Eh, liberal reforms. Perhaps in any other country in the world such innovations would bring positive changes, but not in our country. Unfortunately, the noble-sounding slogans “For democracy!”, “For fair elections!”, “For human rights,” which we have heard more than once in our history, are in fact accompanied by, in fact, total robbery and geopolitical weakening of Russia. The wind of change is blowing away everything in its path: the army, navy, public order, industry and state sovereignty. The values of the defeated power immediately become the object of all kinds of scams and speculation. This can be confirmed by the “despicable metal” - gold. And, to be more precise, the gold reserves of Russia, which in the 20th century twice left the country’s national territory forever due to the massive betrayal of the power elite.
The famous blogger, writer and publicist Nikolai Starikov, in his article entitled “Where did the gold of the USSR disappear?” published an interesting letter from one of his readers, in which the author describes how and by what routes the gold reserves of the USSR were exported at the end of Gorbachev’s perestroika. You can read this message.
Nikolai Viktorovich ends his post with these words: “This is the story. Maybe some of you, dear readers, have encountered, by the will of fate, that same “mysteriously disappeared gold?”.
In answer to this question, I will say that I have encountered it. Not in reality, of course, but when reading journalistic literature. Now the author of these lines is finishing reading the book “Crisis”, written by State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein back in 2009. I would like to make my small contribution to conveying truthful information about the dashing 90s to the maximum possible number of my compatriots. In this regard, let me give an excerpt from this work, which describes in sufficient detail the procedure for the treacherous export of the USSR’s gold reserves to the West. We read:
“Former Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government Mikhail Poltoranin, who studied in detail the closed archives of the Politburo, devoted many years to unraveling this tangle.
Poltoranin saw with his own eyes documents confirming that in the late 1980s gold reserves were actively exported from the USSR.
All these decisions of the Politburo were, of course, not just secret, but were labeled “Of Special Importance.” Accordingly, operations to export gold also took place in an atmosphere of the strictest secrecy.
It was transported by Vnesheconombank couriers with certificates from the KGB and the International Department of the CPSU Central Committee; Among them is, by the way, Gusinsky’s trusted man Igor Malashenko (later general director of the NTV television company). At the border, no one inspected gold-bearing couriers - the customs service was instructed to let them pass through Sheremetyevo-2 without hindrance.
According to the papers, the export of gold was formalized as a foreign trade operation, supposedly it was used to pay for imported goods, mainly food. In fact, it was pure fiction. In return, almost nothing was returned to the country.
Poltoranin managed to trace in detail the fate of one of these shipments: 50 tons of gold of the highest standard, sent abroad in 1990 by secret order of the USSR Council of Ministers to pay for food for the needs of the population.
The route was as follows: gold was delivered from Gokhran to Vnesheklonombank, from there it was transported by couriers to the vaults of Soviet foreign banks (Paris, London, Geneva, Singapore), the banks sold it to jewelry companies, and the resulting currency was deposited in the anonymous accounts of mysterious people from Moscow.
All. As one movie character said, an oil painting.
What about the products? - you ask. But there is no problem with the products. There were no products abroad; there, too, apparently, there was a raging shortage. Instead, toilet soap was brought to the USSR. True, in several small batches. But it’s imported.
According to this scheme, from 1989 to 1991, more than 2 thousand 300 tons of pure gold were transported abroad from the Union. (In 1990 alone, a record amount was exported: 478.1 tons.)
No one kept any records of the gold tranches, as testified by former KGB active reserve officer Viktor Menshov (he worked under the “roof” of the assistant to the chairman of the board of Vnesheconombank of the USSR). There was so much gold, recalls the first deputy chairman of the board of the same Vnesheconombank, Thomas Alibekov, that the bars were loaded onto planes directly from the runway.
This would not be the only way to privatize the gold and foreign exchange reserves of the USSR, invented by the combinators of that time.
Secret orders of the State Bank and the Council of Ministers, for example, established a brisk trade in the country's foreign exchange reserves. Officially, dollars were sold at the rate of 6 rubles 26 kopecks; for “their” structures, controlled by the managers of the CPSU Central Committee, a special preferential rate was established - 62 kopecks.
The purchased currency immediately went abroad, and wooden rubles piled up like dead weight in the Gokhran vaults.
How do you like this detective story, waiting for its Nestor the Chronicler?
At the rise of Soviet power, the KGB learned that Israeli intelligence services were preparing to seize the Lebanese People's Bank, where the so-called valuables of Yasser Arafat were kept with a total value of $5 billion.
The raid on the bank actually took place. Only it was not organized by the Israelis. The robbers calmly transported the Arab treasures next door, to the Beirut branch of the Moscow People's Bank, one of the subsidiaries of Vnesheconombank of the USSR. And just a day later, the Beirut branch closed its operations. Further traces of Palestinian gold are lost in the stuffiness of the Middle East...
The country was sliding into the abyss, the people were impoverished, even the simplest products - milk, meat, eggs - disappeared from the shelves. Meanwhile, a small group of people who were in the right place at the right time amassed fabulous fortunes.
Let's compare just two numbers. Over the last three years of perestroika, no less than $30 billion worth of gold was taken out of the country, and in fact stolen.
And exactly at the same time - from 1989 to 1991 - the external debt of the USSR increased by 44 billion dollars. When Gorbachev read his last address to the nation in December 1991, he (in the sense of debt) had already reached 70.2 billion dollars.
For decades to come, this debt will weigh heavily on the national economy. Under Yeltsin, it also doubled. (Putin will inherit liabilities worth 158 billion.)
