The introduction of a rationing system for the distribution of products in the USSR. Supplying the population with food during the Great Patriotic War

FOOD STAMPS OF THE RECENT YEARS OF THE USSR

The coupons were issued in different time and different countries. And the first coupons appeared in Ancient Rome. Warrants were issued for the city plebs to receive a certain amount of grain, oil or wine. Bread distributions - were introduced by Gaius Gracchus (153-121 BC), for this, numaria tessers were used, which were bronze coin-like tokens. The ancient Romans called tessera dice, stamps and tokens.

Cards, first for bread and then for soap, meat and sugar, were introduced during the Jacobin dictatorship in France (1793-1797). Coupons and cards were in different countries especially during times of war. During World War I, food distribution was introduced in a number of belligerents European states and even in the USA. In Russia, food cards were also introduced under Nicholas II in 1916. After revolutionary events 1917 and during civil war the coupon system covered the whole country (Fig. 1).

Il. 1. Talon "labor ration" 1920, presumably the city of Petrograd.

Later there were tessers (coupons, checks) for kerosene, firewood, water, etc. On our website you can read the article about the water ticket.

Il. 2. USSR. Moscow. Cards for cereals, pasta, sugar, confectionery and bread, 1947

During the period World War II ration cards were in all European countries, as well as in the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, India, Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia, etc. And of course, during the Second World War, a ration card system was introduced for food and industrial goods in the USSR (Fig. 2,3).

Il. 3. USSR. Leningrad. Bread cards and school lunch subscription.

Only on December 13, 1947, the Izvestiya newspaper (USSR) published the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks No. them for memory, so they have survived to our time.You can see that these coupons have remained unused since this date (Fig. 2,3).

I was born in 1964, the year Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev became the leader of the country. And there were no coupons in the country for 19 years. This is how I grew and developed with this general secretary communist party. In 1980, Moscow, the capital of the USSR, hosted summer Olympic Games. There was a national upsurge, the population met these games with great enthusiasm. And no one then could have imagined that in a little more than 10 years the Soviet Union would collapse. Leonid Brezhnev died in 1982. I will not discuss the economic situation in the country and in the world at that time. During the period of Brezhnev's leadership, there was no particular abundance of food and industrial goods in the country. However, in the mid-1980s, the situation began to deteriorate. At that time, the miniatures of Mikhail Zhvanetsky, as well as the songs of V. Vysotsky, were listened to on tape recordings (he was not shown on television, and he did not speak on the All-Union Radio). So, in one of his miniatures of that period, Zhvanetsky once said that there is a minister of the meat and dairy industry, and he looks good, but there are no meat and dairy products .... I don’t know how it is in your city, but then we had on sale the so-called “Sandwich Butter”. It is difficult to say what it was made of, but it did not freeze in the refrigerator, and when it was spread on a piece of bread, some kind of liquid stood out.

Il. 4. Leningrad. Tea ticket, 1989

Il. 5. Mound. Talon for 500 gr. Myasoproduktov, 1988

The main version then was that margarine was mixed with ordinary butter, and such a product appeared. It tasted ... like margarine mixed with butter. So in our city, the first coupons appeared specifically for butter and meat in 1985. This year I have already studied at the institute. And I remember very well how at one of the lectures on military department major spoke. He was decommissioned from the army to our institute. It was said that he was written off because of epilepsy, and that he even had one seizure during a lecture right at the pulpit. And in the army he served as a political worker. So, at one of his lectures, he told us that the American imperialists and their hirelings are snarling, that a coupon system has been introduced in the country of the Soviets, that there is famine in the country. This is not so, - the teacher continued, the American hawks are silent about the fact that now you can buy good butter with coupons, and not “Sandwich”, as it was before the introduction of coupons! Indeed, there was no famine, but there was a shortage of goods. There was no meat in the stores, but the population's refrigerators were not empty.

