Prohibition of private trading in the USSR. Soviet retail trade in the USSR

Is it true that in the Soviet Union in every store stood barrels with black caviar, and she cost a penny? What was hard to get? Have there been turns? Is it possible to get normal products without a botla? Is it true that bread was tastier?

I almost remember anything about Soviet stores: I was too young, and my parents did not take me. Of the 90s I remember just that it was necessary to walk through the forest at the Moscow Ring Road for some bananas. Why did you have to go for them, I still do not understand, no one eating them anyway. I also remember, on Tverskaya there was a very cool shop "Switrevittva", where they sold foreign candy for weight.

With the beginning of Soviet power, private stores start to disappear quickly, and a centralized distribution system appears instead. In those years, grocery cards began to introduce for citizens. They acted several years after the revolution, then they were canceled, and then introduced again in 1929.

Shops on Pyatnitsa Street, 1922-1929

Facade of the bookstore, 1920-1929

In 1932, private trading was banned at the legislative level. And products were distributed depending on what a person was engaged. It is best for the workers and their families: they belonged to the first category and received 800 g of bread per day. The second category - employees, they received for 300 years of disabled and pensioners received by 200 g. And the church employees and TUnevants did not receive anything at all.

At the showcase of the shoe department of TsUM, 1934

In 1935, life in the country is more or less improved, goods have become much, and the authorities decided to cancel the cards and establish free trade. Over the next six years (before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War), the state independently introduced and regulated all retail prices.

Showcase, 1939

"Metropol" and Aeroflot advertising, 1939. Officially, by this year, Aeroflot has already existed for 7 years. During this time, he managed to save Chelyuskintsev and flew from Moscow to the United States through the North Pole.

Bookstore "Metropoli", 1939

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, most of the material resources were redirected to military needs. In 1941, the authorities again introduced cards on bread, a croup, sugar, oil, clothing and shoes. The greatest portions received workers of military factories, the mountain and chemical industry. But even on cards, products were often impossible to get.

Cards acted until the end of 1947. This year in the country held a denomination and re-established open trading.

Showcase of Eliseevsky Gastronoma, 1947. It was one of the most famous Soviet groceries.

The store was founded back in 1901, then he was called "Shop Eliseeva and cellars of Russian and foreign wines." For the first few years after the revolution, he stood closed, and in the 1920s he was opened again and renamed "Gastronome No. 1". There was a huge range of products and rare products often appeared that in the conditions of post-war deficit it was very unusual.

It is said that it was from here that the tradition went to fold the goods in the pyramid.

Deli, like all other stores, in the military and postwar years worked on the card system. But in 1944, a commercial department was also opened in it, in which the goods were sold for money. Prices here were translated, but the department still attracted a huge number of visitors. All this ended in that in the 50s, the head of the commercial department of the Gastronoma was condemned for a large amount of non-educated income, hurned for the deception of buyers.

At the tobacco showcase on Gorky Street, 1947

Party bodies were also engaged in the publication and distribution of books in the USSR. Before printing, all literature passed through the hands of censors, many works and authors in print were not allowed at all. But the books were very cheap, and in general the people reading was very popular. At the showcase of the bookstore "Moscow".

Showcase with oriental souvenirs, 1947

Shop at Taganskaya Square, 1951. It was called simply - "Products". In those years, the names were not particularly original, and most shops were called "bread", "milk", "meat", "fish" and so on.

But the frame from the "Mosovoszzov" store (or "Mosovoy", as written in the photo)

GUM, showcase of samples in the sale of haberdashery goods without the help of the seller, 1954. In the 1930s, the GUM building was going to demolish, but then changed his mind. At the beginning of the 50s, he was renovated, and in 1953 GUM again opened for buyers.

Kutuzovsky Avenue, house 18. Showcase with dishes. A residential building with shops on the first floor since its construction was called the People "Pink Department Store". After the opening of the "Pink Department Store" was the most popular store in the district where everything was everything - from a coat to the needle. Well, the dishes too. This is 1958.

There, showcase with TVs. It seems that these are "rubies", they were just started to release in 1957. They did not become a scarce product, because they cost several monthly salaries. Make yourself such a luxury could be a few.

Radios store on Gorky Street, 1960

In 1961, the authorities held another monetary reform. 10 rubles of an old sample in value was equated to one ruble of a new sample, while its value in the gold and dollar expression strongly fell. Because of this, prices for jewelry, imported products and some domestic goods and products have sharply jumped.

Showcase store "Dietary products" on Gorky Street. "Natural Cod Liver and Cod Cods. Canned food in their own juice contain fish oil and vitamin D. Recommended for nutrition when rickets, for enhanced power with tuberculosis and to accelerate the healing of bone fractures."

Showcase with cameras

Showcase with clock

Shop "Ether" with TVs. Look at prices. The average salary in the 60s amounted to 80-90 rubles.

Shop "Cheese"

Showcase store "Russian Wines" on Gorky Street. Judging by the memories, the walls inside the store were painted with grape clusters, Elbrus and poplars in the style of co-silk, and the floor was covered with sawdust.

In the conditions of the commodity deficit of people, collective farm markets were very helpful. They were either indoor pavilions, or open rows of counters. Here they traded meat, milk, vegetables, fruits, potatoes and conservation. Representatives of collective farms and state farms and ordinary people who grow crop in their country could trade in such markets. It was necessary to pay for the trading place, and instead the market directorate provided everything you need - scales, trade inventory and any other little things. Private sellers installed prices depending on demand, and then it was accepted here. Danilovsky collective farm market, 1959.

Shop "Wanda" on Petrovka, the 1960s. In the 70s, this store was one of the main speculant points in Moscow. In the gateway, next to the "Vandoy" was a female toilet, in which speculators were sold to women of Polish lipstick, mascara, tights and perfume.

Showcase "Houses toys" on Kutuzovsky Prospect, 1960.

Showcase shop "House Toys", 1964-1972

Salon for newlyweds on the avenue of the world, 1961

Department Store "Moscow", 1963

It was the first store in the USSR, designed by the western model of the shopping center. Inside the radio and TVs twisted advertising.

The department store was opened as an experiment. Here, in addition to commercial premises, there were an information and training center, a demonstration hall for the show of new collections of clothing and lecture audiences.

Showcases department store "Moscow" in 1968

Countertop and showcase department store "Moscow" in the 70s

Shop "Lyudmila", 1965. This is one of the branded stores of the retail network "Musevozhda". Other stores in the network were called "Muscovite", "Lyudmila", "Tatyana" and "Ruslan", there were only about 80 of them.

Running street, 1969

Gorkogo Street. Moscow showcases. Shop "Men's Fashion", 1970

Deli "Novoarbat"

In the favorite store Vladimir Vysotsky in Malaya Georgian, 29

Birzka's grocery company is a chain of stores that sold products and other products for foreign currency or "Checks of External Gangbang". "Birch" was established in 1964, and it existed until the 1990s. Photo Made in 1974.

