Comment by wishfish

Read a memoir by a KGB agent who arrested a man in Moscow who was passing info to the CIA. Had been doing so for years. The CIA had the typical western attitude towards money so they kept giving him stacks of rubles. Thinking they were being generous. The man (a professor, I think) had nothing to spend it on so he stacked cash up in a closet. Had around 1 million stored when he was caught. He probably would have been better off just burning it as the money was used as evidence in his trial.

Had a chance to ask a Russian / Soviet historian how one could spend a million rubles in the late 70s, early 80s. He just shrugged and laughed about it. Almost no way to spend that much. Nothing cost very much and there wasn't much of it.