Tsar's gold lies at the bottom of Lake Baikal, and the authorities know about it

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

The shooting of the film "Gold of the Empire" has finished in Buryatia. The premiere is scheduled for 2020, to mark the 100th anniversary of the mystery of the disappearance of part of Russia's gold reserves.

A person who had been investigating this topic for a long time, the historian Aleksey Tivanenko, did not participate in the preparation of the script. The correspondent of "NI" Irina Mishina interviewed him.

"Kolchak's gold", which came to Siberia during the Civil War, has haunted historians and treasure hunters for almost a century. According to the script, in the film by the Buryat director Yuri Botoev, part of the gold reserves of the Russian Empire will be found. And this, perhaps, is not far from the truth. Have Buryat ethnographer, archaeologist, hydronaut-researcher of Lake Baikal, author of the book "Admiral's Golden Treasure", Doctor of Historical Sciences Alexei Vasilyevich Tivanenko- his own version of the disappearance of the gold reserve of the Russian Empire. He has been studying this topic since the 60s of the last century.

Archaeologist and historian Alexei Tivanenko is considered the main expert in the history of the mysterious disappearance of part of the gold reserve of the Russian Empire.

"NO": Alexey Vasilyevich, why are the finds of gold bars in Siberia associated with your name? How did your investigation of the missing gold reserve of the Russian Empire begin?

Alexey Tivanenko: Back in the 60s of the last century, when I was creating a museum of local lore, I had to travel a lot to our places. Talking with local residents, I learned about the crash of two trains with White Czechs in the civil war. People said that gold was transported in those trains. At that time, eyewitnesses were still alive who remembered how they were forced to dive, look for gold bars. One resident showed me such an ingot - he hid it in a tub of cabbage. He told later that he was even summoned to the OGPU, interrogated … “Under the water we saw a large number of broken boxes and gold bars,” the local old men told me. Another of the gold bars was found in the attic of a local resident's house at Boyarskaya station. Then I began to reconstruct the events related to the history of the gold reserve of the Russian Empire in Siberia, in the area of Lake Baikal. In those days, the watchmen of the railway were still alive, along which Admiral Kolchak transported the gold reserves of the Empire. They told the most interesting facts. Eyewitness accounts have helped to restore a lot, in particular, the place where the train with gold bars sank."

"NI": Alexey Vasilyevich, you took part in deep-sea expeditions, sank to the bottom of Lake Baikal. Have you seen these bars yourself? Have your research and guesses been confirmed?

Alexey Tivanenko: “Indeed, in 2008-2009, as part of the expedition, we descended to the bottom of Lake Baikal on the Mir-1 and Mir-2 vehicles. We saw a crashed train. Fragments of cars, boxes, rails … At a depth of 800 meters, I found 2 bars, similar to gold bars. It was not possible to extract them, they were crushed by stones, but we took a photo of them. Bank marks are visible on the ingots. It follows from this that the bars were gold."

Photos taken during underwater diving made it possible to assume with a high degree of probability that there are gold bars at the bottom of Lake Baikal. How to remove them from the rubble is still a question.

"NI": Why is the mysteriously disappeared gold reserve of the Russian Empire often called "Kolchak's gold"?

Alexey Tivanenko: “In 1914 -1917, when the First World War and the Civil War in Russia began, the tsarist government decided to transport all valuables from the capital's banks to Kazan, away from the theater of military operations. Thus, most of the gold reserves ended up in Kazan. But even there it was not calm. As a result, more than 500 tons of tsarist gold were captured by the troops of the People's Army, formed by the first anti-Bolshevik government of Russia - the so-called Samara government. This gold was sent to Samara, then transported to Ufa, and in November 1918 to Omsk, where it was placed at the disposal of the Kolchak government. For 2 years, the Kolchak government spent 11 thousand poods of gold. With this gold, transferred to British, Chinese, American banks, Kolchak's army was armed and controlled the region. But then the offensive of the Red Army began, which defeated Kolchak's troops. Kolchak wondered how to evacuate the gold. He had to transport 15,500 poods of gold. While loading the gold, one carriage mysteriously disappeared. Then another major theft took place: the Minister of Finance from the Kolchak government stole one carriage - there were 44 boxes of gold. At the station in Novosibirsk, there was an attempt to hijack 27 more cars. The Belochekhs, who were also on Kolchak's side, hijacked 7 more cars. At the same time it became known that 22 boxes of gold were stolen by the Kolchak officers themselves. The last thefts took place near Irkutsk. However, the composition with the gold reserves of the Empire was detained by the Red Army."

"NI": It is known that part of the "Tsar's gold" still went to the White Czechs. How did it come about?

Alexey Tivanenko: “ Kolchak, in fact, was ruined by the royal gold. Negotiations began between the command of the White Czechs, who supported Kolchak's army, and the command of the Fifth Red Army, which spoke on behalf of the Council of People's Commissars. The new Soviet government promised the White Bohemians 2 wagons of gold for the surrender of Kolchak. They agreed. Ultimately, Russia had 13 wagons with gold bars left of the tsar's reserves.

Admiral Kolchak, whose army existed for 2 years and was armed at the expense of the captured gold reserve, became a hostage and victim of "tsarist gold".

