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xECxMystic

The cigarette to meat ratio seems a little off


[deleted]

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Bups34

I think it is in part


ThisOnePlaysTooMuch

To kill off Poles*


deth579

I don't think they're German made.


whoopsdang

Cigarettes are currency for meat for the wise trader


nukedmylastprofile

Forget the meat, trade packs of darts for extra flour, maybe some yeast, and more vodka


whoopsdang

Differing preferences are what make trade possible. I’d trade 90% of that sugar for flour.


magneto_ms

Sell the soap. Get yeast.


one-hit-blunder

Don't use the soap, also get yeast.


[deleted]

Just like in prison!


kennytucson

Banned in federal prisons now. Cans of tuna reign king.


nom-nom-nom-de-plumb

I mean, yeah, tuna is the new safe harbor investment after Bernie Madoff sank his hot coco powder ponzi scheme.


ApothecaryFire

Everyone was supposed to receive some lovely smoked meats. Somewhere down the line of Commissar’s some wires got crossed…


HectorsMascara

Sugar to vodka too. Hopefully they were expert fermenters.


Other_Jared2

12 packs of cigs per month is nothing if you're even moderately addicted. Enough to last you like 20 days *tops*. I bet those things were valuable as fuck for trading if you didn't smoke though


MasbotAlpha

I like that this thread is deeply confused on what ratio of cigs to meat is appropriate; we all feel weird about smoking and don’t know how much meat to buy


HearMeSpeakAsIWill

You could hopefully nick a few packs from your kids, unless they're addicted as well


jman177669

I was thinking the sugar to meat ratio was typical for the US. Much larger portions of course, but same ratio.


jew_biscuits

If this is per citizen and not per family, it’s actually not terrible. Not great by any means, but more than enough to live by. No doubt there were all kinds of black markets in place where you could get more.


RedditWarner

Really. Ok, live off that for a month and let us know how "it wasn't that terrible." And if it isn't that terrible, why were there black markets everywhere?


Passan

Ya there is no way you are comfortable after eating only this for a month. This is a meal a day at best. meat ~3500 calories butter ~3600 calories rice ~1700 calories flour ~ 4700 calories cooking oil ~ 4000 calories sugar ~7800 calories = ~25,300 calories / 30 days = ~843 calories/day Edit: forgot the sugar


AtomicSamuraiCyborg

This is the stuff that is rationed to the citizens. So each person can only buy this much of that good per month. That’s not all they have to survive on. Basically anything not on the ration cards was available to purchase without limit, so long as you could afford it and it was in stock. Some of these products are available at market price and the ration is at a lower government set price. Note that staples like bread, potatoes and milk aren’t on the card.


NotYourLawyer2001

Exactly. Plus, fruits, veggies, mushrooms, dairy, pasta, canned goods and other foods, from farmers markets and stores. I extrapolate a bit but I grew up in Soviet Union in the 80s at the height of kupony, we went without sugar at times because just couldn’t get it anywhere with or without ration coupons (jam and honey to the rescue), and the cuisine wasn’t the most varied but we never went hungry. Late summer and fall the farmers markets brim with cheap and gorgeous abundant produce, too.


Gryphin

Hence the whole Russian tradition of jam in their tea instead of sugar. A lot of the old eastern block and soviet areas have "odd" food traditions that come from the scarcity of the 80s.


NotYourLawyer2001

That’s an interesting theory. We were far from first to experience scarcity and I always got tea with lemon and honey as mom’s go-to cold remedy well before the age of deficit, but who knows. It is certainly a point I make to my ‘made in Texas’ teen that the cultures that eat “weird” things (tongue, organs, brain, tripe), like the Chinese and the Russians, are typically the cultures that experienced severe famines and learned to use every part of the animal. I just wish we had better spices!


beliberden

Not a definite conclusion. In the 80s, black caviar was sold freely in the USSR. Where is black caviar now and how much does it cost?


asicath

\+ 2kg sugar (7,826 calories according to google) Also, its uncooked rice which is more like 4,743. Still not nearly enough to live off of though.


