There's a book by Soviet Ukrainian writers Ilf and Petrov, The Golden Calf. There's a part where random people traveling in a train are exchanging rumors where people got A MILLION. Worth reading, here (use translate). This article puts the chapter in a totally different perspective.

While we are at it, they also had a chance to travel the USA in 30s and write a book about their experiences. It's called One Storey America, or Little Golden America depending on translation. Read it in Internet archive, very interesting.