Il. 6. Leningrad. Sugar coupons, laundry soap, washing powder, 1989

So, from the mid-1980s, coupons for food were again introduced in the USSR, and then for a number of other essential goods (soap, washing powder, etc.). AT different cities coupons were different. There were coupons for butter, meat and meat products, sugar, tea, pasta and confectionery, laundry and toilet soap, washing powder, tobacco and alcohol (Fig. 4,5,6,7,8). Coupons were introduced even in cities such as Leningrad and Moscow, which were always on special provision at that time. Coupons at the beginning were issued on plain paper or thin cardboard, without special means of protection. AT best case they had a serial number. And already in the late 80s, early 90s of the twentieth century, they were printed on better quality paper and even with watermarks (Fig. 6,7,8). Such coupons for a number of cities were printed at Goznak (Fig. 7,8).

And it is not by chance that a type of collecting has been formed - tesseristics - collecting coupons (cards, coupons) for receiving specific or limited food, industrial goods or services.

Il. 7. Moscow. Coupons for tobacco products and vodka. Late 80s - early 90s of the twentieth century.

Il. 8. Food coupons. Late 80s - early 90s of the twentieth century.

We are contemporaries of the history that is happening now and was during our lifetime. And it is always interesting for me to learn history from people who lived in a particular period. See historical events through the subjective prism of a person who was an eyewitness to those events, and not to read dry phrases in historical reference books. I hope that I made a small contribution to this historical process.

All tesserae are from a private collection. Images posted with permission of the owner.

Used sources of information:

1. Makurin A. V. Half a stack for the entrance to the exhibition // Ural Collector. Yekaterinburg. 2003, No. 2. S.24-26.

2. Makurin A.V. Ural heirs of Napoleon...: essays on modern Ural bonistics. Ekaterinburg, publishing house USGU, 2008, 67 p.

3. Makurin A.V. Eh, coupons ... // Collector's shop. Samara. 2002, No. 3 (29). C.3.

4. Rudenko V. Talon for a tesserist // Ural Pathfinder. 1991, No. 1, pp. 78-81.

In September 1941 in the cities Krasnoyarsk Territory a card system for the distribution of goods was introduced, an alternative to which in military conditions did not exist.

One of the Krasnoyarsk shops during the war years. Source: Krasnoyarsk - Berlin. 1941-1945, 2009

Products consumer goods were brought to the region from all over the country: trains with tobacco products from Rostov-on-Don, Moscow, Leningrad met with trains carrying shoes from Moscow, Leningrad, Rostov-on-Don and Novosibirsk, trains with knitwear and garments from Belarus and again from Moscow and Leningrad. Haberdashery goods were supplied from Odessa and Irkutsk.

Underdeveloped Soviet Union could not satisfy the consumer demand of the population. Soviet employees, workers regularly received wages. But there was nowhere for her to go. Things necessary for everyday life, clothes, and much more, were a scarce commodity. You need to stand in more than one queue or have acquaintances in trade in order to purchase goods that were fashionable in those days. Having honestly worked his shifts, having received money at the cash desk, the citizen could not fully spend it. Where do you put your money if you can't buy anything with it? Inflation that when free economic development, absorbs the excess money supply, simply did not exist. There are enough products - much more. Actually, the shortage of consumer goods led to massive savings among people. The state actively tried to return the excess money into circulation. To do this, loan programs were launched, a system of savings books was promoted.

The war changed everything. Now the money was taken out of the stocking, deposits were withdrawn from the passbooks. So, in Kansk, on June 27, the leakage of deposits amounted to 144 thousand rubles. Salt, matches, cigarettes, flour and canned food - everything was bought. As early as June 22, bread disappeared from the shelves in many stores. “In the first days of mobilization, queues formed in the shops of Kansk for matches, salt and manufactured goods,- reported the representative of the Kansk city committee four days after the start of the war. - AT there is talk in the queues that there will be no matches, salt and foodstuffs again, as was the case in 1940.”.

According to archival data on the stocks of Krastorg on June 26, 1941, there were still stocks of matches, salt, hardware and haberdashery in the city warehouses. For 200 thousand rubles. accumulated cultural goods, 200 thousand - wine, but there were no laundry soap and tobacco products.

