early 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.
Coupon (card) 1 Kopeck. Sugar confectionery. February 1992.
Kostroma.
