If you ever lived in the actual USSR, you must also remember how poor average people were, how hard was it to find and buy anything decent, or simply anything. Including food. Want a piece of meat? Spend two hours in a line. Want a piece of Bologna sausage, or butter? Here's your food stamp for a minimum monthly ration.

USSR just did not have enough resources to properly feed everyone using planned economy. It had to admit the very smallest pieces of market economy (sell apples from your orchard, don't go to jail) to keep people somehow fed.