Food Ration Norms

Categories / Army. Navy/Blokade
FOOD RATION NORMS fixed on 18 July 1941, at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, together with the introduction of ration cards. Sale norms were standardised for bread, grains, pasta, meat and meat products, fish, oil, sugar and sweets. The population was divided into four categories: physical labourers, engineers and technicians; office workers; dependants; and children under 12, inclusive. The people in the first category were granted the highest food ration norms, those in the fourth, were granted the lowest. From the beginning of the Siege of 1941-44, food ration norms were constantly reduced; on 20 November 1941, the minimum norms were established, which were insufficient for normal activity. During the Famine of 1941-42, only bread cards were provided to everyone; cards for other food were not supplied at all in December of 1941, and only partially during the next months. After a regular supply of food was established along the Road of Life, and some of the population was evacuated, food rations were raised, with norms slowly increasing; after the Breaking of the Siege on 22 February 1943, they became equal to Moscow norms.

Reference: Ленинград в осаде: Сб. док. о героич. обороне Ленинграда в годы Великой Отеч. войны, 1941-1945. СПб., 1995.

A. Y. Chistyakov. Ленинград в осаде: Сб. док. о героич. обороне Ленинграда в годы Великой Отеч. войны, 1941-1945. СПб., 1995. Ration Cards
Siege of 1941-44
Road of Life