"Kolchak's Gold" is a large part of the gold reserves of the Russian Empire, which mysteriously disappeared in the snowy expanses of Siberia in the winter of 1920. Several years ago, at a meeting of the State Duma, R. F. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a draft of a very interesting resolution was announced. In it, in particular, it was recommended that the President of Russia hold negotiations with the governments of Great Britain, the USA and Japan on the return of Russia's gold reserves, exported to these states by order of Admiral Kolchak in the 1920s. Here you will learn all the way through Siberia of the "golden echelon", where and by whom the gold was squandered, and what contributed to the plundering of the gold reserves of the Russian Empire. Find out who was at the origins of the defeat of the Russo-Japanese War, the First World War and the 1917 Revolution.
According to V. Zhirinovsky, “documentary sources in the archives of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation indicate that in the Hong Kong-Shanghai Bank, Mitsubishi Bank, as well as in other Japanese, American, French and British banks, at present, a significant part of Russia's gold reserves, exported from the country in the 1920s, is kept.
Vladimir Volfovich's proposals have a strange property. At first, they are chuckled at indulgently. Only a few years pass, and they come true! Few remember that it was Vladimir Volfovich who proposed to divide Russia into nine federal districts or elect parliament using only party lists (and at that time it seemed strange to many). Who knows, maybe the proposal to find and return Kolchak's gold in a few years will also move from the category of an amusing parliamentary chronicle to the real agenda of Russian foreign policy. In any case, there are good reasons for this.
Preserved an approximate list of "Kolchak's gold", a list that can thrill the heart of any treasure hunter: according to some data, about 500 tons, according to others - 40,000 poods of gold (about 650 tons), 30,000 poods of silver (480 tons) in bars and coins, precious church utensils, historical values, jewels of the royal family - 154 items, including the priceless necklace of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna and the sword of the heir Alexei studded with diamonds. Finally, the orders of the Siberian Provisional Government - "Liberation of Siberia" and "Revival of Russia", issued in considerable numbers, but hitherto known only in descriptions. Interestingly, the cost of gold and silver alone, according to the very minimum estimates, is $ 13.3 billion.
Not only Kolchak's gold was lost, all of Russia was plundered, everything that had been stored and preserved for centuries, everything went to the West. Churches possessing shrines, priceless works of art, clothed in gold, trimmed with precious stones, have been plundered and plundered under the guise of fighting religion. When the powerful source of Russia's wealth began to dry up, famine was provoked and people were forced to give everything that was valuable to them for a piece of bread. All this chaos was ruled by the Anglo-Saxons, they financed both the Reds and the Whites, and pitted them against each other. Everything Russian, everything traditional and Orthodox, was destroyed and prohibited, history, religion, art, science were prohibited. From the descriptions of these horrors from Eltony Sutton, we can learn that three ships with Russian gold left Reval in the Baltic Sea,destined for the USA. The steamer "Gautode" was carrying 216 boxes of gold, another 216 boxes were on the steamer "Karl Line", on the steamer "Rukhilev", 108 boxes were loaded. Each box contained three poods of gold, worth 60 thousand gold rubles per pood. After that, another shipment of gold was sent on the steamer Wheeling Mold. As you can see, they played the card of Russia and its plundering very easily, but you will not find the main thing - how it all began, the liberals and their hedgehogs very carefully hide the origins of the revolution, they probably hope for a repetition of this scenario, but Lenin and Trotsky have already come on the prepared soil. Therefore, in order to understand the essence of what is happening and where the “Kolchak's gold” came from, which was squandered, let's start with the origins of this mysterious story.on the "Rukhilev" steamer, 108 boxes were loaded. Each box contained three poods of gold, worth 60 thousand gold rubles per pood. After that, another shipment of gold was sent on the steamer Wheeling Mold. As you can see, they played the card of Russia and its plundering very easily, but you will not find the main thing - how it all began, the liberals and their hedgehogs very carefully hide the origins of the revolution, they probably hope for a repetition of this scenario, but Lenin and Trotsky have already come on the prepared soil. Therefore, in order to understand the essence of what is happening and where the “Kolchak's gold” came from, which was squandered, let's start with the origins of this mysterious story.on the "Rukhilev" steamer, 108 boxes were loaded. Each box contained three poods of gold, worth 60 thousand gold rubles per pood. After that, another shipment of gold was sent on the steamer Wheeling Mold. As you can see, they played the card of Russia and its plundering very easily, but you will not find the main thing - how it all began, the liberals and their hedgehogs very carefully hide the origins of the revolution, they probably hope to repeat this scenario, but Lenin and Trotsky have already arrived on the prepared soil. Therefore, in order to understand the essence of what is happening and where the “Kolchak's gold” came from, which was squandered, let's start with the origins of this mysterious story. As you can see, they played the card of Russia and its plundering very easily, but you will not find the main thing - how it all began, the liberals and their hedgehogs very carefully hide the origins of the revolution, they probably hope to repeat this scenario, but Lenin and Trotsky have already arrived on the prepared soil. Therefore, in order to understand the essence of what is happening and where the “Kolchak's gold” came from, which was squandered, let's start with the origins of this mysterious story. As you can see, they played the card of Russia and its plundering very easily, but you will not find the main thing - how it all began, the liberals and their hedgehogs very carefully hide the origins of the revolution, they probably hope to repeat this scenario, but Lenin and Trotsky have already arrived on the prepared soil. Therefore, in order to understand the essence of what is happening and where the “Kolchak's gold” came from, which was squandered, let's start with the origins of this mysterious story.let's start with the origins of this mysterious story.let's start with the origins of this mysterious story.
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As we already know, after the accomplishment of the revolution, the aggressive plans of the United States were aimed at conquering the vast and rich territories of Siberia and the Far East. But they considered these Russian lands as a land route from America to Europe long before the war of 1914 and sought the construction of a "cosmopolitan railway" - the Trans-Siberian Railway through Siberia, the Far East and China, which they could take into their own hands and not only that … In order to pursue his policy and interests in Russia, Siberia and the Far East, for these far-reaching goals in 1889, Count Sergei Yuryevich Witte became director of the railway department of the Ministry of Finance, from August 1892 to 1903 - minister of finance, from August 1903 - Chairman of the Committee of Ministers. In 1905 he headed the Russian delegation,signed the Portsmouth Peace Treaty of Russia with Japan. From October 1905 to April 1906 - head of the Council of Ministers. Member of the Council of State and Chairman of the Finance Committee until 1915. It is worth first describing the dark deeds of this "businessman", which led to the tragedy of the Russian state and millions of unnecessary victims.
Witte's efforts to weaken Russia's military power played a role in the Russo-Japanese War, where Port Arthur was surrendered by traitors, in the 1905 revolution. By this reformer, in preparation for the upcoming events, an "honorable" peace treaty was concluded with Japan, where the Kuril Islands and half of Sakhalin Island went to Japan.