In the 70s in the USSR, universames began to openly. They were located in typical rectangular structures, and long shelves were located inside towards the cash desks. The service system in Soviet universes was quite complicated. With the collected goods it was necessary to come to the department, the seller weighed everything and thought, and then wrote the buyer the price on a piece of paper. Then you needed to go to the box office and pay everything. And then with a check from the cash register, the buyer returned to the first department and took the purchase. Supermarket in Lublin, 1974

Shop in Tushino, 1974

Grocery on Dimitrov Street, 1974

"House toys", 1975. This year the creator "What? Where? When?" Vladimir Voroshilov bought here the first top for the game.

Men's coat in GUM, 1975

In the 70s, the turnover in the country rapidly grew, and new stores opened everywhere. In particular, these are new universes and department stores, shops with all for women's names, "Everything for men" and "Everything for home". In the period from 1961 to 1975, the number of retail space increased twice. New commercial and cash equipment appears.

Store "Orbit"

Interior of the "Ocean" store in Ostankino, 1977

Voentorg on Kalinina Avenue - Chief Military Department Store Countries, 1979

Shop "Tik-so", 1982

Shop "Canned", 1982

Cum

GUM.

GUM, Showcase Gastronoma, 1984

Department Store in the village of East, 1985

Showcase GUMA, 1985

Laron with stockings, 1986

Department Store "Children's World", 1986

Pedknigi House in Pushkinskaya, 1986

Travel of the Art Theater (Camera Male), 1986

At the shop window "Children's World", 1987

"Children's Mir", 1987

In the period of restructuring in the country, the deficit began to grow again. Unsured and inconsistent reforms led to this. For example, in 1987, the authorities canceled the state monopoly on foreign trade, and then many enterprises began to send their products abroad, earning this much more than if they bought Soviet citizens.

Shop "Diet", 1987-1989

Showcase on Arbat.

Store "Melody", 1989. Posted in House 22 on New Arbat (previously avenue Kalinin), next to the "October" cinema. There were sold plates, coils and cassettes. The stores "Melodies" were called in those years with houses of records, and there were 18 of them in the Soviet Union, but the company's products could not buy not only there. The plates easier were sold in the "Soyuz-Protection" kiosks, and even earlier it was fashionable to order the plates by mail.

Department Store "Moscow"

Kiosks on Kolkhoz Square, 1990

At the checkout in the "Children's World", 1991

Domestic trade plays a large role in raising the life level of the USSR. Its development is characterized by high and sustainable rates corresponding to the growth of income and operating demand of the population. In 1975, about 4/5 of all material benefits entering personal consumption were implemented through the internal trade. More than 7% of all workers and employees are employed in trade and public catering.

In the pre-revolutionary Russia, private trade prevailed. In 1913, almost 3/4 had from the total turnover of the country, where only 18% of the population lived. Low purchasing power of the rural population forced the Russian bourgeoisie to look for foreign markets. During the 1st World War, 1914--18 the production of goods decreased. By 1917, industrial goods prices increased compared to 1913 by 4.3 times (on clothing and shoes 5 times), 5.6 times for food products. Since March 1917, the bourgeois temporary government introduced a card system. Speculation developed. The country had a food crisis.

In the first years of Soviet power, the problem of the organization of food supply of workers was especially acute. The first events of the Soviet state were the introduction of working control over the production and distribution, the creation of October 26 (November 8) of the People's Commissariat of Food (NarcarPost) to ensure centralized supply of the population in goods and the organization of billets of agricultural products. In May - June 1918, emergency measures were implemented in connection with the exacerbation of supply difficulties to solve food. Decree on the food dictatorship, giving emergency powers to the People's Commissar for Food Commissioner to combat a rustic bourgeoisie, who has covered bread and speculating them; Decorates on the reorganization of NarcarProd and its local authorities and the organization of the committees of the village poor (Combedov). Much attention was paid to consumer cooperation, which was attracted to the sales service of the entire population. In 1918, a state monopoly was established to trade in the most important goods of folk consumption (bread, salt, sugar, fabric, etc.). Private trade was prohibited. The trading network and wholesale warehouses are transmitted to the drug distribution and its local authorities. These measures have undermined the economic positions of capitalist elements, the fight against speculation increased, the possibilities of improving the supply of workers were created. During the Civil War and Foreign Intervention, 1918--20, a centralized normalized distribution of consumption items (card system) has been established. The main form of the billets of agricultural products was introduced in 1919 food reversal, which allowed the necessary resources in the hands of the state to supply workers industrial centers and army.

With the transition to a new economic policy (NEP) in 1921, the product was replaced by food tax, small private trade was allowed under the control of the state, the card system was canceled. In 1924, the private sector belonged 88% of retailers, its share in retail turnover was 53%. The organization of domestic trade and regulation of market relations across the entire national economy Soviet state began with wholesale trade. The sale of the products of a large industry was engaged in its controls. Since 1922, a special apparatus began to be created: sectoral syndicates and other state organizations (commercial exchanges and fairs). Cooperative trade was played a major role in the wholesale trade in this period. As the socialist forms of farms are strengthened in the economy of the country, the development of state and cooperative trade, there was a displacement of private intermediaries primarily from the wholesale and then from retailers. This was facilitated by the state of taxes, tariffs, loans, lower prices, providing financial assistance to cooperation and other economic measures.

The gradual strengthening of the position of the Community Trade has already allowed in 1925--26 to plan the planning of the importation of the most important consumer goods in the main economic areas and strengthen the role of the planned principle in market connections. At the same time, the private sector was displaced from the scope of blanks. As a result, by the end of 1927, the publicized sector of domestic trade amounted to more than 65% in turnover. The question "Who - who" in this area of \u200b\u200bthe economy was resolved in favor of socialism. Significant development received contracts that used in the system of harvesting of agricultural products. In 1931, private trade ceased to exist; In 1932, it was banned by law. If large wholesale trade in the hands of state organizations, consumer cooperation began to play in the field of retail trade, replacing private trading intermediaries.

The transition to industrialization, the growth of urban population and cash income means. Rose demand for goods, and plenty of agriculture could not provide a rapid increase in food production and industrial raw materials. This caused the need to move in 1928 to the normalized supply of the population by the main goods on cards. As government commodity increases, commercial trade at higher prices was introduced. Along with the development of cooperative trade, state retail trade grew. From 1928, closed distributors were created, which supplied the goods of workers and employees attached to them enterprises, in 1932 they were replaced by the work supply departments (Orsami). Executive department stores were organized, stores such as Gastronomer, a number of specialized stores selling food and light industry and others. A network of wholesale-sales bases of industry was created. Collective farm trade was permitted, not planned by the state, where prices were established under the influence of supply and demand. As a result of the increase in commodity resources and trade in 1935, a card system was canceled and free open trade was established. In 1935--1941, unified state retail prices were introduced; Organizative rebuilt shopping apparatus. Orsov enterprises and cooperative trading network in cities were transferred to state trade organizations. The main sphere of consumer cooperation activities was the development of trading on the village.

