Problem of shortage of consumer goods in the city of Kuibyshev during the period of perestroika

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of shortage of consumer goods during the period of perestroika. This historical aspect is one of the key aspects in the study of the daily life of Soviet society. The purpose of the study was to determine the causes of the deficit, to analyze methods to overcome it. The article also examines various phenomena of deficit manifestation: queues, coupons, and the black market. To develop these goals, various approaches and methods were used: historical-systemic, historical-genetic, comparative-historical and historical-dynamic, quantitative and others. Analysis of archival historical sources, workers complaints, reports of government and party organizations, materials of historical interviews. As a result, it was found that the deficit had a huge impact on the socio-political climate in the USSR. Its manifestations became an integral part of everyday life, and every year the situation with the supply of goods became worse. Similar questions were raised by historians earlier, they were studied on materials from other regions of the Middle Volga region, however, a comprehensive analysis of the supply situation was not made on materials from the Kuibyshev region. It was also possible to establish the nature of the influence of problems with the supply of consumer goods on everyday life, public opinion, the psychological state of people, to trace the dynamics of their attitude to this problem. The significance of the findings will complement the materials on the problem of the transition of the USSR and Russia to a market economy, as well as on the social processes that took place at the end of the XX century

Keywords

• ussr
• middle volga region
• kuibyshev
• everyday life
• perestroika
• deficit
• normalized distribution
• socio-economic history
• oral history