Thanks to Witte's “efforts,” alcohol excise tax began to represent the largest source of budget revenue and was 2.5 times more than all direct taxes combined. The entire fuel industry of Russia S. Yu. Witte sold it to foreign companies for almost nothing. And not only fuel, but also the entire mining and other industries. He gave all the mineral deposits to be plundered by foreign companies. For example, most of the oil and kerosene production in Russia was controlled by the firms of Rothschild and Nobel, and Russian warships and the largest industrial enterprises in Russia began to operate on English coal.
All this was facilitated by his monetary reform in 1897, which brought the ruble to a gold equivalent, after which Russian money began to be highly quoted in the world financial market, and put it financially on a par with the leading powers of the world. The monetary reform was completed in 1899. Russian government loans were placed mainly in France (up to 80%), there was demand for government-guaranteed bonds in Germany and Belgium, and a little later appeared in England. In France, a powerful advertising company was deployed and the French, acquiring "papers" of Russia, sold businesses, houses, land, where in the end they were left with nothing. Witte actually went for deception and forgery,the decision to introduce the “golden ruble” was taken bypassing the State Council and was formalized as “technical amendments” to the Coin Charter of the Russian Empire. Russia did not even notice how it ended up in the "golden stranglehold".
Alexander Dmitrievich Nechvolodov (03.25.1864 - 12.5.1938), a Russian military man, a participant in the Russo-Japanese and World War I, historian, author of treatises on economics, conducted a deep economic analysis of these "benevolent" deeds of Witte. The general analyzed the statistics of the financial and economic state of Russia for 1882-1906. and came to the conclusion that the debt and interest payments on gold loans began to resemble reparations and indemnities. All this Nechvolodov called an open sale of Russia and high treason. Nechvolodov noted that “Russia over the 20-year period 1882-1901. paid abroad about 5740 million rubles … that is, we pay foreigners every 6.5 years a tribute equal to the amount of indemnity paid by France to its winner Germany … Without war, without costs, without human sacrifice, foreigners more and more defeat usevery 5-6 years inflicting a financial defeat on us, equal to the defeat of France”. (It looks like they liked it, and they played the same scenario here, in the dashing 90s)
The general emphasizes that the situation in Russia was aggravated by the fact that (in contrast to the countries of Western Europe) the emphasis was placed not on internal borrowings, but on external ones. As a result, “we owe more than half of our colossal gold debts abroad. England, France and Germany have all their public debts as prisoners at home."
In terms of figures, Nechvolodov shows that neither Russia nor other countries involved in the "golden club" will have enough of all the world's gold reserves to pay off the loans received from the usurious kagal. Therefore, one should not be surprised that at the beginning of the XX century. only one Russia on public debts was owed more than half of all gold money located on the globe.
Today our liberals sing odes to the "genius economist", Count Witte. All textbooks, manuals, articles are filled with admiration for the "great" merits of this count. This is how the fifth column works.
Here are the main strategies of the reforms being carried out by S. Yu. Witte, if translated from the economic into the popular language of understanding:
- Drunken Russia - the main reform strategy
- Hungry people are a weak army
- Foreign investment - the ruin of the treasury
- The people are unmercenary who made the bankers rich
- Paper candy wrappers of the West in exchange for the gold guarantees of Russia
- Modernization according to Witte: corruption, money laundering, interests of Western capital, war …
Naturally, all these actions by Witte to collapse the Russian state freed the hands of foreign intervention in 1914.
Under the influence of the West, Witte's economic policy, willingly or unwillingly, was aimed at overthrowing the monarchy and drawing Russia into the war. The logical result of such an anti-social policy was the revolution, which was supposed to overthrow the tsar and put the leaders of the country in favor of the West. The breeding ground for such a development of events was the unthinkable division of people in Russia into the super-rich and the poor and the emergence of a huge number of state corrupt officials who had capital in Western banks. There was no such thing before Witte. Russian industrialists have always invested money in their country, giving the state the opportunity to manage this money for the good of the Fatherland.
On the 80th birthday of Grobachev, Dmitry Medvedev, then the president of Russia, presented him with a book by Count Witte. What did Medvedev want to say with this gift? It is probably better to show Witte's friends and assistants in order to understand the meaning of the gift, it was from his activities that the Russian Empire collapsed.
Witte's main assistant in his financial affairs was Adolf Rothstein - a special confidant of the Rothschilds, it was he who played the main economic role in Witte's laurels. Rothstein - specialist in Russian securities of the Paris office of the Rothschilds, was specially sent
from Vienna to Witte's aid.
Count Witte's cousin was H. P. Blavatsky, the founder of theosophical doctrine and had a touch of the highest secrets of Russian Freemasonry. Witte was associated with the uncle of Leiba Bronstein ("Trotsky") - the banker Abram Zhivotovsky, who was firmly connected with the world oligarchy through the Odessa banking house "Rafalovich and Co", was a companion of A. I. Putilov (grandson of the head of the Society of Putilov Factories, who became a cover for Rutenberg's militants in 1905). From 1890 he was an assistant to the legal adviser of the Ministry of Finance, from 1900 the director of the office and secretary S. Yu. Witte. Zhivotinsky, like Putilov, was a shareholder in the Russian-Asian Bank, the former Russian-Chinese Bank, managed by Y. Rothstein.
For example, a bank letterhead.
Zhivotovsky's business representative in the United States was Solomon Rosenblum ("Sydney Reilly"), a spy working for MI6 through an English resident in the United States, William Weisman. Together with him in the same office works Alexander Weinstein, who organized gatherings of Russian revolutionaries in New York. His brother, Grigory Weinstein, was the owner of the New World newspaper - Trotsky becomes its editor in the USA, Bukharin, Kollontai, M. Uritsky, M. Volodarsky-Goldstein, and G. I. Chudnovsky also work there. The same building houses the bank office of Veniamin Mikhailovich Sverdlov, (the younger brother of Yakov Sverdlov, the same one who was Yeshua-Solomon Movshevich before his baptism), a close friend of Rosenblum-Reilly … and so on. Now you understand who the finance minister, Count Witte S. Yu. really was. - Count Polusakhalinsky.
And in order to understand all our state rulers, for whom they worked, as the above-mentioned graph, we can give an example of the preservation and accumulation of the country's gold reserve over the years of their reign:
In 1913, under Nicholas II, Russia had a gold reserve of 1,400 tons and was ranked second after the United States.
In 1917. gold reserves = 0, but it is not a pity to pour 1100 tons of golden blood into the veins of the revolution.
In 1920. the situation is improving a little, but if you look at gold mining: in 1914. it was 62t. per year, and in 1920. - 2.5t. in year.