The volume of retail turnover of state and cooperative trade for 1928--40 increased 2.3 times; The number of retailers and catering enterprises increased from 170 thousand to 495 thousand. Traffic turnover of catering in 1940 was 13% of the total turnover of state and cooperative trade. The proportion of common forms of trade in the total volume of retail turnover (see Table 1) has increased (see Table 1).

In the period of the Great Patriotic War, 1941--45, the system of state ignorant supply was covered to 77 million people. The share of catering in retail turnover almost doubled. In industrial enterprises, Oars were organized again. All the years of war in the pre-war level, rational prices for basic food and industrial goods remained. At the collective farm markets at the beginning of the war, the prices rose, but already in 1944 they decreased noticeably due to the "commercial" trade in food and industrial goods. Significantly reduced in 1942 compared with the 1940 retail trade in 1943 began to grow continuously, in 1945 it increased compared to 1942 by 2 times. At the same time, in the eastern regions, turnover rose faster than the country as a whole.

Table. 1. - Share of individual forms of trade in actual prices in the total volume of trade,%

Despite the tremendous difficulties caused by war, at the end of 1947 the card system was canceled (introduced in 1941) and open trade was established. The preparation of the appropriate technical base, the restoration and expansion of fixed internal trade, selection and training of trade frames played a major role. By 1950, the trading network was restored and the pre-war level of retail turnover was surpassed. Its volume in 1950 reached 107% to the level of 1940.

The main form of Soviet trade is state trade, based on nationwide property. Through it, the prevailing mass of goods entering the domestic market is implemented, it owns a leading role in the country's retail turnover (see Table 2). State trade serves mostly urban population, through its organizations also procures a significant part of potatoes, vegetables, fringe cultures and fruits.

Cooperative trade serves mainly a rural population through consumer cooperation, which also purchases agricultural products (eggs, wool, fur and some other types of raw materials, potatoes, vegetables, fruits, fruits, etc.) in collective farms, state farms and rural population. Consumer cooperation leads a commission trade in agricultural products, mainly in cities, at prices, as a rule, somewhat higher than the state retailers, but below the prices of the collective farm market.

Table. 2. - Retail trade turnover of state and cooperative trade

Along with state and cooperative trade, collective farm trafficking is maintained - selling collective farms, collective farmers and other citizens of surplus agricultural products in collective farm markets. State and cooperative retail trade affects the collective farm market: the better and more fully satisfied demand through state trading, the less the demand for the products of the collective farm market and below the level of market prices. A certain tendency is found in the ratio between various forms of trade in trade in the subjects: the role of public trade is growing, and the collective farm market decreases with the known stabilization of the share of cooperative trade in the country's total turnover (see Table 3).

Table. 3. - The proportion of state, cooperative and collective farm trading in actual prices in the total volume of retail turnover,%

Table. 4. - The ratio of food and non-food products in the total volume of commodity turnover of state and cooperative trade,%

The development of domestic trade is due to the expansion of the production of goods and an increase in monetary incomes of the population and is characterized by the dynamics of retail turnover, for which high growth rates are logical. So, in 1975, retail trade turnover, 8.5 times exceeded the volume of turnover of 1940, and per capita increased from 92 rubles. up to 827 rubles. (at prices of the corresponding years). For retail turnover, progressive qualities are characterized. Changes in the commodity structure reflecting the growth of material well-being and cultural level of the population (see Section Welfare of the People (see the USSR. The welfare of the people)). This is also expressed, first of all, in increasing the share of non-food products in the total volume of goods turnover (see Table 4), and within this group - the share of cultural and domestic goods and household goods (radio, electrical, sports goods, furniture, dishes and etc.). The group of food products grows the proportion of more valuable foods (meat, fish, dairy products, eggs, vegetables, fruits) and the share of baking products and potatoes is reduced.

Table. 5. - Retroice trade turnover of state and cooperative trade, including public catering, in the Federal Republics, billion rubles.

The pattern of development of trade is a higher rate of its growth in terms of per capita in rural areas compared to cities contributes to the gradual rapprochement of the living conditions of the city and rural population (in 1940, the turnover for the soul of the urban population was higher than in the village, 5.2 Once, in 1960 - 3.2 times, and in 1975 - 2.3 times). The rapid development of the economy and the culture of the Union Republic also leads to a higher rate of growth in turnover in these republics (see Table 5).

The large-scale specific branch of the internal trade, which combines the production functions, sales of finished food and the organization of its consumption by the population, is a public catering. It is an important link in the system of social and economic events of the state, has a significant impact on the savings of time, the growth of labor productivity is of great importance in the socialist reorganization of life, it helps to increase the role of women in public production, facilitating their homework. Food circulation is constantly increasing (see Table 6). An important economic indicator of the effectiveness of domestic trade is the costs of circulation related to the cost of bringing goods from production to the consumer (see Table 7). The overall level of costs of appeal to the entire amount of retail turnover (including public catering) decreased from 11% in 1940 to 9% in 1975.

Table. 6. - Food Development

The material and technical base of retailers includes an extensive chain of shops, canteens, cafes, restaurants and eateries. From the late 50s. The material and technical base of domestic trade expanded and strengthened (more produced more implemented. Types of merchant equipment, new technological processes and methods for selling goods). In retail trade, supermarkets, department stores, comprehensive demand stores are mainly created ("Everything for men", "Everything for Women", "Everything for Home", etc.), as well as specialized stores selling a variety of range of products with progressive trade methods and maintenance of the population (self-service, sale of goods according to samples). These shops are equipped with modern shopping equipment designed to deliver and sell goods without additional reparation, refrigeration and cash equipment, means of comprehensive mechanization to move goods at all stages of the trade technological process. In the 60--70s. A modern trading network and a catering network, large warehouse complexes, refrigerators, vegetables, potatoes, fructustry, etc. During this period, large shopping centers appeared, both urban and rural, began to create specialized trading houses. The industry is equipped with electronic technology. For 1961--75 shopping area of \u200b\u200bstores doubled (see Table 8), the provision of the population of the trading network (in the settlement of 1000 inhabitants) increased by 88%, the general indicators of the development of domestic trade increased (see Table 9).

On January 1, 1976, the trade turnover applying progressive methods for the sale of goods amounted to 58% of the total turnover, including the sale of self-service method - 48%. In addition, trading forms such as sales for pre-orders are used on credit, delivery of goods to the house; parcel trade, etc.

