How were goods in deficit obtained in the USSR?

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“The product was thrown away” – under the USSR, this phrase had a very different meaning from the one we use today. In the land of the Soviets, to "throw away" something meant to put a deficit commodity on sale. Immediately – after a few tens of minutes or a couple of hours – she disappeared again. Sometimes the merchandise simply did not reach the shelf and was sold on the black market.

Towards the end of the existence of the USSR, the deficit of products became total. The planned economy did not take into account the real needs of citizens. In a remote corner of the country, an expensive suit could be sold in one size, although the most common. The state monopoly on everything, the absence of the private sector, central planning and prices set without taking supply and demand into account – all of this has led to a chronic lack of everyday goods , be it oranges, toilet paper, soap or matches.

To become the proud owner of the product you needed, you had to resort to tricks. “People knew how to get by, they knew the system, knew who to call and where to go to get a lambda product. At the same time, it was tiring. In my family, we colored potato sacks and stuck them on the wall to imitate textured wallpaper,” says Ekaterina, a blogger who grew up in the USSR.

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The hero of the Soviet film People and Mannequins points to a trait that characterizes the era very well: “A premiere in the theatre. Who is seated in the front row? Respectable people: a chief storekeeper, a store manager... All municipal authorities love the chief storekeeper. He's sitting on deficit goods! ".

During the era of the deficit, friendships with the manager of a store, a warehouse or with a salesman were worth their weight in gold, because these people knew when and what was going to be “thrown” on the shelf. Everyone was looking for that type of friendship. “Towards the evening, a product in short supply – for example sausages – is delivered to a store and a saleswoman reveals it to a friend. The latter seizes the news "the sausage is coming tomorrow" and rushes to another friend, a sister, the mother-in-law, the godmother, the teacher of her son or her daughter, her boss, all in secret. As a result, the day before, a queue is already forming in front of the trade,” said Raisa Kobzar from Krasnoyarsk, a saleswoman with 40 years of experience.

Queuing at night

Moreover, even this “secret knowledge” did not guarantee that one would manage to obtain the much desired merchandise. Huge queues are an inseparable attribute of any deficit. Sometimes they began to form at night. In pen, we wrote the number in the line on the palm to know who is behind whom. Others showed up only to sell their place later to those who would arrive in the morning.

“I stood in line for four hours to buy a jacket for my son. It was my mother who kept it while I was crushed by an angry mob. We only let in groups of 10-12 people. The children's store in question was opposite a police station, and following the cries, two agents came to watch that the door was not broken down. But it didn't take long to be, ”says a resident of the Moscow region presenting herself on the Web as Iriss.

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It was also not uncommon for neighbors to agree to queue for different goods and then share them.

Buy from a speculator

“With us, one 'thrown' the deficit only during working hours and I couldn't buy anything. Moreover, speculators immediately got most of the goods through the back door,” recalls Tatiana from the city of Kaluga (190 km from Moscow).

In the USSR, speculation was continued: there was a risk of being sentenced to two to seven years in prison. Nevertheless, for those willing to take the risk, this was the golden age. For lack of time and opportunities, ordinary citizens bought goods from them despite the premium. The Department for the fight against the looting of socialist property (OBKhSS) was carrying out raids to catch each other. However, even the employees of this organization suffered from deficits, so they sometimes alerted businesses about these inspections in exchange for sausages, fish or other goods.

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Buying foreign products from a “fartsovchik”

People selling foreign products were so called. It was simply impossible to find them in Soviet stores (except in specialized shops Beriozka, where diplomats and technical and military specialists could spend foreign currency legally acquired during their missions in other countries). This was the case for chewing gum and cigarettes as well as appliances and jeans produced abroad.

The fartsovchiks bought these items directly from foreigners who came to the USSR or from people who contacted them – taxi drivers, diplomats, guides, translators.

If during the 1970-80s the monthly salary usually fluctuated between 80 and 200 rubles, jeans could be bought from the fartsovchiks for about 150 rubles. Like the speculators, they were outlaws, which did not prevent them from creating a veritable underground empire.

Go to another city

Finally, one could pick up food and other goods in another city. In the USSR, there were cities that were better supplied than others. This was the case of Moscow, Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), the capitals of the Soviet republics and the “closed” cities, which housed the key industries of the state. Therefore, those who ran out of products took the train or bus to the nearest gender town.

“During the years of scarcity, we went to Moscow to buy everything and we stood in line for 4-6 hours. It was a usual thing. First the clothes – the GOum, TsouM and Petrovski passage shops in the center, Moskvitchka and Sintetika on Kalinin Avenue, then, already in the evening, small food shops on Pyatnitskaya Street to buy cheeses and sausages, butter, a chicken imported, mayonnaise in small glass jars and, a must, freshly ground coffee. And afterwards, the last suburban train smelled of coffee, oranges, sausages...”, recalls Iriss.

However, during the lean 1980s, the deficit peaked even in Moscow. In 1990, “buyer's business cards” were introduced in the capital, while in shops products could only be sold to their lucky holders – people registered in the capital. And even though they were tampered with, the flow of the sausage-smelling trains has thinned out remarkably.

In this other article, we told you how the Soviet economy worked and why it collapsed.

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