1940. - the maximum reserve in the history of our state, and 1953, the year of Stalin's death. If Stalin had lived longer, we would have witnessed a further increase in the gold reserve, and do not forget that there was an annual decline in prices - this is nonsense for the capitalist world.
A sharp increase in the supply of gold abroad: 1973; 1976; 1978; 1981
During the Gorbachev era, everything that remained of Stalin's reserves was sold to the West.
1989 gold reserves = 784t. 1991 gold reserves = 290 tons, and in 1992 = 0, no comment.
With the arrival of V. V. Putin, we see a continuous increase in the gold reserve. And since 2012. Russia falls into the top seven countries with gold reserves, and since 2015 - 5th place. The conclusion that follows from the above is that the bins of the Motherland were significantly replenished with yellow metal under Nicholas II, Stalin and Putin.
At the beginning of World War I, Russia's gold reserves were the largest in the world and amounted to 1 billion 695 million rubles (1,311 tons of gold, more than $ 60 billion at the exchange rate of the 2000s). During the war, significant amounts of gold were sent to England as a guarantee for war loans. In 1914, 75 million rubles in gold (8 million pounds) were sent through Arkhangelsk to London. In 1915-1916. 375 million rubles in gold (40 million pounds) was sent by rail to Vladivostok, and then transported by Japanese warships to Canada (part of the British Empire) and placed in the vaults of the Bank of England in Ottawa. In February 1917, another 187 million rubles in gold (20 million pounds) were sent by the same route through Vladivostok. These amounts of gold became a guarantee of British loans to Russia for the purchase of military equipment in the amount of 300 and 150 million pounds, respectively. In total, by the time the banks were seized by the Bolsheviks, taking into account the gold mined during the war, the gold reserve of Russia amounted to 1101 million rubles.
With the outbreak of the First World War, the question arose about the safety of the state gold reserve of the Russian Empire, located in Petrograd. In connection with the threat of the capture of the city by German troops, at the beginning of 1915, the evacuation of state treasures was planned. The valuables were taken from Petrograd by train to Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod. After the February Revolution, gold was also transported there from other cities: Voronezh, Tambov (in May 1918, gold that was stored in the Tambov branch of the State Bank arrived in Kazan), Samara (in June 1918), Kursk, Mogilev and Penza. As a result, more than half of the gold reserves of the Russian Empire were concentrated in Kazan. After October 1917, gold went to the Bolsheviks who seized power in the country.
The Volga region, which seemed to be deep in the rear, soon found itself in the epicenter of the Civil War. The Bolsheviks, fearing the seizure of gold by the troops of the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch), tried to take out the gold, but they managed to send only 100 boxes of gold from Kazan, worth 6 million rubles. In early August, Kazan was captured by the Czechoslovak formations and units of the Komuch People's Army under the command of Lieutenant Colonel V. O. Kappel, later one of the most famous commanders of the White forces. After various adventures, the gold was delivered to the Omsk branch of the State Bank on October 13, 1918. A little over a month later (November 18, 1918), Admiral Kolchak was proclaimed the Supreme Ruler of Russia, and the gold reserve of the Russian Empire came to the disposal of the government of Admiral Kolchak, where the name "Kolchak" was stuck.
On August 5, 1918, a fierce battle was fought on the outskirts of Kazan. Powerful artillery cannonade blocked the endless crackle of rifle shots and the terrifying groans of the wounded thrown into the field. In the city itself, residents were hiding in basements and, unless absolutely necessary, did not go out into the street, fearing to fall under a shell or accidentally catch a foolish bullet. Listening to the threatening gunfire, the Kazan citizens wondered whether the Reds would hold the city or hand it over to the Czechs who had come from nowhere. The Reds had a clear superiority in strength, but anarchy reigned in many parts. The willfulness of the revolutionary period, when it was decided at the regimental meetings to go on the attack or not, was still making itself felt. Iron People's Commissar Trotsky was just beginning to introduce severe discipline into the young army, and his heavy hand had not yet reached the Volga shores. The enemy felt much more cheerful. The Czechs had nothing to lose. Quite recently, a small Czechoslovak corps captured almost the entire Transsib in one blow. The sudden success inspired them. Volunteer detachments of the young Colonel Kappel advanced alongside the Czechs. The volunteers consisted entirely of officers - they did not have enough weapons, their uniforms were dilapidated, but the discipline was excellent and they fought valiantly.
When there was no one left, the messenger unexpectedly familiarly clung to the colonel's ear and began to whisper something hastily to him. While he was talking, Kappel was rubbing his temples with his hands to hide the growing excitement from outsiders. When the messenger finished, the colonel slowly lowered himself to the ground and exhaled noisily, trying to calm himself. The news stunned him. The messenger reported: gold of the dead Empire was found in the vaults of the Kazan bank …
It is interesting that to this day there is no absolutely complete clarity in the question of how exactly the royal gold (more precisely, its significant part) ended up in Kazan. In 1914-1915, the Russian army retreated from the western regions of the Empire, and the gold (until then dispersed in different cities) was hastily removed from the storage facilities of Warsaw, Kiev, Riga and taken away from the fire-breathing front - to Moscow, Petrograd, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan. However, during these years, only a small part of the gold reserve was concentrated in Kazan. It was significantly replenished only after a few years.
Some argue that it was Nicholas II who ordered to transport the Petrograd and Moscow gold to the Volga not long before his abdication. Supposedly, this was done in case of a breakthrough of the front from Germany. This version is hard to believe, because after the retreats of 1914-1915, the front held on tightly and no fears arose about the capture of Petrograd or Moscow. On the contrary, after the famous Brusilov breakthrough in 1916, the General Headquarters perked up. They hoped to reinforce the defeat of the Austrians on the southwestern front with the defeat of the German forces - the decisive offensive was being prepared for 1917. If we assume that the tsar was not afraid of the Germans, but of revolutionary actions, then sending gold to Kazan is even more absurd. In the event of a revolution, the gold reserve must be transported abroad, and not inland, from where it would be very, very difficult to get it afterwards. In addition, no one expected revolutionary actions: neither the emperor, nor his dignitaries, nor even revolutionaries-emigrants. (Historians are well aware that exactly on the eve of the February revolution, Lenin hoped more for an imminent uprising in Switzerland, and not at all in a distant homeland. I must say, not only Lenin thought so, but very many revolutionaries). Therefore, most likely, the traditional version is correct: the gold reserves, still remaining in both capitals, were transported to the Volga by order of the red government.most likely, the traditional version is correct: the gold reserves still remaining in both capitals were transported to the Volga by order of the red government.most likely, the traditional version is correct: the gold reserves still remaining in both capitals were transported to the Volga by order of the red government.