In the wholesale trade, large mechanized warehouses with high-altitude storage of goods are built (storage area up to 25 thousand m2), distribution refrigerators with a capacity of up to 15 thousand tons, storage facilities for potatoes, vegetables and fruits with a capacity of up to 10 thousand tons with devices of active and general ventilation applied Comprehensive mechanization and automation of the main technological processes of transportation, storage and processing, batch and container transportation are used, the methods of centralized delivery of goods by enterprises of retail trade on rational schemes of the movement of goods are being introduced; Automated control systems (ACS) are created by technological and commercial operations. Industrial methods of working using semi-finished products and progressive technology for processing raw materials and cooking on the basis of mechanization of all labor processes are being introduced in public catering; Intensified industries. Processes based on high-performance conveyor equipment based on achievements of science and technology in food processing technology (ultrahigh-frequency and infrared heating, etc.). Public catering enterprises are transferred to the maintenance of complex dinners, equipped with sectional modulated equipment, the latest types of thermal and technological equipment, unified functional packaging, mechanized lines of distribution of dinner type "Effect", "Slavyanka", "Progress", which increase productivity in 1, 5--2 times.

In the development of domestic trade, trade advertising is important. Advertising services are established in state and cooperative trade, in industrial ministries and departments whose enterprises produce consumer goods, in the Ministry of Household Services, etc. The public trade system has specialized advertising organizations. The Intermential Advertising Council under the USSR Ministry of Commerce coordinates the advertising activities of various departments and organizations in the country.

Organization of domestic trade. Organizationally by the highest link of public administration and the center of the entire trading system is the Ministry of Commerce of the USSR, which through the main departments, the ministries of trade of the Allied and Autonomous Republics, the bodies of trade and public nutrition of the executive committees of local councils coordinates the development of wholesale, retail and catering, regulates trade The activities of other ministries and departments. Separate trading systems have their own central governments (Central Union of the USSR, chores of industrial ministries, main management of book trading, etc.).

Table 7. - costs of handling trading (in% to trade)

Table. 8 - Development of the trade and warehouse network

Table. 9 - Major Trade Development Indicators for 1960-75

Wholesale trade is concentrated in the republican ministries of commerce, which have specialized enterprises and associations in wholesale trade of individual groups of goods: meatshorebtorg, grocery, textility, Torodetudoda, Loadorg, Haberdashery, Cultorg, Horztorg. Wholesale has a network of trading databases, refrigerators, cold-windows placed in areas of production and consumption of goods. Wholesale of consumer cooperation is headed by the Central Soviet Union of the USSR, has an internal character. The main part of the wholesale operations in consumer cooperation is made by universal interdistrict bases of regional (regional) and republican unions of consumer societies and warehouses of Rapipotrets. A number of other ministries and departments of the USSR are also a wholesale trade in some of the consumer goods: the Ministry of Boots of the USSR (Bakers), the Ministry of Food Industry of the USSR (oil and fat products), the USSR Fisheries Ministry of Fisheries (Fish Products), USSR State Bank. In addition to trade in consumer goods, there are wholesalers on the billets, purchases and sales of agricultural products and raw materials, logistical supply.

Tells blogger Germanych: after the publication of his post about elections in Soviet times, he learned with surprise that for many representatives of modern youth, it became a revelation that in those days were chosen from one candidate. It's funny, but what seems to me so obvious and familiar to me, for many - like a window in the castorgal. Therefore, I decided to continue leisurely memories of those times. And remember better with photos in your hands. So it is somehow visually.

1. 1959. Grocery department. Typical. If I do not change vision, the products on the counter are not very rich, expressing euphemisms. And if we speak directly and without embellish, then the counter is completely empty. True, it should be recognized that something hangs behind the seller's back. I honestly did not understand what it is. Whether decoptic meat carcasses, whether something wrapped in the washesized paper. Well, we assume that it is meat.

2. 1964 Moscow. GUM. Humovskoye ice cream was always popular. And in 64th ...

3. ... and in the 1980th ...

4. ... and in 1987.

But, as they say, not an ice cream ...

5. 1965. In Soviet times, the design was suitable very simple. There were no heaps of stupid names. Stores in all cities were simply called, but it is clear: "Bread", "Milk", "Meat", "Fish". In this case, the "gastronomic store".

6. But the toy department. The store, it became, weselves. The same is 1965. I remember, in 1987, I am one familiar girl - the saleswoman in the store "House of Books" on Kalininsky - told that she happens every time it is inconvenient, when foreigners stunned, looking at how she counts the cost of buying on accounts. But that was the 1987th, and in 1965 the scores did not cause anyone surprise. In the background, the sports game department is visible. Different chess, checkers, domino - typical set. Well, lotto and games with a cube and chips (some were very interesting). In the foreground - a children's rocking horse. I had no such.

7. All the same 1965. Trade of apples on the street. Please pay attention to the packaging - a paper bag (a woman in the foreground lays apples into it). Such pockets made of third-strand paper were all the way one of the most common types of Soviet packaging.

8. 1966. Universal - self-service department store. At the exit with purchases is not a cashier with a cash register, but a saleswoman with accounts. The check rushed to a special sewer (standing before the accounts). On the shelves - a typical set: something in packs (tea? Tobacco? Dry Kissel?), Next brandy and generally some bottles, and on the horizon - traditional Soviet pyramids from canned fish.

9. 1968. Progress is obvious. Instead of scores - cash registers. There are shopping baskets - by the way, quite so pretty design. In the left below row, the buyer's hand is visible with a package of milk - such characteristic pyramids. In Moscow, these were two types: red (25 kopecks) and blue (16 kopecks). Differed fatty. On the shelves, how much can be distinguished - traditional cans and bottles of sunflower oil (seemingly). Interestingly, there are two sellers at the exit: checking purchases and cashier (her head looks out of the right shoulder of the aunt seller with a typical facial expression for the Soviet seller).

10. 1972. Consider closer that there was on the shelves. Sprots (by the way, later they have become a deficit), bottles of sunflower oil, some other canned fish, right - something like cans of condensed milk. There are very many cans. But the items are very small. Several kinds of canned fish, two types of milk, butter, quasy wort, what else?

11. 1966. Something never disassembled what the buyers look at the buyers.

12. 1967. This is not a Leninic room. This is a department in the house of the book on Kalininsky. Today, these trading areas are packed by all sorts of books (on history, philosophy), and then - portraits of Lenin and politburo.

13. 1967. For children - plastic cosmonauts. Very available at a price - only 70 kopecks per piece.

14. 1974. Typical grocery store. Again: Pyramid of Canned Fish, Champagne Bottles, Globus Green Peas Battery (Hungarian, It seems, or Bulgarian - I do not remember something already). Paul-liter cans with something like a grated beet or horseradish with beetroot, packs of papyros, a bottle of Armenian brandy. Right (for weights) empty flasks for sale juice. Juice was usually: tomato (10 kopecks a glass), plum (12 or 15, I do not remember), apple (the same), grape (similarly). Sometimes in Moscow there was a mandarine and orange (50 kopecks - wildly expensive). Next to such flasks was necessarily a saucer with salt, which was possible to be a spoon (taken from a glass with water) add to his glass of tomato juice and stir. I always loved to skip a cup of tomato juice.