The country began to transfer the economy to a war footing. Legislative restrictions were introduced on trade in goods that can be used for the needs of the military industry. Thus, the sale of lead seals was banned. The production of tin utensils has practically ceased. A rationing system was introduced to distribute food. It cannot be said that the cards greatly surprised the citizens. For the last quarter of a century, they were introduced for the third time.

There was simply no alternative to the card system in those conditions. The war broke natural development economy. The granary of the Soviet Union - Ukraine - became the scene of fierce fighting. Transport deliveries were disrupted - trains, river boats, cars in tens, hundreds, thousands were mobilized for the needs of the front. A tractor that previously dragged a plow or a seeder behind it, now dragged a tool to the position along broken front roads. This is not enough, the village - the main supplier of food for the country - was left without workers. Millions healthy men, in Peaceful time effortlessly carried out sowing and harvesting, received weapons in their hands. They have a new, more important task- stop the enemy rushing inland Soviet state. The existence of a peaceful trading system could not last long. There was no food surplus in the country.

A total shortage led to famine and disaster. Under these conditions, the Soviet authorities were forced to go for a strict centralized distribution of goods and products. Otherwise, it was impossible to feed the army, to support the strength of the workers at the machine, to give the elderly, the sick and children a chance to survive. In conditions of a limited amount of resources, it was impossible to ensure the survival of most of the population, preserve the country's gene pool and, if possible, support all categories of the population in any other way.

If you say “card” today, the first association is banking, plastic, where the money is. But those who found Soviet times, remember very well that cards are coupons for a certain number of products.

Cards were purchased for money, sometimes without them. They were entered by different reasons: during the years of wars and crop failures, to combat the deficit, and sometimes the cards were intended for the ruling, elite part of society, in order to powers of the world This received products according to special, generous norms.

The card system was not a unique discovery of the Soviet Union. Also in Ancient China during disasters, the population was distributed long ropes with the imperial seal, and the seller deftly snipped off a piece during each purchase. The system of "rations" and distribution of products existed in Mesopotamia. However, food cards began to be introduced everywhere only during the First World War. Austria-Hungary and Germany thus regulated the demand for meat, sugar, bread, kerosene, France and England - for coal and sugar. Zemstvo organizations and bodies in Russia local government cards were also introduced, one of the most scarce products was sugar - it was massively bought for the production of moonshine, and a significant part of Poland, where sugar factories were located, was occupied by the enemy.

In the 1920s - 40s, cards became faithful companions of every inhabitant of the USSR.

Of the 73 years of Soviet power, 27 passed under the rationing system

Throughout the country, cards for bakery products were introduced by the beginning of 1929. According to the first category, workers of the defense industry, transport and communications, engineering workers, the top of the army and navy were supplied. They were supposed to have 800 g of bread per day (family members - 400 g each). Employees belonged to the second category and received 300 grams of bread per day (and 300 grams for dependents). The third category - the unemployed, the disabled, pensioners - were supposed to receive 200 g each. But the "non-working elements": merchants, ministers of religious cults - did not receive cards at all. All housewives under the age of 56 were also deprived of cards: in order to receive food, they had to get a job.

Talon "labor ration", 1920

Over time, cards began to spread to meat, butter, sugar and cereals. Stalin, in a letter to Molotov, outlined his views on the supply of workers: “Select shock workers at each enterprise and supply them completely and primarily with food and textiles, as well as with housing, providing them with all the rights to insurance in full. Divide non-drummers into two categories, into those who work for this enterprise not less than a year, and those who work less than a year, and supply the first with food and housing secondarily and in full measure, the second - thirdly and at a reduced rate. On the account of health insurance, etc., have a conversation with them something like this: you have been working at the enterprise for less than a year, you deign to “fly”, if you please, in case of illness, do not receive a full salary, but, say, 2/3, and those who work for at least a year, let them receive a full salary.