Colonel Kappel acted decisively when he received news of the most amazing discovery. Several soldiers who discovered gold were forbidden to talk about it under pain of death. The most reliable and loyal officers were put on guard. An urgent preparation for the evacuation of gold from Kazan began immediately - at any moment the Reds could recapture the city back. Trotsky, who arrived on the Volga, quickly restored order and morale in the units - yesterday the tired and gloomy Bolshevik armies cheered up, stopped the Czechs and whites, and after city after city they began to return the Volga region. However, Kappel turned out to be not only a dashing commander, but also an administrative administrator. The evacuation of gold went well: first it was transported to Samara (where the so-called Komuch - the Committee of the Constituent Assembly met), and then to Siberia.
It is interesting that untold riches traveled throughout the devastated, rebellious country in complete safety. It is difficult to say what would have happened if in Kazan, in the place of Colonel Kappel, there were some ataman Kudeyar, of whom there were many divorced in Russia at that time. Perhaps the gold would have been plundered right in Kazan. Kappel was a man of a different temperament. He had neither doubts nor temptation to take for himself even a small part of the gold, and he could not have. The colonel with good reason could repeat the words of the retired customs officer Vereshchagin: “I don’t take bribes, I am offended for the state”. So he lived his short but bright life. It is interesting that the worst enemies of the civil times (ideological white volunteers and ideological Bolsheviks) were somewhat similar to each other. Each in his own way, they sincerely loved Russia and without any hesitation gave their lives for her. Serving the idea, both for those and for others, stood immensely above wealth, honors, and sometimes even above life. Selflessness and self-sacrifice distinguished sincere white officers, Bolsheviks and volunteers from the dark mass of other civilian leaders - countless "chieftains", speculators, bagmen, raiders, sadistic villains who committed atrocities in the rear, in the Red Chechens and white counterintelligence services. The best people of Russia went into battle from both the white and the red sides. They were the first to attack and the first to take the bullet. In a fierce battle, the most worthy and courageous were the first to die. Cowards and villains hiding behind their backs usually survived. Bolsheviks and volunteers from the dark mass of other leaders of the civil times - countless "chieftains", speculators, bagmen, raiders, sadistic villains who committed atrocities in the rear, in the Red Chechens and white counterintelligence services. The best people of Russia went into battle from both the white and the red sides. They were the first to attack and the first to take the bullet. In a fierce battle, the most worthy and courageous were the first to die. Cowards and villains hiding behind their backs usually survived. Bolsheviks and volunteers from the dark mass of other leaders of the civil times - countless "chieftains", speculators, bagmen, raiders, sadistic villains who committed atrocities in the rear, in the Red Chechens and white counterintelligence services. The best people of Russia went into battle from both the white and the red sides. They were the first to attack and the first to take the bullet. In a fierce battle, the most worthy and courageous were the first to die. Cowards and villains hiding behind their backs usually survived.those hiding behind their backs, as a rule, survived.those hiding behind their backs, as a rule, survived.
Fun fact. The reckless bravery of the Kappelites found a symbolic reflection even in Soviet cinema. In the classic film "Chapaev", the Kappelevites were portrayed in the famous scene of the so-called "psychic attack", when an officer's regiment, standing up to its full height, desperately goes directly to the machine guns. Both Chapaev and Kappel both died in civilian life …
By the will of fate, Colonel Kappel became one of the key figures in the history of gold - it was he who recaptured it from the Reds, but did not allow it to be plundered and pilfered into his pockets, but was able to transport it intact to Siberia. We will allow ourselves to be distracted a little and will finish the story of the colonel's tragic life.
Vladimir Oskarovich Kappel became one of the most talented commanders of the Kolchak army. He was awarded the rank of general and thrown into the most difficult sectors of the front. More than once or twice, he emerged victorious from the most hopeless situations. But individual successful operations could not change anything in the general fate of the Kolchak movement.
In early 1920, Kolchak's short-lived Siberian state sank into oblivion. The Supreme Ruler himself found himself in Irkutsk hostage to the Czechs and the local revolutionary committee. In those days, Kappel stood alone among the general meanness and betrayal. And the Czechs, and the allies, and the Siberian Cossacks - all left the admiral. Prudence prompted him to enter into negotiations with the enemy and save his life. But the rebellious spirit of a descendant of Russian nobles and Swedish knights resisted the dictates of cold reason. And the age-old memory, breaking through the centuries, did not leave Kappel a choice. He knew - there are things more valuable than life and could not leave the captured admiral. In the "icy Siberian campaign" Kappel did not drive anyone by force. Only those for whom honor was higher than life went with him. With a handful of volunteers, he rushed to Irkutsk, in a desperate and insane attempt to save the admiral. They walked along the frozen Yenisei,into the intolerable frost, under the piercing icy wind - torn, hungry and exhausted from wounds. We walked without hope. And there was no choice - to win or die. They went to die. God didn't give them luck. On the Kan River, Kappel fell into an icy wormwood. He developed gangrene, and his legs were amputated right in the field. But while at least a spark of life glimmered in him, Kappel rode on a horse in front of his small, desperate squad. The enemy could not be defeated - the forces were too unequal. Dying, Kappel raved about a new breakthrough all the time. He could no longer get up, but something like military commands still flew from his parched lips; on January 25, the commander died. Such officers are worthy of admiration and eternal memory. And there was no choice - to win or die. They went to die. God didn't give them luck. On the Kan River, Kappel fell into an icy wormwood. He developed gangrene, and his legs were amputated right in the field. But while at least a spark of life glimmered in him, Kappel rode on a horse in front of his small, desperate squad. The enemy could not be defeated - the forces were too unequal. Dying, Kappel raved about a new breakthrough all the time. He could no longer get up, but something like military commands still flew from his parched lips; on January 25, the commander died. Such officers are worthy of admiration and eternal memory. And there was no choice - to win or die. They went to die. God didn't give them luck. On the Kan River, Kappel fell into an icy wormwood. He developed gangrene, and his legs were amputated right in the field. But while at least a spark of life glimmered in him, Kappel rode on a horse in front of his small, desperate squad. The enemy could not be defeated - the forces were too unequal. Dying, Kappel raved about a new breakthrough all the time. He could no longer get up, but something like military commands still flew from his parched lips; on January 25, the commander died. Such officers are worthy of admiration and eternal memory. Kappel rode a horse in front of his small, desperate squad. The enemy could not be defeated - the forces were too unequal. Dying, Kappel raved about a new breakthrough all the time. He could no longer get up, but something like military commands still flew from his parched lips; on January 25, the commander died. Such officers are worthy of admiration and eternal memory. Kappel rode a horse in front of his small, desperate squad. The enemy could not be defeated - the forces were too unequal. Dying, Kappel raved about a new breakthrough all the time. He could no longer get up, but something like military commands still flew from his parched lips; on January 25, the commander died. Such officers are worthy of admiration and eternal memory.
White Guard. Kappelevites. Georgy Zharov.
