"After NEP ended, the Soviet government introduced a multi-tiered price system with
varying degrees of price controls. In 1928-29, rationing of food and consumer good became
widespread throughout Russia. According to Alec Nove, this was “perhaps the first and only
recorded instance of the introduction of rationing in time of peace.”4
Goods were sold at the
official ration prices in state stores, which required ration coupons, but other types of stores had
other price levels, ranging from controlled to free. Workers were able to purchase some items
from special shops that were closed to the public, where prices were higher but the workers were
able to get items unavailable elsewhere. Food and manufactured goods were also sold to the
working class in other stores for prices that were above rationed levels, but below commercial
prices. Other stores, known as torgsin, had goods available only in exchange for precious metals
or foreign currency, which the state badly needed. Finally, prices freely were set by market
forces at peasant bazaars, kolkhoz (collective farm) markets, and black markets.
Unsurprisingly, prices rose much faster where they were influenced by market forces,
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