At the time, a new car—for anyone lucky enough to find one—cost 5,000 rubles. The ispolkom received hundreds of applications for compensation every day throughout the summer, and by the end of the year, the claims for the domestic property lost by the residents of Pripyat to the ravages of the peaceful atom—and excluding cars, garages, dachas, and motorboats—had reached a total of 130 million rubles. That autumn, the furniture stores of Kiev experienced a prolonged boom in trade, as evacuees attempted to rebuild their lives, beginning with a hollow quest to replace almost every major
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