The Topic of Product Shortage in Letters from Soviet Citizens to the Pravda Newspaper in the First Half of the 1980s

Aim. The purpose of the presented article is to identify the name of the main groups of scarce goods, causes and consequences based on written appeals from Soviet citizens to the newspaper Pravda, to complain about the shortage of goods, to verify the accuracy of the information in the letters with the office documentation of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Methodology. The article examines a set of unpublished historical sources on the subject of research. In addition to general scientific methods, the article used comparative, historical-genetic and other methods. Results. The study identified the main groups of scarce goods, the causes of the shortage, and the efforts of party and government agencies and the public to combat the shortage and its consequences. Research implications. The results of this study contribute to study of the history of our country during the pre-perestroika years of the late Soviet period, when in the USSR was creating a breeding ground for the spread of the “consumer paradise” values that were alien to socialism.