"Unearned elements": merchants, clergy - did not receive cards

The cards finally took root throughout the entire USSR by 1931, when the decree “On the introduction unified system supply of workers according to the intake books. The creation of collective farms, the mass famine of the early 1930s, the construction of huge enterprises became a serious test for the country. But after the first five-year plan, the situation returned to normal. On January 1, 1935, the cards were canceled, the population began to buy goods in open trade. But, unfortunately, the production of products did not increase, the number of goods did not increase. There was literally nowhere to buy provisions. So the card system continued to exist until the war in a hidden form. So, in stores they released a rationed amount of products “in one hand”, huge queues appeared, the population began to be attached to stores, etc.

Bread card. Saratov, 1942

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, centralized card distribution is introduced again. On July 16, 1941, the order of the People's Commissariat of Trade "On the introduction of cards for certain food and industrial products in the cities of Moscow, Leningrad and in certain cities of Moscow and Leningrad regions". From now on, food and manufactured goods cards extended to bread, cereals, sugar, confectionery, butter, shoes, fabrics, and garments. By November 1942, they were already circulating in 58 major cities of the country.

A meter of fabric "cost" 10 coupons, a pair of shoes - 30, a towel - 5

Workers, depending on the category, received 600 - 800 grams of bread per day, employees - 400 - 500. However, in besieged Leningrad in the most hungry month - November 1941 - the norms were cut to 250 g for the work card and to 125 g for all others.

Bread card. Leningrad, 1941

Manufactured goods were also sold with special coupons. Workers were entitled to 125 coupons per month, employees - 100, children and dependents - 80. 5 coupons gave the right to purchase a towel, 30 - a pair of shoes, 80 - a woolen suit. At the same time, cards and coupons were only documents that allowed the purchase of goods for fixed prices. It was necessary to pay for the goods themselves in "live" rubles.

Card for dry rations, lit. "BUT". Moscow, 1947

By 1943 wide use received "letter supply" in three categories - "A", "B" and "C". Officials, journalists, party activists, the leadership of law enforcement agencies ate in the "literary canteens", which allowed them, in addition to hot, to receive an additional 200 g of bread a day. On the rural population, except for the intelligentsia and the evacuees, the cards were not distributed. Villagers were mainly supplied with coupons or received grain in kind. In total, by the end of the war, 75-77 million people were on state supply.

The last wave of rationed distribution in the USSR began in 1983

The last wave of rationed distribution in the USSR began in 1983 with the introduction of a coupon system, the essence of which was that in order to purchase a scarce product, it was necessary not only to pay money, but also to transfer a special coupon allowing the purchase of this product.

In the shop. Moscow, 1990

Initially, coupons were issued for some scarce consumer goods, but later they were introduced for many food products and some other goods (tobacco, vodka, sausage, soap, tea, cereals, salt, sugar, in some cases bread, mayonnaise, washing powder). , lingerie, etc.). In practice, it was often not possible to use coupons, since there were no corresponding goods in stores.

Tobacco coupon map for Moscow in the early 1990s

The coupon system began to fade in the early 1990s due to rising prices, inflation (which reduced effective demand) and the spread of free trade (which reduced the deficit). However, coupons were retained for a number of goods until 1993.

And in countries with a market economy - to support the socially unprotected segments of the population.

Cards (coupons) established certain norms for the consumption of goods per person per month, so this system was also called normalized distribution.

Encyclopedic YouTube

1 / 1

✪ Cancellation of the card system. monetary reform.

Subtitles

Ancient world

For the first time food cards (“tessers”) were noted back in ancient Rome.

In 1916 the ration card system was introduced even in neutral Sweden.

The card system has been widely used in Soviet Russia since its inception in 1917, in connection with the policy of "war communism". The first abolition of the ration card system occurred in 1921 in connection with the transition to the NEP policy. In January 1931, by decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the People's Commissariat for Supply of the USSR introduced an all-Union rationing system for the distribution of basic foodstuffs and did not food products. Cards were issued only to those who worked in the public sector of the economy ( industrial enterprises, state, military organizations and institutions, state farms), as well as their dependents. outside state system supplies turned out to be peasants and those deprived of political rights (disenfranchised), together making up more than 80% of the country's population. On January 1, 1935, cards for bread were canceled, on October 1 for other products, and after them for manufactured goods.

