MAIN FORMS AND APPROACHES TO THE RATIONED FOOD DISTRIBUTION IN THE UKRAINIAN SOCIALIST SOVIET REPUBLIC – UKRAINIAN SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC IN THE 1920S–1940S

Abstract

The article analyzes the main approaches to the food distribution in the 1920s–1940s. The article aims to investigate the process of providing the population with food products as an important component of everyday life during the 1920s–1940s. Also, the work reveals the content of the “card system” concept. The reasons for the introduction and abolition of the card system during the 1920s–1940s are clarified. It is proved that the card system in the Bolshevik paradigm was interpreted as a way of controlling society. The main approaches to the division of consumers into four categories, which corresponded to four main groups of cards, are highlighted. It is noted that the food policy of the Bolsheviks turned into a tragedy for the Ukrainian people. It is shown that during the war and the first postwar years, the range of rationed supply of products was extremely limited. The contents of the consumer basket, the calorie value of food depended on the number of cards in the family and the salary level. It is emphasized that when defining the general supply policy or the concept of providing the regions of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic with bread and food products, the Union Government established a clear stratification between the industrial and agricultural regions of the republic. It is proved that within the framework of the rationed supply system, some categories of the population had preferences. In particular, according to the resolution of the State Defense Committee of the USSR dated January 16, 1944, party, Soviet, Komsomol and economic workers were provided with a so-called letter nutrition. Its norms differed according to the positions occupied and were indicated by letters, not numbers, which named this type of additional supply. Nutrition according to the norm of letters “A” provided three meals, and according to the norm of letters “B” – two meals. Using the example of the Kirovohrad Obllit, the specifics of preferential, letter nutrition for representatives of the nomenclature, including employees of the Soviet censorship bodies, are highlighted.