15. 1975. City Mirniy. To the left, as far as you can judge, the deposits of the rams, gingerbread and cookies are all in plastic bags. On the right eternal canned fish and - at the bottom - 3-liter cans of canned cucumbers.

16. 1975. City Mirniy. General view of the interior of the store.

17. 1979. Moscow. People are waiting for the end of the lunch break in the store. The showcase is decorated with a typical pictogram of the "Vegetables-fruit" store. In the shop window itself - jars with jam. Moreover, it seems one type.

18. 1980. Novosibirsk. General view of the supermarket. In the foreground battery bottles of milk. Next in metal grids-container something like the deposits of canned fish. In the background Grocery - Packages with flour and vermicelline. The overall dull landscape is somewhat revived by plastic pictograms of departments. We must pay tribute to the local designers - the pictograms are quite understandable. Not that Microsoft Word pictograms.

19. 1980. Novosibirsk. Prottovari. Furniture in the form of sofas and cabinets. Further, sports department (checkers, inflatable rescue circles, billiards, dumbbells and a different little thing). Even further, under the staircase - televisions. In the background - partially empty shelves.

20. The appearance of the same store from the department of household electrical engineering. In the sports department, rescue vests and hockey helmets are distinguished. In general, it was probably one of the best stores of Novosibirsk (I think so).

21. 1980. Vegetable department. The queue voluntarily observes the saleswoman. In the foreground - green cucumbers who appeared in the stores early in spring (and then disappeared).

23. 1981. Moscow. Typical design of the store. "Milk". On the right woman rolls wildly scarce imports with "windows".

31. Employed people do not need fashionable shoes. But women in this photo have some kind of fun.

33. Almost sacred place - meat department. "Communism is when each Soviet person will have a familiar butcher" (from some movie).

34. "Pork" - 1 ruble 90 kopecks per kilogram. Grandmothers do not believe their eyes. "Butcher, bitch, all the meat of left sold!"

38. Phallic symbol. It is enough to look, with what awe's aunt holds this item to understand that the sausage was much more in the USSR than just a food product.

40. Ice cream Heck is, of course, not sausage, but you can also. Although, of course, it looks not very aesthetic.

41. Not a united sausage ... For the Soviet color TV, the Soviet man should put almost salary for 4-6 months ("Electronics" costs 755 rubles).

Memories of Soviet times periodically attend everyone who was born during this period. And one of the aspects of the life of the Soviet society, which is of particular interest, is of course the economy of that time, more precisely trade. Let's remember how it was.

And remember better with photos in your hands. So it is somehow visually.

2. 1964 Moscow. GUM. Humovskoye ice cream was always popular. And in 64th ...

3. ... and in the 1980th ...

4. ... and in 1987.
But, as they say, not an ice cream ...

11. 1966. Something never disassembled what the buyers look at the buyers.

13. 1967. For children - plastic cosmonauts. Very available at a price - only 70 kopecks per piece.

16. 1975. City Mirniy. General view of the interior of the store.

21. 1980. Vegetable department. The queue voluntarily observes the saleswoman. In the foreground - green cucumbers who appeared in the stores early in spring (and then disappeared).

22. 1980. Sausage. Krakowskaya, must be.

23. 1981. Moscow. Typical design of the store. "Milk". On the right woman rolls wildly scarce imports with "windows".

24. 1982. In the market, the Soviet people rested the soul.

25. 1983. Queue for shoes. Otherwise, imported boots "thrown out".

26. 1987. Queue for something.

27. Kvass saleswoman. For kvaas, people walked with aluminum bids or three-liter banks.

28. 1987. Electrical goods.

29. No comment.

30. Soviet underwear as it is. Without any colorful bourgeois packages there.

31. Employed people do not need fashionable shoes. But women in this photo have some kind of fun.

32. also shoes ... And where to go? The other is not.

33. Almost sacred place - meat department. "Communism is when each Soviet person will have a familiar butcher" (from some movie).

34. "Pork" - 1 ruble 90 kopecks per kilogram. Grandmothers do not believe their eyes. "Butcher, bitch, all the meat of left sold!"

35. Soviet queue. What stressful view of people - "Will enough?"

36. "Now they will bring meat. Now you will see, it will definitely be brought. "

37. "There is meat!" Local fight due to the best piece.

38. Phallic symbol. It is enough to look, with what awe's aunt holds this item to understand that the sausage was much more in the USSR than just a food product.

39. It is necessary to cut more pieces of sausages, which is then instantly accumulated from the push.

40. Ice cream Heck is, of course, not sausage, but you can also. Although, of course, it looks not very aesthetic.

41. Not a united sausage ... For the Soviet color TV, the Soviet man should put almost salary for 4-6 months ("Electronics" costs 755 rubles).

42. Vegetable department. In the foreground, a trolley with some rot. Moreover, it was assumed that someone could buy this rot.

43. Independent antagonism between Soviet buyers and Soviet sellers. In the eyes of a man it is believed that he would enjoy the saleswoman with pleasure. But this saleswoman is not so easy - the Soviet trading of people tempered. Soviet saleswomen were able to deal with buyers. More than once, I saw a squall of disturbances and attempts by rebellion in the queues, but the result was always unchanged - the victory remained here for such self-aunt-saleswomen.

44. One of the features of the scoop was the presence of a sophisticated system of benefits (all sorts of veterans, "prisoners of concentration camps", etc.). Different beneficiaries with red crusts in Soviet queues hated almost as well as saleswoman. WHO which is stall in the hat - no to "like everything" to take the laid duck, he fuss in red crust - apparently, claims two ducks.

45. This photo is interesting not so much selling ash as packaging. In this brown, hard paper in the USSR wrapped around almost all purchases. In general, the most gloomy, which was in Soviet trading, is a packaging, which, in fact, was not.

46. \u200b\u200bAnother line.

47. And more ...

48. And more ...

49. Hurrying. No comments.

50. Who did not have time, he was late. Now the spells will not help.

51. The queue in the dairy department.

52. "We have a simple job ..."

53. Queue to Wine Department.

54. 1991. Well, it is already apotheosis. Finit ...

55. And this is completely different, the queue of people who dreamed at least on an hour to escape from the scoop. And no spirituality.

Shelves of stores, scored by the same type, gloomy faces of saleswoman, giant queues for any scarce goods - in such conditions, Soviet people had been serving for many decades. The campaign to the store has become a special life with its rules, concepts and phraseologists. The goods "delivered," his "ejected", the queues were "alive", the "honeycomb" houses were created at home. The deficit - and they had anything, from smoked sausage to furniture heads, - received "according to Blat", "from the black move," sometimes paying for it "in the load" anything is useless. True, there were perfect stores, but only in the form of a closed system of special distributors or foreign exchange departments.

Trading in the Soviet Union Only in the first years of its existence was based on market principles. But, after joining the planning economy, it remained forever, in fact, the distribution system.

