Ration card system — a system of supplying the population with consumer goods under conditions of shortage. Under this system, in order 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. Ration cards (coupons) set specific monthly per-person consumption quotas 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 some consumer goods were issued at the place of registration by the housing office. At the workplace (usually through the trade-union committee), distribution was arranged for certain foodstuffs and industrial goods obtained through in-kind exchange between enterprises.
The reason for the emergence of the coupon system was a shortage of certain mass-consumption goods.
The purpose 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 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 intended consumption quota could differ depending on the status of the locality; thus, 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 extent to which coupons could actually be redeemed for a specific type of product could vary; thus, with a guaranteed quota of 2 kilograms of meat products per person per month, in Chelyabinsk Oblast in 1983 coupons were redeemed 67% as sausages, 23% as poultry, and 10% as beef and pork (mainly for war invalids and diabetics). In 1985 the situation with meat 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 commodity supply. This led to an increase in 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 authorities of some cities began to propose introducing meat coupons. In the late 1970s to 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 products but also ordinary goods that previously had not been in short supply: sugar, grains, vegetable oil, and others.
The coupon system faded away starting in early 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.
Coupon (card) 1 Kopeck. Sugar confectionery. January 1992.
Kostroma.