Simultaneously with the beginning of the free sale of products, a restriction was introduced on the sale of goods to one person. And over time, it decreased. If in 1936 the buyer could buy 2 kg of meat, then from April 1940 - 1 kg, and sausages instead of 2 kg per person were allowed to give only 0.5 kg. The amount of fish sold was reduced from 3 kg to 1 kg. And instead of 500 g of butter, 200 g each. But in the field, based on the actual availability of products, they often set distribution norms that differed from the all-Union ones. Yes, in Ryazan region the issuance of bread to one hand fluctuated in different regions and collective farms from the all-Union 2 kg to 700 g.

Soon, however, new supply crises inevitably followed (1936-1937, 1939-1941), local famine and spontaneous revival of cards in the regions. The country has entered world war in a state of acute commodity crisis with thousands of queues.

The Second World War

Cards during perestroika and after the collapse of the USSR.

Main article: Shortage during the dismantling of the USSR

The coupon system became most widespread in 1988-1991, when the total shortage reached its peak, and both meat and ordinary products began to disappear, which were not in short supply before: sugar, cereals, vegetable oil, and more.

The essence of the coupon system is that for the purchase scarce goods, it is necessary not only to pay money, but also to transfer a special coupon authorizing the purchase of this product.

PRODUCT CARDS IN THE USSR

Despite the undoubted achievements in the economy, the standard of living of the population remained very low. By the beginning of 1929, a card system was introduced in all cities of the USSR. The sale of bread to the population on cards was started from the cities of grain-growing Ukraine. In March 1929, this measure also affected Moscow. Bread was followed by a rationed distribution of other scarce products: sugar, meat, butter, tea, etc. By the middle of 1931, cards for industrial goods were introduced, and in 1932-1933. even for potatoes. The place of trade was occupied by merchandise according to the so-called "taking documents" and warrants through closed distributors, workers' cooperatives and workers' supply departments.

Under these conditions, theft became widespread. People's Commissar of Supply Mikoyan admitted in the spring of 1932: "They steal everything up to the communists. It is easier for a communist to steal than for another. He is booked with a party card, he is less suspected." According to Mikoyan, an inspection of bread shops in Moscow showed that they were stealing 12 wagons a day.

The decision to abolish the card system in the USSR was made by the October 1934 plenum of the Central Committee. In December, a decree appeared, which, from January 1, 1935, canceled bread cards. In September 1935, a decree was issued that canceled from October 1, 1935 cards for meat, sugar, fats, and potatoes. However, the situation with food and manufactured goods continued to remain difficult after that. Foreigners who visited the USSR at that time admitted that they were strongly impressed by the ability Soviet people find joy in the most prosaic things: "they stand in line for hours; bread, vegetables, fruits seem bad to you - but there is nothing else. Fabrics, things that you see seem ugly to you - but there is nothing to choose from. Since there is absolutely no comparison with which - except perhaps with a damned past - you gladly take what is given to you.

I.S. Ratkovsky, M.V. Khodyakov. History of Soviet Russia

FOUR WAVES OF FOOD CARDS

Cards and coupons were known in ancient Rome. The word "tessera" denoted warrants for the city plebs to receive a certain amount of grain, oil or wine. Bread distributions - frumentations were first introduced by Guy Gracchus (153-121 BC), for this, tessers were used, which were bronze or lead coin-like tokens.

Cards, first for bread, and then for soap, meat and sugar, were introduced at the time French Revolution (1793-1797).

During the First World War, food rationing was introduced in a number of belligerent European states, as well as in the United States.

During the Second World War, food rationing was established in all European countries, as well as in the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, India, Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia, and others.

Few people know that in the United States and now there are several federal programs social charity, within the framework of which money coupons are issued for the low-income. Visitors to the show could see the FOOD-STEMP ($1 food voucher) as well as the "taxi voucher" (Alabama, issued to retirees and expats up to $20 per month).

