Early in 1921 the Red government in the Crimea declared a "a week of poverty." Soldiers went to every home, and if anyone owned "too much" the extra was taken to be given to the poor in town. Some people were left with only the clothes on their backs. When the soldiers burst in the Rosenbaum home they took the family's one luxury, a few bars of soap. During that week the father of a girl in Ayn's class, a businessman, was arrested and shot. From the loot the soldiers had taken each school class was sent a single used dress or shirt. The girls were to draw lots to determine which one would receive the tattered dress. Ayn was horrified when her class received a dress that had belonged to the daughter of the murdered man. That poor girl just sat numbly at her desk as the dress was presented to the group. Only one of the girls wanted it...she declared she had a right to it, she was poor and ragged, so she took it.
