How many "tsarist" gold Admiral Kolchak took to Japan, and is there a chance to return it

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

During the civil war, Russian gold literally poured into Japanese banks. White Admiral Kolchak recaptured the tsarist gold reserve from the Bolsheviks, and bought weapons, ammunition, and food for the war with it. Japan happily accepted gold and jewelry, and its financial system grew stronger from this infusion. But after the defeat of the whites in the war, the royal treasures remained in the land of the rising sun, and all attempts to return it to this day have remained in vain.

Gold reserves of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century

At the beginning of the XX century, Russia had a huge gold reserve - 1337, 9 tons of gold (in monetary terms - 1 billion 695 million rubles). Of course, in the course of preparation for the war in 1914, it decreased somewhat, but its volume was still impressive - 1 billion 101 million rubles. It was located in banks of such cities as Petersburg, Riga, Warsaw, Kiev, from where, due to fears due to failures in hostilities, in 1915 it was evacuated to Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod.

As a result of the revolutionary events of 1917, the Russian Empire ceased to exist. The gold reserve became the property of the Bolsheviks, but they could not keep it in their hands - the positions of their enemies in the Volga region were too strong.

Robbery of Kazan by the White Guards. How many Kolchak trenches did Japan receive?

The attempt to take out all the gold from Kazan to the Bolsheviks failed (they evacuated only a small part of it - 4, 6 tons) - the White Guards of General Kappel and the soldiers of the Czechoslovak Corps arrived there.

The goal of the White movement - to defeat the Bolsheviks and revive the Russian Empire, was unattainable without a gold reserve (and it was collected not by the revolutionary, but by the tsarist government of Nicholas II). To preserve it, the whites sent it first to Samara, then to Ufa, and then to Omsk, where the headquarters of the supreme ruler, Kolchak, was located.

In connection with the attack on Omsk by the Reds, echelons with gold moved out of the city by rail in the direction of Irkutsk (some sources mention 25 cars, and others - 40; they contained 1 billion 300 million gold rubles), guarded by officers of Kolchak's army. In December 1919, they arrived in Nizhneudinsk.

The armed forces of the White movement needed ammunition and weapons, so Admiral Kolchak was forced to use part of the gold reserve to provide cash loans from the USA, Great Britain and Japan. Japan received the largest amount of remittances. The first tranche was sent in 1919 to the bank "Ekohama Sekin Ginko" (in Yokohama) - 20 466 kilograms of gold and jewelry, the value of which was 26 million 580 thousand (in gold rubles). The second transfer (already to the bank "Tesen Ginko") was a consignment of gold worth 27,949,880 rubles. Thanks to this, the gold reserves of Japan itself increased from 2,233 to 25,855 kilograms. According to other sources, all tranches settled in the Yokohama Hurry Bank, which has since become the largest in Japan.

In addition, in September 1919, ataman Semyonov received gold from one echelon in the amount of 42.000000 rubles. In March 1920, he transferred to Japan 1.5 tons of gold, which were deposited in the bank "Yokohama Shokin Ginko".

The fate of the "royal" gold after the abdication of Kolchak

Admiral Kolchak was betrayed by the French general Janin (commander of the Entente forces in Russia). In the context of the retreat of the White Army, he supported the uprising against the Kolchak government in Irkutsk and initiated the extradition of the admiral to the Political Center of the Social Revolutionaries. And those, in turn, handed over the admiral to the Bolsheviks, who shot him.

After the admiral's abdication from the post of ruler, the White Czechs exercised control over the carriages with gold reserves. But they were forced to transfer 409 million rubles in gold to the Bolsheviks so that they would allow them to safely evacuate from Russia. Part of the gold fell into the hands of Ataman G. Semenov, who spent it to pay for ammunition and weapons supplied from Japan.

When and by whom the question of returning the gold reserve was raised

Generals Podtyagin and Petrov, ataman Semyonov sued Japan on the issue of funds transferred to this country from the gold reserve, but to no avail. For a long time, the Soviet Union refused to be the legal successor of tsarist Russia, it does so already under Gorbachev, which the Western countries quickly took advantage of - Russia paid off debts totaling $ 400 million. To Russia itself, no one thought to return the money from the tsarist gold reserves received by the Entente countries at the beginning of the 20th century, or to compensate for the damage caused by the invaders.

And now, negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have been held in closed mode in Moscow today.

The parties discussed the possibilities of concluding a peace treaty between the countries. Japan again raised the issue of returning the islands and, in addition, about compensation for defeat in the war. There is a natural desire to ask: what about the 80 billion dollars (taking into account the interest that came over such a long time), which settled in the Land of the Rising Sun almost a century ago? The development of the Russian economy could proceed at an accelerated pace if they were available.

The remnants of the national treasure that the whites did not manage to exchange for weapons or the Bolsheviks later sold were preserved in the Diamond Fund. Look at these masterpieces now it is possible too.