The bandolier is empty, nothing
gangrene footprints in the snow, again in full growth, with bayonets
through the devil's blizzard.
Left Omsk, Irkutsk, frost is the worst enemy
and warm up on the run
like a pack of stray dogs.
Once together, then to the end, dead eyes of empty eye sockets, there is no crown of thorns, snow is falling, faces are not visible.
The last battle with fate
wounded Siberia, And there is peace ahead, Harbin …
and the Donskoy monastery.
After Kappel's death, the military council decided to start a retreat. On a clear winter morning in a snow-covered field, beyond the village of Berkhneozerskaya, a thin dark line appeared on the horizon. Through the uninhabited expanse of the Siberian wilderness, frostbitten and wounded, the Kappelites began to retreat to Transbaikalia. The wild wind drove them mercilessly across the icy desert - farther and farther from native Russia. There was neither despair nor hope in their souls; only bitterness and emptiness. They left defeated and cursed by fate. This was their last trip - they went into the past, carrying the dead body of their commander in their arms.
When, as a result of a military coup in Omsk, the next "government" was overthrown and Kolchak-Polyarny took power into its own hands, then on November 18, 1918, the Siberian freemen came to an end. And many then saw in Kolchak the future dictator and liberator of Russia.
Kolchak was a brave polar explorer, a talented admiral and a completely worthless politician and economist. Actually, he never prepared himself for a political and economic role. For the tsarist naval officer, politics was the lot of venerable old dignitaries (conservatives), talkers, professors (Duma liberals) or gentlemen bombers (revolutionaries). Kolchak always considered the first to be stupid, flatterers and embezzlers, the second - windbag, and the third - just crazy. In imperial Russia, the military traditionally looked down on civilians, and politics among officers was considered the lot of troublemakers and idlers. The fateful seventeenth year turned his whole world upside down. The future frightened the admiral. The nature of the military thirsted for firm order and certainty. And the revolution gave birth to chaos every day and every hour,and the tomorrow of Russia was presented in a perfect fog.
Kolchak went abroad from the confused country, hoping to find an application for his talent across the sea. Details in the post: “White pages of the history of Siberia (part-21). White Terror.
But in 1918, he again finds himself in his homeland, or rather in Harbin, on the farthest eastern outskirts of the collapsed Empire. From here, from Harbin, the admiral begins his journey, which in just two years will lead him to the ice hole on the Angara River. A variety of political groups pay attention to Kolchak: former officers, Siberian industrialists, and, most importantly, allies from the Entente. Thanks to the "allies", in a few months Kolchak goes from a semi-homeless retired sailor to the dictator of All-Siberian. Together with the power from the previous Omsk government, Kolchak received a truly royal gift - the gold of the Empire, captured by Kappel in Kazan.
Strange, but true. Kolchak ordered an audit of the gold reserve that fell into his hands only six months later, in May 1919. I must say that by this time the gold reserve was somewhat depleted - the admiral's government famously spent money on military purchases and coaxing the allies. Nevertheless, the lion's share of gold has survived.
After the audit, the money and values were divided into three parts. Now be careful. The first part includes 722 boxes of gold bars and coins. They were transported to the deep Kolchak rear - to Chita. The second part - the treasures of the royal family, precious church utensils, historical and artistic relics - were kept in the city of Tobolsk (among other things, there was a silver gilded shrine from under the relics of John of Tobolsk weighing 35 pounds). The head of the Tobolsk garrison, staff captain N. G. Kiselev. Finally, the third part - the largest - remained under Admiral Kolchak. This was the famous "golden train" with a colossal cost of over 650 million gold rubles.
What did the admiral spend the tsar's gold on? First of all, Kolchak began arming the new Siberian army. He did not want to stay in Omsk and build an "independent" Siberian state. Khan Kuchum's laurels did not seduce the admiral - he certainly wanted to start a campaign against Moscow and liberate Russia from the Bolshevik yoke. Everyone who could profit from Kolchak's military purchases. The admiral himself was certainly an impeccably honest man. He could not take even one official kopeck for himself - such a shameful act was impossible for a Russian officer who valued his honor above all else. But the Supreme Ruler of Russia turned out to be a worthless administrator. In numerous committees and departments of his government, in staffs swollen to the point of impossibility, an incredible number of bribe-takers, embezzlers and outright adventurers bred. Counterintelligence, which was called upon to burn out sedition with a hot iron, has itself turned into a classic criminal roof - under its arches provocation, speculation, opium trade and elementary theft flourished.
Western advisers, representatives and contractors did not miss their own. As a result, for everything that Kolchak received from the allies, he paid exorbitant prices. The Entente's voluntary aid to the white armies is a fairy tale. In any case, regarding the Siberian army of Kolchak. For each delivered cartridge, for each rifle, for each overcoat - everything was paid for with Russian gold. And not just paid, but overpaid many times over. In general, the armament and supply of Kolchak's army turned into an excellent commercial operation for the Entente.
During his reign, Kolchak paid England and France more than 242 million gold rubles for the provided weapons. At the then prevailing prices, this was an exorbitant price.
Kolchak-Polar, an excellent naval commander on land, alas, turned out to be completely bankrupt. The offensive in the East, which began in early 1919, had already collapsed by mid-summer. The Siberian peasants mobilized into Kolchak's army by force refused to fight and deserted. Because of the complete control over Kolchak by the Anglo-Saxons, the "White Terror" was unleashed, where the White Guards began to rob and kill civilians. Gangs and marauders raged throughout Siberia. There was no order anywhere - neither at the front, nor in the rear, nor in Omsk itself. Kolchak was clearly not suitable for the role of dictator, but with his connivance, his subordinates perpetrated terror against the civilian population. This fact does not honor him, and soon the admiral flees from his Siberian capital - Omsk, Tomsk, Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk) … Farther and farther to the east. And with him is the mysterious "golden train".
The Reds are constantly on their heels. And, as always happens on a sinking ship, the rats leave it. Kolchak is suddenly and cunningly betrayed by his former allies - the Czechoslovak corps. The Czechs see that they cannot get out of the Siberian trap alive. Red armies are pressing from the west. Ahead in the east are the red partisans. And the Czechoslovak commanders decide to save themselves at the cost of Kolchak's head and Russian gold. But this is according to the official version, in fact, the Czechs were part of the troops of the Anglo-American coalition and subordinated to the American General Grevs personally. Kolchak himself was sent from America and became the Supreme Ruler of Siberia precisely on American bayonets and money. Therefore, Kolchak himself did not dispose of his own fate, he was a puppet in the hands of the Anglo-Saxons, and as in the end he decided to be independent and not give gold,he was soon arrested and extradited to the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee, where after without trial and investigation he was shot as unnecessary.
