1990. And Then We Promised to Eat Potato Peelings
June 1987 – Gorbachev presents his theses on the guiding lines of perestroika, but the reforms throw the economy of the USSR into chaos.
7 January 1990 – Gorbachev transfers the bank savings of the populations of the Baltic States to Moscow – the Estonian people are thus permanently robbed of 2 billion rubles.
19 April 1990 – Gorbachev imposes an economic blockade on Lithuania and freezes Lithuania’s accounts in the Moscow banks.
At the time when the states of the former Eastern Bloc began to build democracy, in the USSR, including the Baltic republics, more earthly concerns carried the day. Most people recall the so-called time of transition, the period of regaining freedom, first of all as an economic catastrophe.
The reason for the chaos was the collapse of the unitary economic system of the USSR. To this one should add Moscow’s economic sanctions against the Baltic States: after Vilnius declared independence on 11 March 1990, Moscow imposed an economic blockade against Lithuania, which was lifted after a few months. Fearing similar treatment Estonia started to save up on energy (fuel, gas).
But these developments only magnified the general deficit of goods, which had been chronic throughout the history of the USSR. The economic situation was extreme, which is illustrated by the fact that people even promised to eat potato peelings – a small sacrifice, they thought if regaining freedom was at stake. Fortunately, conditions never got that bad for Estonian households.
In order to handle the deficit, in 1990 the government of Edgar Savisaar established a rationing system. This meant that for buying a product in a shop one had to produce not just a bank note – the rouble – but also a special coupon. The coupon was actually a simple piece of paper cut out from a printed A4 sheet. These coupons were distributed to households according to the number of family members.
This was done for the simple reason that there were not enough goods. Not only did cloth, footwear, meat and sausages disappear from the shelves but even bread and milk were sometimes hard to get. An anecdote caught the situation well: An old lady asks for ham, Krakow sausage and Doctor’s sausage. The seller in the shop replies: “Not available! But my goodness, what a memory!” Because of the shortages, the goods had to be rationed carefully, so that no one would have to starve, but - alas! – In order to receive your ration you had to stand in the queues for hours, despite the coupons. Particularly bad was the situation during major holidays like Christmas, when the line could run several hundred meters from the door step of the shop.
- Estonian SSR
- Latvian SSR
- Lithuanian SSR
- Russian SSR
- Byelorussian SSR
- Ukrainian SSR
- People´s Republic of Poland
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- People's Republic of Hungary
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