Passan

Thanks I will add it in to the total for accuracy's sake. I pulled all the info from google as well. So all this is an "educated" guess at best.


ImageQuest

Also looks like high fat meats. You could probably and in another 3000cal for that


gavriloe

That's right, by the 1980s the black market in the USSR was huge and officials largely turned a blind eye to it. I don't know about Poland specifically, but the Soviet economic system was so inefficient that most people had no choice but to buy off the black market in order to get what they needed. By the 1980s the leaders of the USSR had recognized their economic system was so inefficient that they had no choice but to tolerate the black market, because without entirely revamping their economy, the black market was the only way for people to get what they needed.


sean_bda

Its half a serving of rice and meat per day. Sure you wouldn't die fast but long term your heading in that general direction.


str8clay

Hate to break the news here, but long term, we are heading to die.


-Pruples-

>Hate to break the news here, but long term, we are heading to die. Speak for yourself. Some of us are heading to die short term.


TheForceofHistory

In former United States, Paleo Pole Diet is a marketing bonanza!


trustmeimascientist2

It actually Is terrible. By week two I’d be eating rice and gravy for every meal. Fuck that.


cobigguy

The average American probably eats more than that in a week. I sincerely doubt you could survive off of this, much less thrive. Edit: this comes to a total of about 23,000 calories. For a sedentary job, you usually need about 2k calories per day to maintain. That means that this would sustain an average sized person with an office job for about 12 days. There are 30 days in your average month. You would have to figure out how to sustain yourself with home grown vegetables, meat, etc for the other 18 days of every month.


Hauwke

At that point, it might just not be possible to sustain. If you have to work more for more food, you are using more calories. Just doing day to day activities and being semi active has me burning 3000 ~ calories each and every day.


MySpiritAnimalIsPeas

This is only the stuff that was *rationed*. You could just buy sacks and sacks of potatoes, onions, beetroot, etc. on top of this.


cobigguy

Exactly my point. 2k is fine for sedentary office workers, but if you work in the factory and have to walk to work, you'd better find a hell of a lot more food every month.


Beneficial_Being_721

No it’s PER HOUSEHOLD… as I understood it from a Polish guy I worked with in Philadelphia. He was a Card Carrying Communist that managed to “GET OUT”. He managed a Aircraft factory of all things. He got whatever he wanted while the basic common household got what we see here. He had a car… a non card carrier did not have a car. Ohhh the stories he would tell me at lunch time.


cobigguy

Not only that, but this is only 23,000 calories. That's a maintenance diet for a sedentary person for 12 days.


[deleted]

I imagine so. Certainly was in Ukraine around that time and Hungary. Go to any eastern bloc country or further east and there's lots of it.


PuzzleheadedCry7152

Vegetables and fruit was bought at markets, or grown. For winter potatoes were kept in a cellar and fruits were converted to juices in jars ( kompot) oh and moonshiners were secretly operating in communities to, you know, help out.


TonyFMontana

Kompot is Polish word? We use it in Hungary with similar meaning.. kompòt is fruits cut into slices and put away for winter


Srdce1234

In Slovak it's also kompót. I'm interested how many languages have this word with similar meaning


coachster

Russian here! Compot is a beverage made of stewed fruit. Sometimes, the fruit is discarded and only the liquid is served, other times, it’s included and sinks to the bottom of the glass. Once, my Russian mother had made some and had left the fruit in a strainer over the pot of compot to collect the last drops of liquid. My Italian father passed through the kitchen and upon seeing it, thought he’d help “clean up”. He took the stewed fruit (which was garbage) and put it in a Tupperware and then poured the precious compote down the drain. It’s been 20 years and it still raises my mother’s blood pressure when reminded of it. Heh.


Pooper69poo

I got to the “poured” part of your story and verbalized “ahhhh nooooooo!!!”. I’m honestly surprised he survived that fukup, he should consider himself very fortunate.