Soviet trade in Estonia left not such a depressing impression as in the outback of Russia. The modern shopping center "Silhouette" in Narva was in Soviet times the largest trading complex in the city (of course, not counting the city market) and was mainly focused on women. The dream of every Narva graduate of the commercial school was a job by the seller in this store.

1959 year. Grocery department. Typical. If I do not change vision, the products on the counter are not very rich, expressing euphemisms. And if we speak directly and without embellish, then the counter is completely empty. The truth should be recognized that something hangs behind the seller's back. I, honestly, did not understand what it is. Toli decomposed meat carcasses, whether something walked into the washesized paper. Well, we assume that it is meat.

1964 Moscow. GUM. Humovskoye ice cream was always popular. And in 64th ...

And in the 1980th ...

And in 1987

But, as they say, not an ice cream ...

1965. In Soviet times, the design was suitable very simple. There were no heaps of stupid names. Stores in all cities were simply called, but it is clear: "Bread", "Milk", "Meat", "Fish". In this case, the "gastronomic store".

But the toy department. The store, it became, weselves. All the same 1965th year. I remember, in 1987, I was one familiar girl - the saleswoman in the store "House of Books" on Kalininsky told that it happens every time it is inconvenient, when foreigners stunnedly frowned, looking like she counts the cost of buying on accounts. But that was 1987, and in the 1965th scores did not cause anyone in surprise. In the background, the sports game department is visible. Different chess, checkers, domino - typical set. Well, lotto and games with a cube and chips (some were very interesting). In the foreground - a children's rocking horse. I had no such.

The same is 1965. Trade of apples on the street. Please pay attention to the packaging - paper package (the woman in the foreground lays apples into it). Such third-strand paper packages were all the way one of the most common types of Soviet packaging.

1966. Universal - self-service department store. At the exit with purchases is not a cashier with a cash register, but a saleswoman with accounts. The check rushed to a special sewer (standing before the accounts). On the shelves - a typical set: something in packs (tea? Tobacco? Dry Kissel?), Next brandy and generally some bottles, and on the horizon - traditional Soviet pyramids from canned fish.

1968. Progress is obvious. Instead, the account is cash registers. There are shopping baskets - by the way, quite so pretty design. In the left below row, the buyer's hand is visible with a package of milk - such characteristic pyramids. In Moscow, these were two types: red (25 kopecks) and blue (16 kopecks). Differed fatty. On the shelves, how much can be distinguished - traditional cans and bottles of sunflower oil (seemingly). Interestingly, two sellers are at the exit: checking shopping and cashier (her head looks out of the right shoulder of the aunt seller with a typical for the Soviet seller's expression).

1972 year. Consider closer that there was on the shelves. Sprots (by the way, later they became a deficit), bottles of sunflower oil, some other canned fish, right - something like cans of condenses. There are very many cans. But the items are very small. Several kind of fish canned, two types of milk, butter, kvasny wort, what else?

1966. Something never disassembled what the buyers look at the buyers.

1967. This is not a Leninic room. This is a department to the house of the book on Kalininsky. Today, these trading areas are packed with all sorts of books (on history, philosophy), and then - portraits of Lenin and Politburo.

1967. For children - plastic cosmonauts. Very available at a price - only 70 kopecks per piece.

1974 year. Typical grocery store. Again: Pyramid from Canned Fish, Champagne Bottles, Globus Globus Battery (Hungarian, It seems, or Bulgarian - I do not remember something already). Pollitonean cans with something like a coarse coat or horseradish with a swarm, packs of cigarette, a bottle of Armenian brandy. Right (for weights) empty flasks for sale juice. The juice was usually: tomato (10 kopecks a glass), plum (12 or 15, I do not remember), apple (the same), grape (similarly). Sometimes in Moscow there was a mandarine and orange (50 kopecks - wildly expensive). Next to such flasks was necessarily a saucer with salt, which was possible to be a spoon (taken from a glass with water) add to his glass of tomato juice and stir. I always loved to skip a cup of tomato juice.

1975 year. City Mirniy. To the left, as far as you can judge, the deposits of the rams, gingerbread and cookies are all in plastic bags. On the right eternal canned fish and - at the bottom - 3-liter cans of canned cucumbers.

1975 year. City Mirniy. General view of the interior of the store.

1979. Moscow. People are waiting for the end of the lunch break in the store. The showcase is decorated with a typical pictogram of the "Vegetables-fruit" store. In the shop window itself - jars with jam. Moreover, it seems one type.

1980. Novosibirsk. General view of the supermarket. In the foreground battery bottles of milk. Next in metal grids-container something like the deposits of canned fish. In the background Grocery - Packages with flour and vermicelline. The overall dull landscape is somewhat revived by plastic pictograms of departments. We must pay tribute to the local designers - the pictograms are quite understandable. Not that Microsoft Word pictograms.

1980. Novosibirsk. Prottovari. Furniture in the form of sofas and cabinets. Further, sports department (checkers, inflatable rescue circles, billiards, dumbbells and a different little thing). Even further, under the stairs - televisions. In the background - partially empty shelves.

The appearance of the same store on the part of the department of household electrical engineering. In the sports department, distinguish life jackets and hockey helmets. In general, it was probably one of the best stores of Novosibirsk (I think so).

1980. Vegetable department. The queue is intensively watching the saleswoman. In the foreground - green cucumbers who appeared in the stores early in spring (and then disappeared).

1980. Sausage. Krakowskaya, must be.

1981. Moscow. Typical design of the store. "Milk". On the right woman rolls wildly scarce imports with "windows".

1982. In the market, the Soviet people rested the soul.

1983. Queue for shoes. Otherwise, imported boots "thrown out".

1987. Queue for something.

Kvass saleswoman. For kvaas, people walked with aluminum bids or three-liter banks.

1987. Electrical goods.

No comments.

Soviet underwear as it is. Without any colorful bourgeois packages there.

Independent people do not need fashionable shoes. But women in this photo have some kind of fun.

Also shoes ... and where to go? The other is not.

Almost sacred place - meat department. "Communism is when each Soviet person will have a familiar butcher" (from some movie).

"Pork" - 1 ruble 90 kopecks per kilogram. Grandmothers do not believe their eyes. "Butcher, bitch, all the meat on the left sold!"

Soviet stage. What a tense view of people - "Will it be enough?".

"Now they will bring meat. Now you will see, it will definitely be brought. "

"Eat meat!" Local fight due to the best piece.

Phallic symbol. It is enough to look, with what awe's aunt holds this item to understand that the sausage was much more in the USSR than just a food.

It is necessary to cut more pieces of sausages, which is then instantly revealed from the push.

Ice cream Hue is certainly not sausage, but there is also possible. Although, of course, it looks not very aesthetic.

Not a united sausage ... For the Soviet color TV, the Soviet man should have been putting almost a salary for 4-6 months ("Electronics" costs 755 rubles).

Vegetable department. In the foreground, a trolley with some rot. And it was assumed that someone could buy this rot.