On March 1, 1920, in the village of Kaitul, the white Czechs sign an agreement. They undertake to issue to the representative of the Revolutionary Committee of Irkutsk a golden train - 18 cars containing 5143 boxes and 1578 bags of gold and other valuables (311 tons), with a nominal value of 408 million gold rubles. The Czechs hope that by giving out the gold, they will receive the right to a quiet journey to the East along the Trans-Siberian Railway.
So, it seemed that the story that began in the Kazan basements is over - the gold is returning to Soviet Russia. But the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee did not know and could not know the real accounting department of the gold reserve. And therefore I did not understand - did the Czechs return everything or only part of the gold?
Let's count. 722 boxes of gold coins and bars were sent to Chita in mid-1919. Treasures of the royal family, precious utensils, historical and artistic values - to Tobolsk. Finally, the third part, the largest, turns into a "golden train" - Kolchak. As of the end of the summer of 1919, it contains money and valuables for about 650-660 million gold rubles (taking into account Kolchak's spending on the purchase of weapons, the admiral made most of these expenses in the first half of 1919). But on March 1, 1920, the White Czechs gave the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee only 408 million gold rubles! It turns out that during the panicky retreat of Kolchak from Omsk, 240-250 million were lost on the way somewhere. And this is about 200 tons of gold !!! In addition, the fate of the Chita reserve and the Tobolsk treasures remained unclear. This is where that part of the history of Kolchak gold ends,which is more or less reliable. Next, we enter the swampy soil of myths, versions and vague assumptions. Well, let's try to figure them out.
When did gold mining start in Russia? He wrote about the large reserves of gold in the Riphean (Ural) mountains back in the 5th century BC. ancient Greek historian Herodotus. However, for a long time, the development of these riches remained an unattainable goal for the Russian rulers. The Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III, Tsar Ivan the Terrible, and the first Romanovs were looking for gold for a long time and unsuccessfully. But it was only under Peter I that they learned about the innumerable gold jewelry found in Siberia, and the common people got it out of the mounds in tons. This, the so-called gold of the Scythians, of course, the lion's share of it was simply melted down, and Peter I stopped this barbaric activity. Today, we can see some of these treasures in the Hermitage under the guise of the Siberian collection of Peter I. Therefore, it was only under Peter the Great that gold was actually mined.but up to the 19th century, the total volume of this production remained insignificant. For example, in just one century only 23 tons of the precious metal were produced.
Everything changed with the discovery of first the Ural deposits and then the richest Siberian deposits. By the middle of the 19th century, gold production in Russia had grown 100 times. More than 25 tons were produced in one year. By the end of the century, the center of gold mining finally shifted to Siberia - more than 70% of gold mining enterprises were concentrated there. By the beginning of World War I, about 50 tons of gold were mined annually in Russia (about 12% of world production). In total, from 1719 to 1917 in Russia, 2,900 tons of precious metal were received from state and private enterprises in the State Treasury.
With the outbreak of hostilities 498 tons of gold were exported to England, where the Entente countries formed a reserve to finance military purchases. 58 tons were immediately sold on the exchange. The remaining amounts were to serve as collateral against government war loans. Nevertheless, in 1915, 1312 tons of gold remained in the vaults of the Russian State Bank!
Some interesting moments of the movement of Kolchak's gold have reached us, when it was possible to find small parts of it in different regions of our country. For example, Bogdanov's intriguing story began in that same 1920. Vyacheslav Bogdanov served as an officer in the Kolchak army. He and Lieutenant Drankevich, together with a group of soldiers, amid the general confusion and retreat, managed to steal about 200 kg of gold from the admiral's train. Bogdanov and Drankevich understood perfectly well that it was now impossible to leave the cordon with gold. Anyone could beat him off - the Reds, the Czechs, and the narrow-eyed Cossacks of the great ataman Semyonov. And even if they managed to escape from Transbaikalia, local gangs of hunghuz could attack in Manchuria, and in Primorye gold would most likely migrate to the valiant yellow-faced warriors of His Majesty Mikado. Without thinking twiceBogdanov and Drankevich hid the bulk of the gold in one of the abandoned churches on the southeastern shore of Lake Baikal. It was decided to take with me only a few ingots, which could easily be hidden. Having buried the gold, Bogdanov and Drankevich shot all the soldiers who helped them. A little later, Bogdanov shot and Drankevich, and then fled to China. Already from China, he moved to the United States. For some time he waited for the fall of the Bolsheviks and the opportunity to calmly return to Russia and discover the cherished treasures. But the years passed, and the Bolsheviks, it seems, were not going to give God their soul. A little later, Bogdanov shot and Drankevich, and then fled to China. Already from China, he moved to the United States. For some time he waited for the fall of the Bolsheviks and the opportunity to calmly return to Russia and discover the cherished treasures. But the years passed, and the Bolsheviks, it seems, were not going to give God their soul. A little later, Bogdanov shot and Drankevich, and then fled to China. Already from China, he moved to the United States. For some time he waited for the fall of the Bolsheviks and the opportunity to calmly return to Russia and discover the cherished treasures. But the years passed, and the Bolsheviks, it seems, were not going to give God their soul.
Only after the war, in the late 50s, when the Soviet regime gradually began to "thaw out" and foreigners began to be treated a little less suspiciously, Bogdanov decided to sneak into the USSR under the guise of a tourist. The whole difficulty consisted in the fact that in the Soviet Union, foreigners moved through a strictly limited territory (mainly Moscow, Leningrad and some resorts of the Crimea and the Caucasus). Bogdanov had to go to various tricks to get to Siberia. In fact, his success was explained quite simply - the KGB from the very beginning took him under suspicion and decided to give some leeway in order to follow him - what he would do, with whom he would meet. In the KGB, the treasure digger was mistaken for a full-time American spy. It was a mistake - Bogdanov acted at his own peril and risk; and therefore from the very beginning his expedition was doomed to failure. But the mistake of the KGB ultimately turned into a victory - some of the old Russian gold returned to the state. Unfortunately, this was only a small part of the admiral's train supplies. However, Bogdanov was not the only one looking for the missing gold.
On July 5, 1941, a certain Karl Purrok, a citizen of the Estonian SSR, was taken into custody in Moscow. A rather strange charge was brought against him - under article 169 of part 2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR "for abuse of confidence and deception of the authorities." And less than a year later, on July 2, 1942, a special meeting at the NKVD of the USSR ordered: "Purrok Karl Martynovich should be imprisoned in a forced labor camp for 5 years for fraud." On September 10 of the same 1942, Purrok died in the Volga NKVD camp, so a sad end was put in a long story that began in August 1919.