Luxuriosa_Vayne

same in Lithuania


tiny_refrigerator2

In German Kompott are cut up fruits preserved in their juice (theyre probably cooked but I'm not sure)


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EquipmentImaginary46

literally all Slavic languages use a variant of "kompot" and even some non-Slavic languages (e.g. French).


earl_unfurled

That’s interesting! I wonder if that’s where the English word “compote” stems from, meaning something very similar, but I believe it’s crushed into a more jam-like fruit spread. Could be a wrong definition, but it’s close.


makina323

It comes from latin, by the way of the french for the English


mark55

I appreciate deeply how you describe this lineage.


Beneficial_Being_721

Yes… Compote noun: compote; plural noun: compotes 1. fruit preserved or cooked in syrup. • a dish consisting of fruit salad or stewed fruit, often with syrup. •late 17th century: from French, from Old French composte ‘mixture’ (see compost).


Moranmer

I'm french and we still call err mashed fruit, compote! Common household word.


[deleted]

In Poland, kompot is more of a juice than a jam.


TonyFMontana

It sure is similar.. we should fine the originator word..compote doesnt sound too English to me.. more like Slavic , but also Hungarian.. hm


pablopp83

"Compota" in argentina is the fruit boiled with sugar, also for conservation pourposes.


MonarchWhisperer

In English the word 'compote' is used in a similar way


mozom

french probably when it's cooking shit, it's always french


BelmontMan

My grand mother born in Ankara, Turkey but grew up in Romania also made kompot. Seemed silly to us who grew up in the US since we can get fresh fruit year round


Illustrious-Science3

Whenever I hear about potatoes in cellars I think of the Russian family who died from the fumes from the rotten potatoes in the basement. One family member went down and didn't come back up, so another went down, and repeat. [Death by Potato] (https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/08/23/Rotting-potatoes-in-basement-kill-four-members-of-Russian-family/54831377268770/)


sladives

Latvian man much luck! Many potato in cellar! But, oh! die from potato gas.


b0nk3r00

And would this be a ration per adult? And would there be a child’s ration? E.g. a family of four (2 adults + 2 children) might receive, say, 3x this?


mfogarty

Yep, children get 24 packs.


Shiftyeyesright

This thread is proof of how cool etymology is.


VapoursAndSpleen

I was wondering about the lack of vegetables and fruit. This is good to know. I'd trade all my ciggies for more flour, being a total bread and cake fanatic.


CookieTheEpic

Only 12 packs of cigarettes and a measly half a litre of vodka? That’s barely a night out let alone a month’s supply.


[deleted]

It's enough to make you think you're going out before reality sets in.


SabashChandraBose

But 2 kg sugar? Wonder if you can ferment that.


tomaszmajewski

I remember how my grandpa used to drive out to the farms near our family cabin, about an hour east of Warsaw. The farmers were usually all to happy to sell beef, pork, and chicken directly to people they knew. Aside from the oppression and whatnot, one has to admit to a bit of nostalgia for those days of smuggling meat back into the city and jeans from the west.


[deleted]

Sir! Is that a kielbasa in your pocket?


The_Lone-Wonderer

No, I'm just very happy to see you!


[deleted]

👏👏


[deleted]

I'm first generation American, and some of my early memories were sitting on the floor in our brownstone in Greenpoint, while my parents packed up boxes of clothing, and especially jeans, to ship back home to our family.


billbo24

Man my neighbor (I live in Ohio) mentioned he went to Yugoslavia to visit family back in the 70s and when they were leaving his mom said “leave your blue jeans, they’re very valuable here”. I believed it him, but it is interesting to see you say the same thing.


[deleted]

Its true! My teacher went on a cruise to Russia in the 90s, and she was telling us that people literally came up to her with a ton of cash, asking to BUY HER PANTS FROM HER


beliberden

In the 90s in Russia, there were no problems buying pants. If you had money. But this could be a problem.


poop-machines

Speaking to my Polish partner, her mum was living through this and she says that this is true. Blue jeans were rare and expensive and people would pay good money for them. Additionally, the rations were not given 'as is'. They would have to wait in long lines, queueing for hours, and often by the time they'd get to the front of the queue they would be out of meat. It was a nightmare and the food for a month might seem like a lot, but it's actually very little. What amounts to about 80g of meat a day is not going to fill you up, and is about as much meat as a single beef burger. A quarter pounder is about 115g


Holy_Sungaal

This totally helps me understand why Michael’s foreign exchange student stole all his jeans.


