Ration card system — a system of supplying the population with consumer goods under conditions of shortage. Under this system, to purchase a good one had to not only pay money for it, but also present a single-use coupon entitling the holder to buy it. Cards (coupons) set specific monthly per-person consumption quotas for goods.
The essence of the coupon system was that to buy a scarce good it was necessary not only to pay money, but also to hand over a special coupon authorizing the purchase of that good.
Coupons for food products and some 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 certain foodstuffs and manufactured goods obtained via in-kind exchange between enterprises.
The reason the coupon system emerged 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 supposed 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, when they were in surplus, were sold without coupons even though coupons were issued for them as well; for example, coupons were also issued for salt.
Without a coupon, goods could be bought at markets and from speculators.
The assumed consumption quota could differ depending on the status of the locality; for example, when butter rationing was introduced in Chelyabinsk Oblast in 1981, the quota 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 fulfillment of coupons with a specific type of product could vary; for example, with a guaranteed quota 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 situation with meat-product supplies 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 available goods. This led to increased shortages of certain goods and some expansion of the coupon system; and as shortages grew in 1989–1990, coupons were introduced everywhere for many food products and some other goods (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 (meat, meat and fish products) out of the city, 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; both meat products and ordinary goods that had not previously been scarce began to disappear: sugar, grains, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded out 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, coupons remained in certain regions for a longer time.