In Siberia, human life has always directly depended on the distances covered on horseback, along rivers, and later on the railroad. A week to be on the road, bypassing the steppes, hills, taiga - it was in the order of things. Nobody adhered to exact dates (as well as versts). There was also no accuracy in the exchange of goods. Millions of transactions were concluded verbally, merchants shook hands, the goods were taken by eye.
Precious poods
This also applied to the turnover of gold, which was taken into account not in grams, but in spools. (One spool was four and a quarter of a gram.) Therefore, events when not ordinary Siberians seem to be almost unbelievable. and people in power who dealt with the gold reserves of Russia, which had moved to Siberia, kept counting by poods (poods - 16 kilograms and 380 grams) and reported for "more than a thousand poods", without documenting.
Let's tell one such little-known story, closely related to the hidden gold and the movement of the Red Army detachment across Siberia. Their campaign led to dramatic events and ruined the lives of many people.
This happened in 1920 during a military expedition of a special detachment of the Red Army under the control of the Sibrevkom to seize gold and platinum in the distant Amur taiga. The treasure was located on the territory of the buffer zone between Soviet Russia, Japan and the bourgeois-democratic Far Eastern Republic (FER), Formally, the FER was an independent state, but in fact its government, located in Verkhneudinsk (now the city of Ulan-Ude), fully carried out the will of Moscow.
Meanwhile, ataman Semyonov ruled in Transbaikalia. The occupation forces of Japan were deployed along the Trans-Siberian Railway to the east of Chita and supported the White Guards.
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Lazo hides a treasure
On April 5, 1920, the Japanese made an armed uprising and overthrew the revolutionary committees everywhere. Foreseeing such a danger, the commander of the partisans in Primorye Sergey Lazo acted wisely. On the eve of his death, he transported the gold reserve of the Far East Region to the Amur taiga. The emissary of the FER government, Meyer Trilisser, ordered to reliably protect the "property of workers and peasants" at the remote Lebedin mine in the taiga between the Zeya and Timpton rivers.
At this time, one of the pressing problems of Sibrevkom chairman Ivan Smirnov was the supply of ammunition and weapons to the partisans of Primorye. which, after the death of Lazo, was commanded by Dmitry Shilov. Smirnov informed the commander-in-chief of the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far East Republic: "A million rounds of ammunition were sent from Omsk for Shilov's partisans on May 26." Two weeks later, the news came that it was impossible to complete this task, since "the approaches to Shilov are occupied by the enemy." At the same time, military intelligence. Reporting to Smirnov about the results of the search for communication with the partisans, Shilova, among other information, reported on the mine where the gold was stored. The leaders of the Sibrevkom immediately had the idea to link the delivery of ammunition to Primorye with the export of gold to Soviet Russia. The case was given a character of extreme importance.
We are patrons for you, you are gold for us
On June 29, 1920, the military commandant of Irkutsk, Pyotr Savluk, was summoned to the commander of the army and given the following mandate: “The bearer of this, Comrade Petr Fedorovich Savluk is indeed the head of the Special Expedition, which is entrusted with the execution of a task of extreme importance, and therefore Savluk is given the right of unlimited involvement in the execution of tasks of all who can be useful, the right to use all means of transportation and communication, both water and land, the right to use wire and wireless telegraphs and direct wires. Military authorities. all revolutionary committees and all professional and other civil organizations are obliged to provide comrade Savluk with full and unconditional assistance, placing at his disposal all the technical forces and means and the required number of working hands,that the signatures with the seal attachment are certified."
Due to the top secrecy, the Revolutionary Military Council only introduced the head of the Special Expedition to the second document, the route map. Commensurate with only once seen and held in the head. Savluk had to overcome a difficult path: from Irkutsk by car to the Kachuga pier on the Lena, then by steamer to Olekminsk, along Olekma on small ships, bypassing rapids, including the most dangerous Devil's Throat, to the village of Yenyuki. Then about 900 miles along the taiga path to the Swan mine.
Hike
It took two weeks to prepare for the trip. Because of the impassability of the Yakutsk highway for trucks, the Red Army took away horses and carts from the peasants who came to the market. All these requisitions have embittered the population. The rebellious Reds were shot on the spot. The next day the Special Expedition set off. In addition to cartridges, the partisans carried grenades and 8 machine guns with a supply of equipped belts. It was possible to fight.
The fighters of Savluk did not stand on ceremony with local residents, which influenced a number of small and large armed actions of Siberians against the Soviet regime. Nevertheless, the golden wealth of Russia was saved literally from under the noses of the Japanese. A long-awaited report arrived in Irkutsk: “On October 2, the first batch from the Lebediny mine returned. The transportation of valuables was done extremely carelessly; there are up to ten boxes broken. There is no information and documents on the composition of the cargo. Valuables on Lebedinoye are in danger, as large gangs of hunghuz roam in the area. By plundering the mines, they can get to Lebedinoye, especially since the cargo was transported without keeping a secret."
How many are missing?
Upon arrival at the final destination of the route, the members of the expedition began to negotiate with the Evenks so that they would transport the gold to a safe place on reindeer sleds for tobacco and alcohol. While the drunken reindeer herders were thinking about the profitability of the enterprise, the unexpected happened: Japan evacuated its troops from the Eastern Transbaikalia. And on October 22, 1920, the troops of the Far Eastern Republic. having defeated the gangs of Ataman Semyonov, they entered Chita. Soon the government of the Far Eastern Republic moved there from Verkhneudinsk. Petr Savluk received a cipher telegram: “Urgent, secret. December 3, 1920. Swan mine. Beginning of the expedition to Savluk. Send transport immediately to Chita. The guards may be from the Amur army, but you are obliged to accompany them personally."
In three days, through the taiga in a 50-degree frost, the partisans delivered gold in the amount of "more than a thousand poods" from the Lebediny mine to the railway. station Big Never. How much gold disappeared from the broken boxes, no one counted. In mid-December, Petr Savluk handed over the jewelry. In Chita, the property of the republic was properly recorded in such cases. However, the secret document, which recorded the weight of gold and platinum - and not by partisan standards "more than a thousand pounds", but in reality - is not known to historians.
Alexander Agalakov. Secrets of the 20th century magazine