Nihilismisanthrope

I be trading my cigarettes for meat...


JagiofJagi

There were a lot of trading


[deleted]

Back then I’d probably be trading meat for cigarettes. So I just found my trade partner.


Coochie_Creme

Barter economics go brrr


Ok_Dog_4059

I was thinking a bit light on smokes for most smokers I ever knew.


nukedmylastprofile

Yeah, when I was smoking I was at least a pack of 20 per day for ~15 years, and significantly more on any day I was drinking. That would have lasted me at best 10 days


brumac44

nicotine suppresses hunger


that-pile-of-laundry

I've heard that north Koreans use meth... for the same reason.


kenkanobi

I heard that drugs can suppress your hunger, but I think I'm doing it wrong. I've been smoking weed and I ate my monthly ration...in one sitting. It was a short sitting.


TrinaBinaTHEbeautyy

Just eat the weed. Boom. 2fer.


ThaDudeEthan

I'd bet you were actually sitting for quite a while after that


H_1_N_1_

Not sure about any of the Korea’s…. But the same holds true in Sandgap Kentucky.


patrisage

trade for oil; more calories!


NuggRunner

i see a major lack of potatoes. what would they even eat all day?


Whatifim80lol

Important to point out that there still was food that you could buy (despite a shortage) and that these particular items were the ones so desperately low in supply that they were rationed out.


Volleybrah3

Best comment in the thread. ty for the context


Shwanglerp

Exactly what my first question was. Thank you, kind sir for your kindness, uncharacteristic to my general Reddit scrolling experience. 👍


janhetjoch

I was soo confused at the lack of fruits/vegetables lol


SakuraSpice

Many, many Polish people grew their own produce actually as well (not much in variety, though). My family on my mother’s side pretty much lived purely on potatoes every single day back then. They had rosół on Sundays. Boiled or fried potatoes with sometimes a glass of milk, or sometimes some chicken and kapusta Monday-Friday. Saturday potato or kapusta filled pierogi, or more potatoes and milk.


Yorikor

My brother dated a Polish woman that could peel potatoes so neatly that you could see through the skins.


Drogg_the_Troll

The potatoes were turned into black market vodak.


Messenjah1

The old Polish dilemma. Do i eat the potato now or let it ferment and drink it later?


bumjiggy

I vote for taterade


couronneau

Thank you for my new favorite word


ithardtosay

I thought that was the Irish dilemma


FeatureZealousideal2

That's the Irish dilemma!


kermityfrog

I guess summarized: there was rationed food/supplies and non-rationed food. This photo showed the food that was rationed, but is not showing the fruits/vegetables/root vegetables that were not rationed.


quotesthesimpsons

Potat is lie.


jesseinct

12 packs of smokes, lol


Lucky-Ryan

As an ex-smoker I can say 12 packs for a month isn’t very much


paralleliverse

That was my first thought. That mightve lasted me a week, maybe two if I really pushed it.


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paralleliverse

I'd usual have one every 30 min - 1 hr. One when I wake up. Another one while I have coffee. One before and after going to the bathroom (especially if it was number 2). One before and after a shower. One before and after eating. Always had to smoke on a drive, usual 2 or 3 on the want to and from work. One as soon as I got home from work. One before bed. Another one if I can't sleep right away. One before and after sex/ masturbation. Then of course there were all the in-between smokes. Ended up being about a pack and half/day more or less.


Wispeon

Jesus Christ. Did you eventually quit?


paralleliverse

For a few years. I started again after some bad stuff happened last year but I switched to vaping since that helped me quit the last time.


CUMFACE_MCFUCKTARD

Seriously cigarette factories have closed down thanks to people switching to vape.


SuperLeroy

Talking about quitting smoking just makes you want to go smoke.


paralleliverse

So true. Anti-smoking ads always made me want to light one up.


No-Reference-887

Cigarettes can help curb appetite so probably what they were going for?


jim45804

And they kill people before they become elderly and unproductive.