Fusey antagonism between Soviet buyers and Soviet sellers. In the eyes of a man it is believed that he would enjoy the saleswoman with pleasure. But this saleswoman is not so easy - the Soviet trading of people tempered. Soviet saleswomen were able to deal with buyers. More than once, I saw a squall of disturbances and attempts by rebellion in the queues, but the result was always unchanged - the victory remained for such as saleswoman.

One of the features of the scoop was the presence of a sophisticated system of benefits (all veterans there, "prisoners of concentration camps", etc.). Different beneficiaries with red crusts in Soviet queues hated almost as well as saleswoman. WHO which is stalling in the hat - no to "like everything" to take the laid duck, he is a red crust that apparently claims two ducks.

This photo is interesting not so much the selling omek, how much packaging. In this brown, rigid paper in the USSR wrapped around almost all purchases. In general, the most gloomy, which was in Soviet trading, is a packaging, which, in fact, was not.

Another reason.

And further…

Straighable. No comments.

Who did not have time, he was late. Now the spells will not help.

Queue in dairy department.

"We have a simple job ..."

Queue in the wine department.

1991 year. Well, it is already apotheosis. Finit ...

And this is completely different, the queue of people who dreamed at least an hour to escape from the scoop. And no spirituality.

Is it true that in the Soviet Union in each store stood barrels with black caviar and was she worth a penny? What was hard to get? Have there been turns? It was possible to get normal products without a botla? Is it true that bread was tastier?

I still don't remember anything from Soviet times, I was too young and my parents did not take me to the shops. Of the 90s I remember just that it was necessary to walk through the forest at the Moscow Ring Road for some bananas. Why did you have to walk for them, I still do not understand, no one eating them anyway. I also remember on Tverskaya was a very cool shop of Switrevittva, where they sold candy on foreign weight. Now there is a cafe floor at this place (by the way, the dying is terrible).

At the showcase of the shoe department of TsUM, 1934.

Showcase, 1939.

Metropol Book Store, 1939.

Showcase of Eliseevsky Gastronoma, 1947.

At the tobacco showcase on Gorky Street, 1947.

At the showcase of the bookstore "Moscow"

Showcase with oriental souvenirs, 1947.

1951 year. Moscow, Taganskaya Square. Score

Kutuzovsky Avenue, house 18 - showcase with dishes. 1958. A residential building with shops on the first floor since its construction was called the People "Pink Department Store". He was the first building that had planned a line of the future Kutuzov Avenue to the Novoarbat Bridge. Until its construction, the Mozhaisk Highway was smoothly moved to the Doromilovskaya street, and it was quite unclear why the house is built under a strange angle to the existing streets. After the opening of the "Pink Department Store" was the most popular store in the district, where everything was from a coat to the needle. Well, the dishes too.

Ibid, showcase with stelishers

Ul. Gorky. Radios store. 1960.

Ul. Gorky. Showcase store "Dietary products"

Shop "Ether".

Shop "Cheese"

Ul. Gorky. Showcase of the store "Russian Wines"

Showcase houses toys on Kutuzovsky Prospect, 1960.

Department Store Moscow, 1963.

Showcase and shelves department store Moscow 70s.

Running street, 1969.

Gorkogo Street. Moscow showcases. Shop "Men's Fashion", 1970.

Groatron "Novoarbat"

On Malaya Georgian, d.29. In the favorite store V.S.Vysotsky

"House Toys", 1975

Store "Orbit"

Voinorg on Kalinina Avenue, 1979.

Tsum Gut Mo.

GUM.

GUM. Showcase of the gastronoma. 1984.

Eastern village. Department store. 1985.

Department Store "Children's World". 1986.

Pedknigi house in Pushkinskaya. 1986.

Travel of the Art Theater (Camgerian per.), 1986.

Showcase on Arbat.

Store "Melody", 1989.

Department Store "Moscow"

Not sell, and distribute

After the Civil War, the leadership of the young country decided to resort to the affairs of the supply of private owners and did not lose.

The new economic policy announced in the fall of 1921 allowed private trading along with state and cooperative. And already in 1922-1923, the share of private trading in retail turnover reached 75.3%. Due to this, in a short time, I solved the problem with the provision of the public with essential products.

However, in December 1925, the Kremlin began the industrialization of the country, for which the currency needed is to buy high-tech equipment. Prices for raw materials are the main article of Soviet exports - due to the crisis, then fell. It could help export agricultural products, but the peasants did not want to give it to the state at low prices, and they tried to sell private traders with greater benefits.

In December 1925, the Kremlin began the industrialization of the country, for which the currency needed was to buy high-tech equipment

And the Kremlin went along the path of repression - the peasants began to smash and massively drive into the collective farms, and private owners were removed from the sphere of supply, making it centralized.

Such actions immediately led to the crisis. From the stores disappeared the products for which huge queues with fights and pogroms were built. Power on the ground to curb wild demand, began to introduce the normalized sale of goods, but it did not help. There were cards for bread - for the first time they were injected in Odessa in the second quarter of 1928. In the same year, bread cards came to Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Kherson, Mariupol, and in early 1929 - in Kharkov. At the same time, due to the lack of grain, the state stopped selling flour to the population. Began outbreaks of hunger throughout the union, including in Ukraine.

The situation in the industry was aggravated - half-starving workers taped, which threatened the disruption of industrialization plans. As a result, across the country went along the way that Odessaites: on February 14, 1929, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) approved the decision on the All-Union Card System of Bread Distribution.

In Moscow and Leningrad, as noted by the Russian historian Elena Oskina in his book for the facade of the "Stalinsky abundance", the workers relied 900 g of bread per day, members of their families and the rest of the workers - 500 g, and the proletariat of other cities of the Union - 300-600 g day. The peasants did not give out the cards.

Workers were relied on 900g bread per day, members of their families and the rest of the workers - 500 g, and the proletariat of other cities of the Union - 300-600 g per day. The peasants did not give out the cards.

In January 1931, Introduced cards for basic foods and non-food products. At the same time, the population (as important for the affairs of industrialization) was divided into four lists - the special, first, second and third. In the first two, workers strategic enterprises of Moscow, Leningrad, Donbass and other industrial regions were included. In the second and third - workers and employees of nonindustrial cities and factories and factories who produced consumer goods. The peasants were left again overboard.

The most secured in those years were the highest female workers who received the so-called literal soldering, which included all the main foods.

So, by 1930, trade in the USSR has become the distribution of goods: each category of the population has access to their types of distributors.

On market laws, only commercial shops and collective farm markets worked, where prices were several times higher than government. Another category of points where the goods could be bought, and not get on the card, the network of currency trades became. Initially, they were focused on foreigners, but from the fall of 1931 they discovered both Soviet citizens who could talk there by passing gold, silver or antiques. It was Torgsin who helped to survive many peasants in the hungry 1932-1933: more than 80% of goods sold through this network at that time were food, of which 60% accounted for bread.

