[1] In the context of corruption in the Soviet Union, blat was widespread because of the permanent shortage of consumer goods and services.
[2][3] Blat also took place at the enterprise-level in the form of tolkachs, employees whose explicit role was to exploit their networks to secure positive outcomes for their employers.
[6] While certain official privileges would be provided to citizens depending on status (as a party official, member of the intelligentsia, factory worker, or toiling peasant (Russian: трудящийся крестьянин)), access was by no means guaranteed even for the upper echelon, as "commodities like dachas and housing in a ministerial apartment block were in extremely short supply, and mere membership in the eligible group was not enough to secure the prize.
In the Soviet Union, the Gosplan was not able to calculate efficient or even feasible plans, so enterprises often had to rely on people with connections, who could then use blat to help fulfill quotas.
The term originally meant "one possessing the correct paperwork", which, in the corrupt officialdom of Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, indicated that the blatnoy was well connected.