In Russia, cards were first introduced under Nicholas II in 1916 in connection with the food crisis caused by the war.

Then the Provisional Government took advantage of this practice by installing a card system in a number of cities on April 29, 1917. Rye, wheat, spelt, millet, buckwheat were distributed exclusively on cards ...

At Soviet power cards appeared again in August-September 1918 and existed until 1921, when organizing the distribution of food, a "class approach" was practiced. The first card wave in Russia (1916-1921) was extinguished by the temporary flourishing of entrepreneurship during the period of the new economic policy states.

The second wave began to grow in 1929, when, at the end of the NEP, a centralized card system was introduced in the cities of the country, which lasted the entire period of collectivization and industrialization, until 1935.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, centralized card distribution is introduced again (the third wave). Cards for food and some types of industrial goods appeared in Moscow and Leningrad as early as July 1941. And by November 1942 they were circulating in 58 large cities of the country.

Card distribution of food and industrial goods in the USSR lasted until December 1947.

The crisis year of 1963 almost again endowed us with a card system, in any case, the issue of this was discussed at a fairly high level.

The fourth coupon-card wave of the 1980-1990s has subsided quite recently and left very vivid memories. In 1983, in some cities of the country, including Sverdlovsk, the first coupons for certain types of food (for example, sausage) appeared. And by 1989, various coupons and cards were already circulating in most cities and rural areas.

The range of food products offered for distribution is basically standard: vodka and wine, tea and sugar, flour and meat products. But there are also mayonnaise and confectionery. The range of manufactured goods ranges from soap, washing powder and matches to galoshes (Tashkent, 1991) and lingerie (Yelets, 1991). The names of the coupons are the same. From humiliatingly straightforward “card for bread”, “potato voucher”, to diplomatically streamlined ones - “Purchase Order” (Irbit, 1992), “Invitation to Place an Order” (Irkutsk, 1985), “Newlyweds Book” (Tashkent), " business card buyer" (Moscow, 1991), "Limit card" (Nizhny Novgorod, 1991). Well, somewhere, and with care: “Alcohol is the enemy of your health” (vodka coupon, Kurgan, 1991).

A. Makurin. Half a stack ... for the entrance to the exhibition

http://www.bonistikaweb.ru/URALSKIY/makurin.htm

TRADE CRISIS AND LINES

With the beginning of forced industrialization in the late 1920s and the associated destruction of the peasant economy and the market of the NEP period, supply crises followed one after another. The beginning of the 1930s was a particularly difficult time for people - a half-starved ration existence in the cities and mass famine in the countryside. By the mid-1930s, the situation was stabilized. On January 1, 1935, cards for bread were canceled, on October 1 for other products, and after them for manufactured goods. The government declared the era of "free" - in contrast to the card distribution of the first half of the 1930s - trade. Soon, however, new supply crises inevitably followed (1936-1937, 1939-1941), local famine and spontaneous revival of cards in the regions. The country entered the world war in a state of acute commodity crisis, with thousands of queues.

Why, despite the proclamation of the era of "free" trade and the time to enjoy life, the country did not part with the "norms of leave in one hand", cards, queues and local hunger?

"Free" trade did not mean free enterprise. The Soviet economy remained planned and centralized, and the state remained a monopoly producer and distributor of goods. The heavy and defense industries invariably took precedence. In the Third Five-Year Plan, capital investments in the heavy and defense industries increased sharply. According to official figures, total military spending in 1940 reached a third of the state budget, and the share of capital goods in gross industrial output reached 60% by 1940.

Although during the years of the first five-year plans the state light and food industries did not stand still, general level production was far from sufficient to meet the demand of the population. Even less went into stores, since a significant part of the products went to non-market consumption - supply public institutions, production of overalls, industrial processing and so on. For the whole of 1939, only a little more than one and a half kilograms of meat, two kilograms of sausages, about a kilogram of butter, five kilograms of confectionery and cereals entered the retail trade per person. Third industrial production sugar went to non-market consumption. The market fund of flour was relatively large - 108 kilograms per person per year, but even this amounted to only about 300 grams per day. Non-market consumption "ate up" a huge part of the funds of non-food products. Only half of the produced cotton and linen fabrics, a third of woolen fabrics went into trade. In fact, the consumer received even less. Losses from damage and theft in transport, storage and trade were enormous.