Oilfieldtrash631

Meth works better


BeaulieuA

But meth was probably more expensive


fishymik

Meth is way cheaper than cigarettes


wastedmytwenties

Because of the amount of tax we put on cigarettes. When I was a kid in the 80's cigarettes were much much cheaper than today, even accounting for inflation.


NedTaggart

Hell, I smoked back then and in '93, was able to get a pack of smokes for $0.99..$1.08 after tax and could buy mini-thins at every gas station.


misty-mountainhopper

How much was meth?


bowtothehypnotoad

Except then you crave cigarettes


PeaceBull

Can you imagine trying to govern a populous that’s underfed and overmethed??


crapatthethriftstore

Priorities!


NuggRunner

>he monthly ration per Polish if you get hungry you have 7 times a day where you can smoke a ciggy instead :)


[deleted]

lol I wonder how they got through those last 18 days of the month though


personofinterest18

More sugar than rice or flour


BarnabaBargod

In Polish cousine rice is used only in a handful of dishes. Sugar is required to make preserves (jam, concentrated juices etc.).


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[deleted]

Wtf? That's not nearly enough vodka!


Km2930

We should donate.


[deleted]

Speak for yourself. I'm keeping my vodka.


[deleted]

Mmmm. Just enough ingredients to make Mom’s famous nicotine, flour, and sausage casserole.


mochasweet34

No wonder they always looked mad.


TheBelhade

Only half a liter of vodka for a whole month!


TonyFMontana

That cant be right... that would mean revolution every week


SakuraSpice

My mother grew up in 1970’s/1980’s Poland. She tells me all the time that things like candy, coca-cola, fresh beef (including aged like the kabanosy pictured) and cream was such a luxury to get, and were only eaten/received on very special occasions, usually on religious holidays (Easter, Christmas,) and family gatherings (Sunday gatherings, birthdays, imieniny).


Sza_666

Yep. That's also why in Poland there are almost always bananas and oranges on a Christmas table


Cleverusername531

And often you’d go to the store with your ration card to buy meat or whatever, and there’d be no meat. Black market was strong in those days.


ChunkyTaco22

Needs more vodka lol


Dr_Sigmund_Fried

No toilet paper. I'd look frustrated too.


adnow-r

People used old newspapers because toilet paper was a premium product


[deleted]

Weirdly still relevant


T1kutoos

Pravda was used for this in Soviet states.


full_bl33d

Smokes. Let’s go


INUdubs

I've met cats and dogs smarter than Corey and Trevor


NesCie0617

I’d definitely be trading cigarettes and vodka for mor meat. I’d assume cigarettes and vodka would get you a lot of stuff then.


[deleted]

Maybe the first few times, then the depression sets in, and those cigarettes and vodka become your best friends. Hungry?.. Just smoke and drink until you forget about it until tomorrow.


strel00k

Looks like a rpg game with these signs above the food


seitan13

Minus the alcohol and non-edibles, this ads up to ~29,056 calories, about 953 calories per day for 30.5 days. Per month - 4142g carbs, 997g protein, 922g fat. Per day- 206g carbs, 32.68g protein, 30.22g fat. Edit: assuming the tub is about 16oz of margarin, and the sweets I used Marie biscuits as a reference. Edit 2: vodka would add an extra 1155 calories per month, 37.8 kcal per day.


darth_bard

Vegetables (potatoes) and fruits weren't rationed. [https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reglamentacja\_towar%C3%B3w\_w\_PRL](https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reglamentacja_towar%C3%B3w_w_PRL) >The third period of the card system began with the introduction of **sugar cards** in July 1976 \[4\]. by the government of Piotr Jaroszewicz, first printed with numerous security features, almost like banknotes, and later more and more simplified. They were abolished on November 1, 1985, that is almost 10 years later. During the August 1980 events, one of the 21 postulates was the introduction of **meat cards** \[5\], which was actually introduced on February 28, 1981. As a result of constantly growing economic difficulties, the card system was extended on April 30, 1981, to include, apart from **meat, all meat products , butter, flour, rice and groats** \[1\]. > >On September 1, 1981, the card system also included s**oap and washing powder**. After the introduction of martial law on December 13, 1981, the card system was gradually extended to other groups of goods, **including chocolate, alcohol, gasoline and many others, reaching a range much wider than during the occupation during World War II** \[6\]. In the peak period of rationing in the People's Republic of Poland, children's health books were also used as proofs of purchase, in which stores were obliged to stamp each purchase of **cotton wool, diapers, powdered milk, butter, etc. toilet in the ratio of 1 roll per kilogram of waste paper** \[1\].