By 1930, trade in the USSR turned into the distribution of goods: each category of the population had access to their types of distributors

Cards were abolished for a while in early 1936, but trade remained normalized. The new crisis began in 1939 with the beginning of war against Poland, and then Finland. In cities where the supply was better, huge queues from local and visitors were gathered, with whom they tried to fight through the police.

"Our question in Kiev in Kiev is extremely difficult," Vyacheslav Molotov, N. Kovalev, noted at the end of 1939, in a letter to the chapter of the Sovnarkom. - Multiple queues for shops are gathering behind a manufactory and ready-made clothes from the evening. The police builds a queue somewhere for the quarter in the alley, and then the "lucky" five to ten people by Guskom, one for another in the girth (so that no one slipped without a queue), surrounded by the police, as the arrestants, lead to the store. Under these conditions, the speculation is flourishing. "

In July 1941, with the beginning of the war, the Card system is again introduced into the USSR, which was eliminated only at the end of 1947. But for many years, part of the goods were actually distributed. For example, as Vitaly Kovalinsky, a historian-Kyiv scientist tells, in the 1950s, the population was sold on the lists, and only three times a year - for the new year, for the first May and on November 7, the anniversary of the October coup.

Guide to consumption

The state of affairs began to change for the better in the late 1950s. At this point, the Kremlin decided to emphasize the development of food and light industry. As a result, it became high quality and assortment in stores where bread as the basis of food began to close other products.

"The share of bread and bakery products in the country's retail turnover in 1940 was 17.2%, in 1950 - already 12.6%, and at present - about 6%," wrote the Journal of Soviet trade in April 1960.

In August of the same year, a decree on the improvement of trade was published, after which wholesale fairs began to carry out in the country, where the enterprises showed samples of goods to representatives of trade organizations, and those in turn decided to have something to purchase. The ghost of market relations was issued on the country, but he did not change the situation.

Shops, tells Nina Goloshubova, Professor of the Kiev National Trade and Economic University, were rigidly attached to a specific supplier.

Prior to this, the resources in the republics distributed Gamin USSR. Shops, tells Nina Goloshubova, Professor of the Kiev National Trade and Economic University, were rigidly attached to a specific supplier. This gave rise to not only the deficit, but also the monotony of the goods on the shelves, which was fucked - after all, the industry produced products by very large batches, in no way focusing on demand.

However, the innovation only facilitated the situation. And he did not solve the problem of marriage at all, which in the Union was all-pervading: under the planned economy, manufacturers had guaranteed sales, and their quality was not too worried.

"The state supervision authorities in the USSR State Standard system checked in 1973 to 1.788 enterprises of the Ministry of Light Industry and found that 60% of them produce products with violation of standards," Soviet trade in January 1975 wrote. - The sale of 364 types of products was prohibited in the trading network. "

Government initiatives did not save the stores and from other features - mass "chambers" of goods. They happened, as a rule, at the end of the month and were echoes of enterprises attempts to perform monthly, quarterly and annual plans.

Soviet buyers quickly adapted to these subtleties. For example, in Kiev in the courtyard of the department store Ukraine often, a crowd was collected by the end of the month, waiting for "stacking". The place of collection was non-random: Kievans knew about one feature of the work of the stores - their leadership, so as not to create long queues in the trading halls, sometimes he ordered to sell a deficit right in the yard, at the place of unloading.

Top pyramid consumption

Since the 1930s, the class of "special" buyers arose in the USSR, which existed until the very end of the Soviet system. We could talk about different categories of the population - military, pensioners, low-income, - which were allocated and sold goods, inaccessible to the rest of the citizens. But the real wall of privileged customers became party and economic nomenclature.

For the elite, everything was special: the special goods grown products, Specceha produced another products, then all this was supplied to special stores or Specstoles, in which special supporters had the right to specially acquire all this (very loyal to wallets). The infrastructure was very branched, she could cover hardly all needs, up to sewing clothes.

"It was Atelier opposite the bank [of the current National Bank]," recalls the daughter of one of the workers of the Summol of the Ukrainian SSR under the conditions of anonymity. - There were really good masters, but not everyone was allowed to sew clothes. "

Back since the 1930s, the class of "special" buyers arose in the USSR, which existed until the very end of the Soviet system

The whole special system worked in conditions similar to underground: the Soviet leadership really did not want to annoy his people. However, it was the secret of Polysinel. Moreover, ordinary citizens even learned to use inaccessible benefits.

For example, in the central part of Kiev there were many grocery stores at which special goods worked. Thanks to them in open sale, the scarce goods entered from time to time, depicted on the distributors shelves. In the people, such outlets even began to call "union shops", and it was here that Kievans hunted that it was not available in the total trading network.

In addition to the elite, people who worked under the contract abroad were involved in the sweet life. They received a salary in foreign currency checks and could refer them to a network of special shops, such as chestnut, where they were sold inexpensive Soviet deficit and imported products.

"We basically went there," says Valentina Alexandrova, a daughter who worked abroad specialist. "Because we had a lot in shoe stores, but it was a bad quality and ugly."

Crash system

All this multi-level distribution system led to the emergence of a super-elite class of traders - directors and sellers, and not only special, but also ordinary stores, bosses of bases, warehouses, other suppliers. They became the heroes of the national folklore and the object of close attention of employees of the department for the fight against the embezzlement of socialist property as offenders who earn the shortage trading from under the floor. But in the conditions of the planned system, it was impossible to overcome this problem.

Meanwhile, the Soviet trade was not robbed and speculators, but the general problems of the state, which was involved in the Afghan war, faced the fall in oil prices and turned out to be unable to meet the needs of the population, launching money for the defense.

Disguised Soviet trading are not passing and speculators, but the general problems of the state, which got involved in the Afghan war, faced the fall in oil prices and turned out to be unable to meet the needs of the population, launching money for the defense

As a result, from the second half of the 1980s, the situation in trading began to deteriorate. "Shopping campaigns are becoming more useless, because almost every day promises us a new deficit," Soviet trade in January 1990 wrote. - Of 1.200 Basic Goods, which are observed by VNIICS's specialists [Institute of Trade and Demand Conjuncture for Public Consumption Goods] in 140 cities of the country, relatively smoothly trade only 200.

In the conditions of less and less satisfied demand, the population periodically rushed to buy the most ordinary products. So in 1988 in Kiev, it happened with sugar, which was literally swept away from the shelves. The authorities had to limit its sale. "We have introduced the coupons on sugar in Kiev," recalls Anatoly Stanov, the last Minister of Commerce of the Ukrainian SSR. "Because in the city there was such an attachment that the shops per month sold to a three-month sugar volume."

But neither the coupons nor other measures have decided the problem of the growing deficit. Only the rejection of the socialist planning system and the transition to the market very quickly filled the shelves of the stores with the most different goods. But the Soviet trade is no longer relevant

Prohibition of private trading in the USSR. Soviet retail trade in the USSR

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