The mass repressions of 1937-1938 created chaos in the economy, Soviet-Finnish war and other "military conflicts" of 1939-1940, as well as the supply of raw materials and food to Germany after the conclusion of the non-aggression pact, increased disproportions and aggravated the shortage of goods in the domestic market on the eve of the USSR's entry into a major war.

While the store shelves remained half empty, the cash income of the population grew rapidly. By 1939, the purchasing funds of the population reached the size provided for by the plan for 1942, while the development of retail trade lagged behind the plan. The low supply of goods in trade led to the fact that the cash plan of the State Bank was not fulfilled, the money paid to the population was not returned through trade to the state budget. The budget deficit was covered by money issue. The total amount of money in circulation by the end of 1940 had almost doubled compared to the beginning of 1938, while the physical volume of trade decreased and, per capita, fell to the level of the end of the second five-year plan. In the aggravation of the commodity deficit, the artificial restraint of price increases also played a role.

In the planned economy, the shortage of goods was also aggravated by the selectivity of Soviet trade - in fact, centralized distribution, which redistributed commodity resources in favor of large industrial cities. As my teacher of the political economy of socialism at Moscow State University joked witty and somewhat risky in the Brezhnev years, the state solved the problem of Soviet trade simply - it sent goods to Moscow and several other large industrial cities, and the population itself delivered them where necessary. Moscow remained the unchanging leader. A little over 2% of the country's population lived in the capital, but in 1939-1940 it received about 40% of meat and eggs, more than a quarter of all market funds of fats, cheese, woolen fabrics, about 15% of sugar, fish, cereals, pasta, kerosene, garments, silk fabrics, shoes, knitwear. Leningrad lived more modestly, but was also among the elite cities. In 1939-1940, he received a fifth of the market funds for meat, fats, eggs. For these goods, two cities - Moscow and Leningrad - "ate" more than half of the entire market fund of the country.

It is not surprising that the commodity landings in big cities represented one of the most common ways of self-supply of the population in a planned economy. The pre-war years passed entirely under the sign of the struggle of the Politburo with a massive influx of buyers in large industrial centers. Until the autumn of 1939, the “commodity landing” in large cities did not have a food character. Residents of villages and small towns traveled around the country in search of manufactories, shoes, and clothes. From the autumn of 1939, queues for groceries also began to grow.

Moscow remained the center of attraction. The Moscow queues clearly had a multinational face; they could be used to study the geography of the Soviet Union. According to the NKVD, at the end of the 1930s, Muscovites in Moscow lines made up no more than a third. During 1938 the flow of out-of-town buyers to Moscow increased, and by the spring of 1939 the situation in Moscow resembled a natural disaster. The NKVD reported: “On the night of April 13-14 total shoppers by the time they opened was 30,000 people. On the night of April 16-17 - 43,800 people, etc.” Crowds of thousands stood outside every major department store.

The lines didn't go away. They lined up immediately after the store closed and stood overnight until the store opened. The goods were sold out within a few hours, but people continued to stand - "the next day." Visitors roamed around acquaintances, stations and entrances, spending entire vacations in Moscow. As one of them said:

Reports from the NKVD testify that the Soviet turn was a peculiar form of social self-organization of the population, with its own rules, traditions, hierarchy, norms of behavior, morality and even uniforms: as a rule, comfortable shoes, simpler clothes, warm clothes if night standing was expected.

Order and self-organization, however, could not mislead anyone, they were only a lull, a saving of strength before a decisive assault. As soon as the doors of the store opened, the line broke, the frantic energy of the dissatisfied consumer burst out.

E.A. Osokin. Farewell ode to the Soviet queue