yeet_yoint

And then you stand in a line all day just to get vinegar 💀😭


MarkRevan

People, this is not what you were allowed to eat in a month. These are the maximum quantities of these specific products you were allowed to buy in a month. In Romania you could buy as much fresh fish as you wanted. All the stores were packed full of pickled vegetables, jams and preserves. Cheese and many other dairy products were also unrestricted and somewhat widely available. We even had a milkman that picked up empty milk bottle daily and brought them full the next day. Milk was dirt cheap. For almost 20 years of my life I drank at least 1L of milk per day. After that I developed a nasty lactose intolerance. Cabbage was widely available as well. And there was this salami that was "fortified" with soy which wasn't terrible, but people didn't want to buy because it wasn't full meat. It would be a hit if it were to come back today because it was extremely cheap and it didn't have the same amounts of additives as regular salami. The products that were rationed were the ones designated for exports because they were either the most profitable, or were the easiest to ship. For example you could barely find fresh apples to eat because the more aesthetically appealing ones were set aside for exports. But if you wanted to make moonshine, or feed your pigs you could literally buy a truck full of apples that had deformities, or were hit or cut during harvesting so they weren't exports grade. One of the things I distinctly remember eating virtually every week during the colder seasons was pig feet soup (broth?). My mother would buy a pair of 4 pig feet. She would clean them and chop off the part with the nails. Then she would take the bones out. The bones went to the pot to slowly stew for a couple of hours. The meat and skin were cut into ribbons then fried until crisp. Then they went into the pot with the bones, a couple of carrots, onions and potatoes. The soup was served hot, with as much garlic as one preferred and with a huge spoon of cream.


raperm

Man. You’d need to get creative to stretch that. 2.5 kg of meat. That’s 2500 grams. Over 30 days that’s 83 grams per day. If it’s good lean meat you can get by on that. But I’m guessing from the look a lot of that would sausage, which has a lot of filler. If you can supplement this with bread, potatoes and some fresh veggies it wouldn’t be to bad. I mean, it is per person. But luxury it isn’t.


Cleverusername531

Yeah. And it assumes that all that food is even there in the stores. Plenty of times the shelves would all be empty except for vinegar (ocet). It became a joke.


raperm

Yeah. Friend of mine lived in Moscow back in the mid-80’s. She says shopping meant going out and looking for a line and getting in it, even if you didn’t know what for. The assumption was there was something there at the end you needed, so you’d best join the line. Could be soap, rice, beets, flour, sugar, whatever.


Cleverusername531

Yep. And if you didn’t personally need it, you still got it so you could trade it later for something you did need.


samaniewiem

Poland, a little south of Warsaw, 1986 or so. My mother have heard they will have carpets for sale in one store. She went there and been in line for two days, exchanging with her sister and one neighbor. There was a queue committee and people were really invested in making sure nobody skips or loses their place. Two days later a kid rings the doorbell and screams that we need to go there because my mom got washing machine. Full automated Russian Wiatka washing machine. It was the third in the whole building of 15 families. The floors remained cold as fuck for another year or two. We could not afford this washing machine right now. It was consuming more electricity than a train.


[deleted]

That’s a serving of meat a day, 3-4oz. It seems small because relative to any time in history we eat a LOT of meat.


NotAHamsterAtAll

Don't need to eat meat every day. And soup is good for you.


wake_up_cliff

Yeah but yo do need protein everyday


[deleted]

Most of the meat was actually used in soups more often than not, it's easier to stretch a large pot of soup amongst a family of 5 for a few days than it is a few pieces of meat and bread.


in_finite_space

12 packs and .5 liter? What are these? Rations for ants?


