Before World War One, Imperial Russia possessed the largest gold reserves of any country in the world and its downfall began with the start of the First World War. The country was ill-prepared and ill-equipped to fight a war and Tsar Nicholas II assumed control of the army in September, 1915. His armies would suffer heavy losses while the Tsarina (Empress), ruled in the newly renamed capitol, Petrograd and was under the heavy influence of Grigori Rasputin. Rumors of incompetence and treason spread and Rasputin would be murdered on the night of December 29, 1916 while the Romanovs would see their demise in the early hours of July 17, 1918.
The chaos of those few years and ensuing civil war saw the country's gold reserves, including the Royal Family's personal fortune, change hands a few times. The estimate is 645.4 million rubles (which also included gold coins from 14 other countries). 410 million of those rubles can be accounted for but the rest, some 235 million rubles, have never been accounted for and are still presumed missing to this day.
As you can expect, gold seekers have been on the hunt ever since and there is speculation as to where the gold ended up. yet, there is no proof as to actually what happened to this vast hoard of gold. Each coin was valued at $20, just as an American gold sovereign was worth at the time.
To get an idea as to what transpired, we must go back in time to a dark place and time in history, Russia's bloody civil war. For a brief period between 1918 and 1920, Siberia was under the dictatorial control of Admiral Kolchak, who was the leader of the anti-Bolshevik movement in Siberia. Early in the First World War, Russia's imperial gold reserves had been transported from the capital, Petrograd and taken to Siberia because of the German threat. In November 1918, after overthrowing the democratically elected government in Siberia, the gold reserves fell into the hands of Admiral Kolchak.
In 1920, fleeing a Soviet offensive, Kolchak was betrayed by foreign fighters (Czech legionnaires) , who up to this point had supported him against the Bolsheviks. They handed Admiral Kolchak and the bulk of the gold over to his political opponents who then executed him. The Bolsheviks received some 410 million gold rubles but for a century now, the question remains, What happened to the remaining 235 million gold rubles?
Rumors have persisted that the Czech legionnaires stole the gold. Kolchak's former finance minister Vladimir Novitsky claimed the Czechs stole at least 63 million rubles. There's the rumor the Czechs started their own bank when they returned home but no actual proof exists. Then, there's the one about a train carrying the stolen loot derailing as the result of an avalance, with the rail cars sinking to the bottom of a deepest lake in the world, Lake Baikal, which is over 5,000 feet deep. Wreckage was discovered a few years ago but no gold was subsequently found.
Some say it lies at the bottom of Golden Horn Bay in Vladivostok. Geometric research conducted in 2017 indeed shows wreckage but again, there is no evidence of gold. One plausible theory was put forth by historian Oleg Budnitsky. He claims the bulk of the gold was sent abroad by Admiral Kolchak to British, Japanese and American banks as collateral for loans to buy weapons and ammo. He also claims that another Siberian Warlord, Ataman Semenov stole some 44 million rubles while it was being transported to Vladivostok which he then used to fund his own military campaigns.
Oleg adds that the gold in the banks were then sold to cover the loans and by the late 1950s, it was all gone. He also believes some of the gold was used to resettle Russian emigrants of the White Movement to Europe.
This wasn't the only stash that went missing during this time. The Tsar and the Royal family had a fortune in gold, diamonds, jewelry and other valuables, most of which were left to trusted individuals in Siberia and it is believed was divided into three stashes. While one stash was located in 1933 by Stalin's NKVD – the precursor to the KGB, the remaining two stashes remain lost to this day.
If and when these treasures are ever found, it will surely make headlines around the world. The likely scenario is that the loot was laundered back into the system and we will never know the full truth of what transpired all those years ago. Still, the story is full of intrigue and no doubt, present and future gold seekers will try their hand at locating these missing treasures. Good luck to them!
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