That month Karl Purrok, a 26-year-old immigrant from Estonia, was drafted into the Kolchak army from the village of Seryozha, Barnaul district. The Estonian was literate and he was immediately appointed a regimental clerk in the 21st reserve Siberian regiment. Purrok had only a few months to serve, but it was they who played a fatal role in his fate. The 21st reserve infantry regiment was retreating to Irkutsk along with the golden train. The reserves were lucky - they escaped the nightmare of the Siberian ice campaign. However, in October 1919, at the Taiga station, one of the regiment's companies received an order to accompany a particularly important wagon train. The wagon train was very impressive - it consisted of more than a hundred carts. Karl noticed a rather strange thing - when some boxes were hastily loaded onto carts from the cars, quite a lot of bosses who had come from nowhere were spinning around. Later,During the investigation in the NKVD in 1941, Purrok claimed: the train contained 26 boxes of gold in bars and coins in denominations of 5 and 10 rubles, unloaded from the train and other valuables. According to him, to prevent the enemy from getting the goods, the soldiers dug several holes, where, by order of the regiment commander, Colonel Shvagin, they buried leather, greatcoats, saddles, horseshoes, revolvers of the revolver system and those same 26 boxes with despicable metal. Only four buried the treasure in the taiga - the colonel himself, two privates and an Estonian clerk. But the "golden team" was not lucky - leaving the place of the cache, they stumbled upon partisans. Two soldiers were killed. And the next day Shvagin and Purrok were captured by the Red Army. The Estonian thought that the colonel, sentenced to death, would tell the Reds about gold and thus try to save his life. But Shvagin said nothing. Marveling at the colonel's courage, Purrok also considered it a blessing to remain silent, especially since neither he nor Shvagin were particularly questioned about anything; and he, a forcibly mobilized private (in contrast to the gold digger-colonel), was not threatened with execution. Instead, Karl Purrok, forcibly mobilized into the White Army, was immediately forcibly mobilized into the Red Army, assigned to the 18th Reserve Infantry Regiment. The Estonian remained a Red Army soldier for only two months: in December 19 he was released home. During the service, he wisely kept his mouth shut and said nothing to anyone. Forcibly mobilized into the White Army, they were immediately forcibly mobilized into the Red Army, assigning them to the 18th Reserve Infantry Regiment. The Estonian remained a Red Army soldier for only two months: in December 19 he was released home. During the service, he wisely kept his mouth shut and said nothing to anyone. Forcibly mobilized into the White Army, they were immediately forcibly mobilized into the Red Army, assigning them to the 18th Reserve Infantry Regiment. The Estonian remained a Red Army soldier for only two months: in December 19 he was released home. During the service, he wisely kept his mouth shut and said nothing to anyone.
No gold was found at Taiga station. But locals still love to tell tales about a boy who allegedly saw a wagon train with gold in 1919; about the map compiled by the Kolchak clerk, and many other stories that so well fuel the enthusiasm of treasure hunters. Who knows, maybe 26 boxes of gold are still buried in the ground near the Taiga station to this day?
In general, the Soviet special services quite actively searched not only for Purrok's treasure, but also for all the missing Kolchak gold. Initially, it was believed that the gold went to Japan. However, as more and more evidence from different parts of Siberia appeared about the treasures (similar to the tone described by the Estonian Purrok), they decided to discard the "Japanese trace". The following version was recognized as the most plausible: while the “golden echelon” was moving to Irkutsk, part of the valuables was removed from it, divided into several parties and hidden (in other words, buried in the permafrost of Siberia). As it turned out, there were living witnesses on the territory of the country who could be involved in the case. And Scribe Purrok was far from the only one.
In the early 1930s, the Tobolsk Chekists learned that part of Kolchak's gold was stored not in the "golden train", but in Tomsk. When the Siberian Front began to collapse, they tried to evacuate the valuables from Tobolsk on steamers. The traces of steamers were lost near the village of Tundrino. There, apparently, and should have looked for most of their precious cargo. However, something could and "scatter" around the district, as in the case of the "golden echelon". Interrogations, searches and excavations began. As a result, happiness smiled at the Chekists - they found part of the jewels of the Romanov dynasty.
Here is the text of a special note of the OGPU plenipotentiary representative for the Urals Reshetov to the OGPU deputy chairman Genrikh Yagoda, “On the seizure of royal values in the city of Tobolsk,” stored in the Central Organizing Office of the FSB of Russia: “As a result of a long search on November 20, 1933 in the city of Tobolsk, the values of the royal family were seized. These values during the stay of the royal family in the city of Tobolsk were transferred for safekeeping by the valet Chemodurov, abbess of the Tobolsk Ivanovo monastery Druzhinina. The latter, shortly before her death, handed them over to her assistant, the Dean Martha Uzentseva, who hid valuables in a well, in a monastery cemetery, in graves and in a number of other places. In 1924-25, Uzentseva was going to throw valuables into the Irtysh River, but was dissuaded from this by the former Tobolsk fisherman V. M. Kornilov, to whom she handed over the values for temporary storage. October 15, p. The town of Uzentseva confessed that she kept the valuables of the royal family and indicated their location (the valuables in two glass jars inserted into wooden tubs were buried underground in Kornilov's apartment). The confiscated values include: 1) a 100-carat diamond brooch; 2) three head studs with diamonds of 44 and 36 carats; 3) a crescent with diamonds up to 70 carats (according to some sources, this crescent was presented to the king by the Turkish sultan); 4) the diadem of the royal daughters and the queen, and others. In total, valuables were seized - 154 items, according to preliminary estimates, by our experts, in the amount of three million two hundred seventy thousand six hundred ninety-three gold rubles (3 270 693 rubles). "were buried underground in Kornilov's apartment). The confiscated values include: 1) a 100-carat diamond brooch; 2) three head studs with diamonds of 44 and 36 carats; 3) a crescent with diamonds up to 70 carats (according to some sources, this crescent was presented to the king by the Turkish sultan); 4) the diadem of the royal daughters and the queen, and others. In total, valuables were seized - 154 items, according to preliminary estimates, by our experts, in the amount of three million two hundred seventy thousand six hundred ninety-three gold rubles (3 270 693 rubles). "were buried underground in Kornilov's apartment). The confiscated values include: 1) a 100-carat diamond brooch; 2) three head studs with diamonds of 44 and 36 carats; 3) a crescent with diamonds up to 70 carats (according to some sources, this crescent was presented to the king by the Turkish sultan); 4) the diadem of the royal daughters and the queen, and others. In total, valuables were seized - 154 items, according to preliminary estimates, by our experts, in the amount of three million two hundred seventy thousand six hundred ninety-three gold rubles (3 270 693 rubles). "In total, valuables were seized - 154 items, according to preliminary estimates, by our experts, in the amount of three million two hundred seventy thousand six hundred ninety-three gold rubles (3 270 693 rubles). "In total, valuables were seized - 154 items, according to preliminary estimates, by our experts, in the amount of three million two hundred seventy thousand six hundred ninety-three gold rubles (3 270 693 rubles)."