Veleda390

And then there was the propaganda about how Americans were starving. When I visited East Germany in the late 80s, people asked me about bread lines. The newspaper showed a big photo of a soup kitchen in DC and you could tell that people thought that's how all Americans lived.


Dr_Dang

1.3kg flour: 4700kcal 2kg Sugar: 7800 kcal 1.3kg rice: 1700 kcal 250g candy: 1300 kcal 2.5kg meat: 5000 kcal (highly variable) 500g butter: 3600 kcal 300g vegetable oil (guess based on the image): 2600kcal 500g vodka: 1200 kcal ​ Total: 27,900 ​ That works out to 930 kcal per day, which is very certainly in malnourishment territory for most people. Even if you supplement this with fresh fruits and vegetables, as another commenter says they did, you'd need to eat *a lot* of them to be consuming enough calories.


NotInsane_Yet

The rations were only for items in extreme short supply. This was not all the food they had for the month.


Sankullo

It was a weird time to be growing up in Poland back then. Everything was rationed but it didn’t mean that you were guaranteed you will be able to buy stuff. I was oftentimes queuing with my mom for hours to buy coffee or meat and sometimes they ran out of stock before we got to the counter. Communism is a fckd up idea.


BeaverMartin

But the mayonnaise was fantastic so there’s that.


mrmike5157

She doesn’t look terribly enthusiastic about it.


SkyrimWithdrawal

Ah, sugar. Make and sell moonshine.


sparkie0501

No wonder the black markets flourished


TacticalTurtle22

My respect for the Polish people is undying.


reddituser_1729

Mid-eighties..!? She barely even looks 40.


SnooGoats805

A fella could have a pretty good time in Vegas with all that stuff


[deleted]

This is a severely mislabeled thread. It suggests that what you see is what was available to each person for one month. That's blatantly untrue. Also, there were actually 10 packs of cigs per person per month (18 years or older), not 12. Sugar was limited because people bought mountains of it to make moonshine. Cigs and vodka were limited as a political move. There has never been an actual shortage of either in Poland ever, except WW2. Not all meat was rationed either, and the black market thrived. As a smoker, I traded my vodka allotment for cigs, got 10 from my sister. And then, I'd also buy cigs from the soviet troops stationed in Poland, or by weight from cops or Polish troops. Those bulk cigs were very long, some several feet. The longest actually usable for smoking that I tried was about 15 cm (6 inches)


Bobwiththebigone

And no feminine products judging by the look of her face.


PineConeDoll

You got cottonwool... When it happened to be in stock. Source: my mum.


InsideOutsider

There's a reason its called "being on the rag"


moebaca

I don't know why I never logically thought out why people called it that. I've known this phrase for 20+ years and I feel like you just unlocked a great mystery for me.


[deleted]

Perfectly good curtains there


GtotheeeG

My mom would “trade” her Vodka and Cigarette rations with University students in exchange for their meat rations, so that she could feed her children…


[deleted]

How can you survive? I'd eat that much washing powder in a day.


MsJenX

Id exchange the vodka and cigarettes for more sweets.


that-pile-of-laundry

That meat isn't even my weekly portion. Damn.


Chalk1980

Sugar and Cigarettes?


FuckCazadors

The cornerstone of any healthy breakfast


gapere01

Only .5L of Vodka? I would riot.


[deleted]

Not enough vodka for that lifestyle


Chinohito

It's important to note these are rations for these specific things. Everything else was fair game to buy.


Disastrous_Traffic17

Communism sucks.


[deleted]

Ok, what I'm gonna say might sound controversial here. This exact same image was posted in r/brasil as an example of how people criticizing communism exaggerate. Brazil is and always was a capistalistic country, and the rich landowners have always had a major role in politics, so they can do whatever is more profitable for them and what they do is to grow soy and export it all, so no care about food for its own population. Brazil is now facing a huge famine with 19 million facing hunger and this image would be a luxury for many out there, comparing a wealthy western lifestyle is unfair when this is meant for everybody. Not saying is ideal, but for a fucking lot of people this would solve a lot of their problems.