Where did the stolen gold of tsarist Russia go?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Kolchak's stolen gold, which is also tsarist gold, which in all fairness should be called Russian, was found in Japan, where it was placed under agreements under which Moscow has the right to ask for compensation.

Experts believe that tons of precious metal, equivalent to $ 80 billion, may become a very inconvenient argument for Tokyo in the Kuril issue. Especially when Tokyo demanded military compensation for their defeat.

The January talks between Shinzo Abe and Vladimir Putin in Moscow were held behind closed doors for a wide range of people. Russian comments on the progress of the peace treaty and the Kuril issue were restrained, and the Japanese press noted that the prime minister, reporting to the country's parliament, was gloomy and displeased.

And he announced his intention to achieve the transfer of all four islands, although on the eve of his trip, sources in Tokyo claimed that Abe was ready to halve his appetites. In addition, no matter how ridiculous it may sound, in Japan they decided to demand from Russia not only territories, but also compensation - for their defeat in the war.

Meanwhile, experts are increasingly insisting that Moscow has a very weighty argument in the conversation about who owes whom on the basis of Russian-Japanese relations in the 20th century. We are talking about the notorious gold of Kolchak. Experts know that it was “found” long ago and is waiting for a prudent owner. There are also documents allowing to reclaim, according to various estimates, up to $ 80 billion. And the only question is how exactly this card should be played in order not only to restore historical justice, but also to solve a number of economic and geopolitical problems.

Kappel took, Kolchak handed out

First of all, it should be understood that it would be more correct to call the gold in question not Kolchak's, but Russian. After all, we are talking about no less than the gold reserves of Russia, which during the time of Tsar Nicholas II was brought to an astronomical amount of 1337 tons, which at that time was inaccessible to any state in the world.

When, during the First World War, the Germans approached Petrograd, the government decided to evacuate the gold reserve. Part of him was sent to Nizhny Novgorod, the other to Kazan. It was Kazan gold - 507 tons or 651.5 million rubles - that was captured with his detachment by the White Guard Colonel Vladimir Kappel. And he sent it to Omsk to Admiral Kolchak.

There is evidence that Alexander Kolchak promised to keep Russia's gold reserves intact and return it to the capital after defeating the Reds. However, his army was in dire need of weapons, uniforms, food. And Japan was the only supplier from abroad.

The gold was transported to Vladivostok in four echelons (one of which was plundered by Ataman Semyonov on the way). After that, agreements were concluded on loans or the supply of weapons, and gold was sent to foreign banks as collateral. Kolchak traded with many countries, but most of the gold ended up in Japan, in the Yokohama Hurry Bank.

Documents confirming the obligations of the Japanese side have been preserved and are in the archives of the Russian Foreign Ministry. In 2015, the government-owned Rossiyskaya Gazeta published two agreements signed in 1919, which refer to 60 tons of gold. On the Russian side, the document was signed by the representative of the State Bank Shchekin, who spoke on behalf of the Omsk government. It was about the supply of weapons. The gold arrived in the city of Tsuruga, which was confirmed by Japanese newspapers. However, the obligations under the contracts were never fulfilled.

Time to collect gold

In 2018, the book “Russian Gold Abroad: Some Results of the Search” was published in Moscow. It was the result of three years of work by a whole group of specialists. For example, Valentin Katasonov, a well-known economist and specialist in gold, took part in the search for Russian gold, and former Prosecutor General Yuri Skuratov took over the legal expertise.

The book provides information not only about the purchases of Kolchak, but also about the gold that the Japanese invaders seized by direct plunder. Such a story, for example, happened in Vladivostok 99 years ago, on the night of January 30, 1920, when the Japanese cruiser Hizen docked right in front of the State Bank branch, and a landing under the command of Japanese intelligence colonel Rokuro Izome landed from it. And 55 tons of gold migrated abroad without any receipts and acts. All objections and protests of the Russian authorities were simply ignored.

Gold was transferred to the Japanese side, all the same bank "Yokohama", and for temporary storage. So did the ataman Semyonov, driven by the Bolsheviks to Manchuria, generals Petrov, Podtyagin, Miller.

In 1925, an investigation was carried out in Japan into the circumstances of the seizure of Russian gold, then it became known that the funds eventually went to the fund of the Kwantung Army. And the gold reserve of the Land of the Rising Sun has literally increased 10 times before our eyes.

"The unpleasant story of the kidnapping of Russian gold by the generals … was hushed up by the Japanese ruling circles and consigned to oblivion," the book says. The corpse of the incorruptible assistant to the prosecutor's office Motoi Ishida, who did not want to close his eyes to the blatant injustice, was found on the outskirts of Tokyo, the government continued to work on the "Greater Japan to the Urals" plan.

The right to truth

“The Soviet Union was the legal successor of the Russian Empire and all regimes on its territory until the 1920s, inclusive. As well as, according to the Paris Convention, the Russian Federation turned out to be the legal successor of the Russian Empire and all the regimes on its territory,”said Mark Masarsky, confirming Moscow's rights to Kolchak's gold, as a member of the Public Council on Foreign and Defense Policy of Russia.

The documents found in the archives of the Foreign Ministry and signed by the Japanese side also say that the state Bank of Russia remains the manager of the deposit and has the right to return gold from Osaka to Vladivostok, paying only six percent of the delivery costs.

It must be said that the question of returning the gold reserve was raised after World War II, during the preparation of the peace treaty. The State Planning Commission was introduced to Molotov, who was then the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, then the issue was never settled.

Already in the 1990s, when the issue re-emerged on the agenda, Tokyo began to assert that there was no Russian gold in Japan. Then some Japanese scholars suggested that Moscow use the "Indonesian" version of the settlement of the issue. At one time, Indonesia abandoned Japan's direct demand to compensate for the damage caused during the occupation and allowed the Japanese to “save face” in exchange for huge investments.

However, today Moscow may be interested not only in economic, but also in geopolitical support of its Far Eastern neighbor, which has traditionally been oriented towards Washington.

“We start talking with Japan all the time, as if both Japan and Russia were born in 1945 or 1956. As if we had no history at all before, says the chairman of the Two-Headed Eagle Society, Konstantin Malofeev, referring to information collected by him and other experts in the book Russian Gold Abroad.

In a situation where the issue of royal debts (including gold) was legally settled with almost all countries of the world, except Japan, the discussion about the Kuriles and the conditions for concluding a peace treaty should be built taking into account the argument weighing tens of tons, which is "pulling" today for $ 80 billion. Especially considering that Japan, which occupied half of Asia during World War II, demanded compensation from Russia for its defeat.