After that, Lenin sent a telegram to Siberia with approximately the following content: "Under no pretext do not let echelons with Russia's gold reserves to the east of Lake Baikal! Blow up tunnels, bridges, spoil tracks! Derail steam locomotives, wagons! Under no circumstances let anyone near the wagons! ! ". But in practice, this turned out to be impracticable. East of Irkutsk, the Red Army did not have large forces. In addition, there was one incident that largely decided the fate of the "royal gold". One telegraph operator found out the numbers of two trains with gold that the White Czechs planned to seize. There was no military force to stop these trains, and the Bolsheviks decided to make landslides in two places. Literally stone rain fell on the train, and one stone that fell from the cliff completely pushed the train into the water between the source of the Angara and the Kutuluk station. The second stone hit the train in the middle, the train was uncoupled, part of the train with gold went under water near the Baikal station. According to my calculations, a total of 11 wagons with the gold reserves of the Russian Empire fell into Baikal."

"NO": Did you manage to get testimonies from people who lived nearby saw the wreck of the train?

Alexey Tivanenko: “ When in the early 60s I organized the Slyudyanka Museum of Local Lore, the old people who lived near the Moritui station in the Irkutsk region said: they saw how the train went under water, even showed me this place, and I remember it. They say that the boxes floated in the water, and gold bars fell out of them. Local residents were forced to dive in order to get these ingots. Everything that they got out was given to the military. But most of the ingots still remained in the water."

"NI": Alexey Vasilyevich, was anyone interested in the fate of the tsar's gold in our time? Have any attempts been made to get it? And in general, what is the attitude of the current Russian authorities to this topic?

Deep-sea diving to the bottom of Lake Baikal of the Mir bathyscaphe.

Alexey Tivanenko: “ I officially announced my research and findings, the information was transferred to the Kremlin. After that, Aleksey Kudrin, who at that time was in the position of Minister of Finance, descended to the bottom of Lake Baikal. Sergey Mironov, who at that time headed the Federation Council, also sank to the bottom of Lake Baikal. And then Vladimir Putin also came. True, as his press secretary said, the purpose of the deep-sea descent of Vladimir Vladimirovich was not to search for gold, but to study the purity and depth of Lake Baikal. But after that, Putin nevertheless instructed oceanologists to study the possibility of dismantling the rubble at the bottom of Lake Baikal. But scientists, as far as I know, have not proposed anything concrete. The devices for deep-sea diving "Mir-1" and "Mir-2" worked at the bottom of Lake Baikal until 2010, but then they were given to the director and screenwriter James Kemeron for filming the film "Titanic". Unfortunately, the devices were out of order during these filming."

"NI": Was it possible that after that work was stopped and there were no engineers in Russia who could create equipment for exploring the bottom of Lake Baikal and searching for the gold reserve of the Russian Empire?

Alexey Tivanenko: “Scientist-oceanologist Artur Chilingarov stopped work in 2010. However, today radars show a large accumulation of iron at the bottom of Lake Baikal. There is still nothing to continue working on in Russia. Information has been received that more powerful devices for deep-sea research are allegedly being built in China. But I don’t have more detailed information”.

"NI": Alexey Vasilyevich, what is known about the fate of that part of the gold of the Russian Empire, which was partially plundered, partially placed in foreign banks?

Alexey Tivanenko: “Kolchak gave a lot of Russian gold to Japanese banks. As far as I know, the Soviet government made a request in this regard, and then the State Duma applied to the Japanese side. The answer to the Soviet government from Japan came something like this: "This, they say, is not your gold, but the gold reserve of the Russian Empire, which no longer exists." Then the Japanese side called the transfer of part of the Kuril Islands a condition for the transfer of the gold reserves to the Russian Empire. Of course, the Soviet government responded negatively to this. Later, in 2011, the State Duma, at the suggestion of A. Chilingarov and M. Slepenchuk, sent inquiries about the "royal gold" to the Japanese State Bank. But the State Duma has not received an answer from there to this day.

The Belochekhs took out part of the gold reserves of the Russian Empire, they got it in exchange for the "surrender" of Kolchak to the Red Army. They disposed of Russian gold, one might say, logically. It was officially transferred to the government of the country, and a special "Legion Bank" was formed. With this money, the Czechs actually supported the Russian emigration for about 18 years”.

"NI": Alexey Vasilyevich, were you invited as a consultant or screenwriter during the work of Yuri Botoev on a film about Kolchak's gold?

Alexey Tivanenko: “ You know, I first learned about this film from you. No, no one invited me, although in Siberia I am considered a great expert in the search for the gold reserves of the Russian Empire. Perhaps they took advantage of my works and books. In 2009, I published in Chita the book "Secrets of the Baikal Depths", and in 2012 in Ulan-Ude another book of mine was published - "The Admiral's Golden Treasure". Before that, two film crews came to me - from the TV channel "Russia-1" and from "Russia Today". We went to places that are associated with sunken gold, I gave interviews … Then I often saw these shots on television. REN TV host Anna Chapman has been using them lately.”

"NI": Alexey Vasilyevich, to be honest, do you believe in the possibility of getting gold bars from the bottom of Lake Baikal? Or do the events of recent times leave hope?

Alexey Tivanenko: “ I consider it my life's work. Now there is one way to find out whether there is gold at the bottom of Lake Baikal or not there. There are sensors that detect the presence of precious metals at depth. I suggested cutting holes, putting these devices in there and determining at least those places where there is an accumulation of metal in the waters of Lake Baikal. But my proposals remained unanswered - both at the highest level and on the part of local authorities …”.