But there is another way of looking at what is happening. Vladimir Karelin, Ph. D. in History, lecturer at the Murmansk Institute of Economics, while digging through Norwegian archives, came across a secret correspondence between a diplomat of the early 20th century, Konstantin Gulkevich, with his former secretary, Vladimir Vasiliev. It was about gold, which was exported in huge quantities from Russia abroad. Comparing the facts, the scientist came to an unexpected conclusion: yes, these are the same treasures that were captured by Kolchak's army! And which then disappeared without a trace.
… August 1918. Colonel Kappel's troops and Czechoslovak legionnaires are swiftly driving the Reds out of Kazan. Almost the entire gold reserve of Russia, which was evacuated from Petrograd back in 1915, falls into Kolchak's hands. After his arrest, the Czechs return the remaining reserves to the Bolsheviks - 314 tons of coins and ingots. Where did another 186 tons dissolve?
… The gold seized in Kazan was first partially transferred to the accounts of the Kolchak government in Western banks, and then gradually withdrawn, - says Vladimir Karelin. - Part of the funds was in gold imperials or ingots with the hallmark of the Russian State Bank. It was exported through Vladivostok abroad, including to Sweden and Norway. After the defeat of the White movement, there was no longer an official opportunity to dispose of these funds. Therefore, the gold was melted down and with broken brands flowed to America. If you correctly understand this situation, then, as soon as gold was under the control of the Anglo-Saxons, they decided to merge the white movement, and war, terror, anarchy and their other acts are controlled chaos, where you can decently enrich yourself.
Here is a diagram of the movement of Kolchak's gold along Karelin:
In total, Admiral Kolchak had at his disposal 645 million 410 thousand rubles of gold, which is almost 500 tons, mainly in coins and ingots, as well as a small number of gold stripes and circles. The gold reserve, along with the Russian one, included coins from 14 states. Most of all were German marks, in equivalent - 11,202,552 rubles, then Spanish gigolo (coins in denominations of 25 pesetas, containing 7.2585 g of pure gold - 8,272,741 rubles) and English sovereigns - 5,024,116 rubles.). The most exotic - against the background of American dollars, French and Belgian francs, Japanese yen, Greek drachmas, etc. looked like 36 thousand Chilean condors in the amount of 2 781 459 rubles. 59 kopecks For reference: the gold content of the ruble, according to the Coin Charter of 1899, was 0.77423 grams of pure gold.10 gold rubles were equal to one pound sterling, two gold rubles - one US dollar.
January 15, 1920, at 9 hours 55 minutes. evenings at the Innokentyevskaya station near Irkutsk, the former "Supreme Ruler of Russia" Admiral A. V. Kolchak was handed over by the allies to the delegates of the Irkutsk Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik Political Center. Together with the admiral, the Political Center also held "Kolchak's gold". Soon both the admiral and the gold were at the disposal of the Bolsheviks. Kolchak was shot on the night of February 7, 1920. The gold that fell into the hands of the Bolsheviks, for a total of 409,625,870 gold rubles, was delivered to Kazan. But what happened to the rest of the gold? It is easy to calculate that the difference is almost 236 million rubles.
Thus, the documents that make it possible to understand what happened to Kolchak's gold, more precisely, the money received from its sales and "gold loans", were dispersed between Russian, American (Hoover's archive in Stanford and Bakhmetev's archive in New York) and British (Russian Archives in Leeds) archives. The author of these lines managed to work in all these archives and recreate the history of the "movement of money" and gold.
In total, according to our calculations, the Kolchak financiers sent abroad gold in the amount of about 195 million gold rubles. Part of the gold - in the amount of $ 35,186,333 was sold from May to September 1919 to French, Japanese and British banks. Most of it was deposited in Japanese, British, American banks as collateral for loans. The largest loan - 75 million gold rubles - was provided jointly by the British bank Baring Brothers and the American - Kidder, Peabody and Co. The British part of the loan was received in pounds sterling (£ 3 million), the American part - in dollars ($ 22.5 million). On the security of gold, a loan was also obtained from Japanese banks in the amount of almost 30 million yen (at that time the gold ruble and the yen were quoted the same). Gold was also deposited for the purchase of rifles on credit from the American government,from Remington, Colt machine guns from Morlinroquel. One of the golden echelons, heading from Omsk to Vladivostok, was captured by ataman G. M. Semenov. The train contained gold for 43,557,744 rubles. It was spent by the chieftain for the maintenance of his troops, and for such exotic purposes as an attempt to attract the Mongols to the struggle against the 3rd International. For this, Baron R. F. Ungern, who went to Mongolia, was allocated 7 million rubles by the ataman.who went to Mongolia, was allocated by the ataman 7 million rubles.who went to Mongolia, was allocated by the ataman 7 million rubles.
The lion's share of the money received by the government of Admiral Kolchak, as well as "inherited" by his successors - generals A. I. Denikin and P. N. Wrangel, went to the purchase of weapons, ammunition and uniforms. Huge money - more than $ 4 million went to order banknotes in the United States. The financiers of the White movement sought to stabilize money circulation, for which reliable banknotes were needed. Ultimately, the bills produced by the American Banknote Company had to be burned to avoid paying storage fees. So, literally, the money was wasted.
Part of the gold was sold by Russian financial agents in order to pay off loans. The last sale was carried out by a Russian financial agent in the United States, S. A. In the spring of 1921, after the final settlement with the Remington firm, a part of the gold deposit was released. The gold was sold to the Japanese Yokohama Hurry Bank for the equivalent of $ 500,000. Curiously, the diplomats intended to save this amount for the future government of post-Bolshevik Russia. And to better hide the money from annoying creditors, they invested in stocks and bills of London & Eastern Trade Bank. It was a British bank, but with Russian capital, it was created by Russian entrepreneurs who found themselves in exile. And the confidant, to whom the shares were registered, became … Gustav Nobel, the nephew of the “same” Nobel.
"Kolchak's gold", or rather, the money raised for it, was destined for an unexpectedly long life after the end of the Civil War. Responsibility for them was assumed by Russian diplomats, who created the Council of Russian Ambassadors in Paris and the Financial Council under it. With this money, the resettlement of Wrangel's army in the Balkans took place, the money went to help the Russian emigration. The brook was shallow, but dried up only in the late 1950s. The author was able to trace the history of the "Kolchak" money until 1957, when the last member of the Council of Ambassadors, VA Maklakov, died.
This story is extremely fascinating. The book “Money of the Russian Emigration: Kolchak Gold. 1918-1957 (Moscow: New literary review, 2008). The information given in it makes it possible to put an end to the debate about the fate of Kolchak gold, which has been going on for almost 90 years.
Oleg Vitalievich Budnitskiy, Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia).
Money of the Russian emigration: Kolchak gold. 1918-1957. - M.: New literary review, 2008