Spain's gold treasures have been regularly replenished with precious metal over the centuries. As a rule, gold went one way - to the treasury. But in 1936, Republican Spain for the first time violated this traditional "move" and voluntarily gave its gold reserves to another country - the USSR …
America's gold sailed to Moscow
By 1936, in terms of its gold reserves, the Spanish Republic ranked fourth in the world after the United States, France and Great Britain. By the summer of 1936, 636 tons of gold in the amount of 783 million US dollars (at the exchange rate of that time) were stored in the safes of the National Bank of Spain. Moreover, the territory of Spain itself, to put it mildly, is not rich in gold mines and silver mines.
But from Russia, gold and silver have always been exported. And suddenly, in this endless muddy series of losses of the twentieth century, a gap flashed. And flashed with a pure golden shine!
As it turned out, the Soviet Union also has its own conquistadors. Who turned out to be the most successful conquistadors in the history of Spain.
Don Lepanto's "Red Conquistador"
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During 1935, the future Admiral of the Fleet Nikolai Kuznetsov served as the Chief Naval Adviser to the Republicans. By October 1936, the successes of the "white" Spaniards at the front forced the Prime Minister of the Republic, Largo Caballero, to think about the fate of the state treasury. 559 tons of gold were stored in the banks of Madrid, and, according to the Spanish communists, General Franco should not have gotten it.
It was then that the chief naval adviser from the USSR came in handy, who took on the combat pseudonym Lepanto in memory of the medieval battle of the Spanish fleet with the Turkish, which crossed out the dream of Islamic admirals to enter the Atlantic.
True, the role of Kuznetsov was reduced solely to transporting gold by sea, and the famous NKVD general Alexander Orlov was responsible for the land part of the operation. In 1936, Moscow sent him to Madrid as an adviser to the republican government. And so the Republicans, frightened by the Francoists who were approaching Madrid, decided that the gold reserve should be hidden. And preferably in another country!
Precious caravans
On day X, the gold was brought to Cartagena and hidden in one of the caves. Orlov was helped by 60 Spanish sailors, who did not know what boxes they were going to load onto the vehicles. But at the crucial moment, when the loading began, Franco bombers flew in. And in this rush, under fire and bombs, counting boxes of gold, the Spaniards made a mistake in the count. Subsequently, Orlov recalled this as follows: “On the first day, our calculations coincided, but after the departure of Aspe (the representative of the Republicans), the numbers began to disperse. When the loading was completed, Aspe wanted to compare his numbers with mine. According to my calculations, we have loaded 7,900 containers. According to his calculations - 7800. The difference was the luggage of two trucks, each truck was carrying 50 boxes. And each box weighed about 125 pounds (50 kg). I was afraid to tell Negrin (Prime Minister of the Republican government) my number, because if I told him that we have 100 boxes of gold more than he thinks, and then if it turned out that his count was correct, I would have to be responsible for 100 boxes gold. So I didn’t tell him anything, but I telegraphed him to Moscow and reported the difference in calculations.”
Surprisingly, Orlov subsequently did not write anything about this. Did he say this in Moscow? And even if he did, was it reported to the Spaniards?
Be that as it may, the Soviet ships "Komsomolets", "Kim", "Volgoles", "Neva" and "Kuban" (a total of 12 Soviet ships participated in such an operation) took 7,800 (or still 7,900?) Boxes of gold to Odessa ingots and coins. Some part of the gold had already been spent by the Republican government to pay for military supplies from the USSR. It is noteworthy that the costs of transporting valuable cargo by Don Lepanto's "golden squadron" to the USSR were later paid by the Spaniards themselves - in the amount of 88 thousand 259 dollars and 80 cents.
We can say that we have the right to be proud of the "Soviet conquistador" Admiral Kuznetsov and "personally Comrade Stalin" for the Spanish "gold operations" in 1936! For the first time our homeland had such a precious naval commander. And almost in the literal sense of the word.
As for the fate of this gold, it forever remained in the USSR, despite the fact that Spain repeatedly demanded its return and even broke off diplomatic relations with us. Only in 1977 diplomatic contact was renewed. But no one returned the gold.
Magazine: Mysteries of History №1. Alexander Smirnov