In May the Soviet Red Cross Society contributed a one-off payment of 50 rubles per person to every refugee from the catastrophe. Later that month, the Soviet government provided a further lump sum of 200 rubles for every member of each family of displaced people. Fifteen cashiers distributed the millions of rubles this required, the cash brought in bags from the bank to a municipal office in Polesskoye each morning, under the eyes of militsia officers armed with machine guns. And still, throughout June and July, the people returned to the offices of their city-council-in-exile on Sovietskaya
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