Bread rations in ’80s Romania

Ceausescu's last push to pay off the national debt lead to some of the most drastic austerity measures in times of peace. Food rations were an essential part of the plan. Coupled with electricity and heating shortages as well as with an iron fist in dealing with any sort of political dissent, the humiliations that Romanians had to go through were utterly complete. The violent outburst of December 1989 came down rather as a natural effect of this austerity. The photo depicts bread rations of a East-Transylvanian family of three in the last trimester of 1988. The ration per person was roughly 250 grams a day. The tickets were non-transmittable, "losing ...