Where the treasury of the Russian army was hidden: Secrets of the treasure of General Samsonov, who have been looking for since the First World War

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The First World War was a difficult period, which brought a lot of troubles and is fraught with many mysteries. Until now, people are trying to find the missing treasury of the Russian army, which was commanded by General Samsonov. A large box storing three hundred thousand rubles in gold and other valuables haunts treasure seekers. Every year in the summer, in August, people inspired by the legend gather near Velbark, who dream of finding the general's treasures. Read about the journey of Samsonov's treasury, how they tried to find it, but to no avail.

Army of General Samsonov during the First World War and how it got surrounded

When the First World War began, the post of commander of the Second Army was entrusted to General Alexander Samsonov. Russian troops entered East Prussia on August 4, 1914, and began advancing westward towards Konigsberg. The path was very difficult - through the endless Masurian swamps. The First Army, commanded by General Rennenkampf, took a detour from the north, and the Second, led by General Samsonov, moved from the south.

The promotion was not easy. Lack of food and ammunition, isolation from the rear - in such conditions, the Second Army began to deepen into a forest full of swamps. One could count on the railway, which passed not far, but the track was too narrow for carriages filled with shells and foodstuffs to pass along it. The trains got stuck at the border, thus blocking the tracks on Mlawa.

General Samsonov counted on intelligence data, but they turned out to be unreliable. The army was surrounded by enemy troops. Additional difficulties arose because the cavalry troops were the main striking force of the Russian army. They walked with great difficulty through the swampy, overgrown with trees territory.

The death of a general: various versions

The Second Army was deprived of any help, but at the same time fought desperately, trying to break out of the encirclement. Only a small group of soldiers and officers managed to do this. People made attempts to break through, trying to free themselves from their last strength, but the result was disappointing. Only a quarter of the eighty thousandth army made it through the pressure ring of the encirclement, the rest faced a cruel fate - they fell on the battlefield, disappeared, became prisoners.

The army commander emerged from the encirclement in a small group together with General Lebedev, Colonel Vyalov, as well as officers of the army headquarters and privates of the security platoon. According to historians, about twenty thousand people were saved. Some researchers believe that it was at this moment that Samsonov fired a bullet in his forehead, unable to survive the terrible attacks of asthmatic suffocation. According to another version, his life was interrupted by an enemy shell.

A cart with countless treasures buried in the woods near Wöllbark

So, the Second Army tried to make their way on foot through the dense forest. The horses were pulling the cart, which was very heavy due to the metal chest on it. What values were stored in it? In the works of Nikolai Metelkin, it is indicated that three hundred thousand gold rubles, a large number of award crosses, and, possibly, weapons made of gold were safely hidden in it.

On August 31, Samsonov's group was able to get out of the encirclement, and it happened in the Ostrolenka area. The general was no longer with them. Nor was there a treasure box. Most likely, tired of dragging a heavy cart, the retreating hid the treasure in the ground, in a mysterious forest near Velbark. Perhaps the members of the Kaiser's army were looking for gold, but to no avail. Therefore, in the report on the trophies of the Kaiser's command after the defeat of the Second Army, twenty-two banners and thirty-two thousand rubles in gold were mentioned. But the treasury of Samsonov's army numbered many times more riches, and there is not a word about them.

How they searched for the gold of General Samsonov

The search for Samsonov's treasure was started in 1916. The object of the search was a swampy area near the town of Welbark. It was here that on August 29 the general's group got up to rest. The first agents of the German General Staff appeared during the war. They meticulously asked local residents if they had found Russian gold coins in the forests. It is said that the citizen went to pick mushrooms and returned with a handful of gold. When asked where the values were found, he could not answer. General Noskov, who became an emigrant after the revolution, was also looking for gold from the Russian army. His attempts were unsuccessful.

Time passed, the Second World War ended. The territory in which it was conditionally hidden passed to Poland. A military training ground was located near Velbark. In the 1960s, Polish sapper officers with metal detectors appeared in the forest, accompanied by an elderly man. He said that in August 2014, on the personal order of General Samsonov, he accompanied a cart with a metal box, and that while crossing the stream, the wheels were so deeply stuck in the swampy mud that the horses could not move the cart. I had to bury the valuables. All this was very interesting, but the Poles did not manage to find the treasure. Twisted weapons and shrapnel are the whole catch. The officers left the place of the search, stirring up the souls of the local population. People began to walk more and more into the forest with sharp metal rods, which they used to examine the soil.

Local peasants and Polish soldiers did find a certain amount of valuables. Gold coins came across while digging trenches and cultivating the land, and once even a bundle with a gold St. George's cross came across. It is clear that this is very little for the treasury of the Second Army.

In a memoir by one of the officers, it is said that the treasure container was hidden next to a large oak tree. According to legend, every year, on August 30, at twelve o'clock in the afternoon, a shadow appears on the ground from the largest branch. She seems to indicate that values are hidden here. Every year enthusiastic seekers visit the forest area near Velbark in the hope of stumbling upon a signpost and digging up the treasury of the Russian army.

Still, treasures are sometimes found. How 800-year-old treasures of Svyatopolk, recently found in the middle of a field.