With such unaffordable debts, Russia not only fell into foreign bondage, it also lost the opportunity to develop normally. The threat of bankruptcy has constantly hovered over the country all these years. A step to the right, a step to the left - and the creditors immediately pulled on the leash. Annual interest payments alone amounted to up to $15 billion.
Numbers, however, are stubborn things. The USSR did not need loans at all. If the gold reserves had not been plundered, the country could well have escaped the debt trap. True, it is not clear on what basis the newly-minted masters of life would rise?
Who exactly the party's gold went to remains a mystery to this day, despite the fact that in the fall of 1991 a criminal case was even opened regarding the theft of currency funds of the CPSU Central Committee. But both the official and unofficial investigation, carried out by order of the Russian government by the Kroll detective agency, did not find any remnants of former luxury...
The treasurers of the party could certainly shed light on this mystery, but someone preferred that they remain silent forever. Not even a week had passed since the failure of the State Emergency Committee, when Nikolai Kruchina, the manager of the affairs of the CPSU Central Committee, fell out of the window of his apartment. A month and a half later, the same thing happened to his predecessor Georgy Pavlov.
Despite the strange circumstances of these deaths, they were officially declared a banal suicide. "
It seems that the Russian Central Bank’s “emergency dump” of American treasury bonds is slowly beginning to make sense. Although the Central Bank itself does not give any comments on this matter, and sometimes it takes almost anecdotal forms.
Thus, Deputy Minister of Finance of Russia Sergei Storchak, answering questions from journalists, said that he himself does not know the motives that guided the Central Bank in selling off American assets. According to him, he addressed this question to the deputy head of the Central Bank, Ksenia Yudaeva, but did not receive an answer from her. After which Mr. Storchak could only thoughtfully declare that this was “the area of responsibility of the Central Bank” and close the topic.
We note, not without some satisfaction, that this is another symptom of the imminent change of our “hired personnel” in the government. If the Central Bank is no longer informing these guys on such important issues, then it looks like it’s really time for them to think about looking for a new job.
Although everything will be fine for them, of course. Vladimir Vladimirovich “doesn’t abandon his own”...
Now a little about more important things.
In parallel with the sale of American debt obligations, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation continued to increase its gold reserves. Now it is close to 2000 tons, and it is very likely that it will soon cross this mark. The share of gold in the country's total gold and foreign exchange reserves has grown tenfold in recent years, and the volume of American treasuries has fallen from a peak of $176 billion to the current $15.
Purely economic reasons for such a decision may seem too distant, but still we must remember that the world economy has accumulated a huge debt amounting to $247 trillion, or 318% of total global GDP. The fact that this bubble may burst has long been a commonplace in discussions. But it is also obvious that now, in the context of the unleashed economic wars, the risk of puncturing the bubble is becoming too great. Against this background, going into precious metals as the most reliable asset looks like the most adequate long-term strategy, even regardless of our own vector of further development.
It is a little confusing that other major holders of American securities, such as China and Japan, are in no hurry to give them up. But this may be due both to the significantly greater dependence of these countries on the American market (and on the location of American authorities, accordingly), and to the fact that Putin knows something that others are not yet aware of.
And Putin really knows something. At a minimum, his future steps in the geopolitical party that was imposed on him. And where, where, and in calculating risks, he was always a real grandmaster...
The tactics of the Russian Central Bank are becoming partly clear. Instead of a one-time or some kind of forced purchase of gold on the stock exchange or from other holders of large gold reserves, he is in no hurry to immediately invest all the proceeds from the sale of American securities in gold. This is counterproductive, if only because when such a buyer appears on the market, prices will immediately skyrocket, and the total volume of purchases will decrease by tons or even tens of tons.
It is much more rational to purchase gold from mining companies, purchasing both its available volume and contracts for future supply. In the future, of course, this will also lead to an increase in metal prices, but it will be much less rapid and at some point will even become profitable for large holders of gold assets.
It is very likely that the Central Bank is acting exactly this way, although these are only guesses - such a sensitive issue as gold trading is not discussed by officials and authorized persons in open sources, and we can only learn something about this after the fact, looking at the changed size of the gold reserve and assessing the dynamics of its growth.
In general, we continue to follow the topic. For now, we just state: in February, Russia entered the top five states with the largest gold reserves. To do this, she had to bypass China in this matter. If current growth rates are maintained, in about three years Russia may enter the top three.
And in ten years, if everything goes well, Moscow can update the USSR record of 2,800 tons of gold.
Gold reserves of the USSR during the war and the post-war period
Gold reserves of the USSR at the beginning of the war. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the USSR's gold reserves had grown to 2,600 tons. This figure is contained in the work of V.V. Rudakov and A.P. Smirnov. One of them, V.V. Rudakov, is personally known to me. Valery Vladimirovich was at one time the main person in the country responsible for gold (head of Gokhran, deputy minister of finance in charge of gold issues, head of Glavalmazzoloto, etc.). Apparently, the mentioned assessment can be trusted.
The period of the Great Patriotic War is a blank spot in the history of Russian gold. There is no information on gold production volumes. There is no data on the use of gold by the Soviet Union to cover its needs for weapons, equipment, equipment and other goods vital in war conditions.
However, it can be assumed that the USSR did use gold in some quantities. Foreign trade statistics of the USSR show that during the war there was an excess of imports over exports (we are talking about commercial turnover; Lend-Lease deliveries are not taken into account). The trade balance deficit of the USSR was (million rubles): 1941 – 100; 1942 – 116; 1943 – 106; 1944 – 84. In 1945, there was already an excess of exports over imports and the positive balance amounted to 42 million rubles. Thus, in general, for the period 1941–1945. The negative balance of foreign trade of the USSR was equal to 364 million rubles. In currency equivalent, this is approximately 68.7 million dollars (since 1937, the exchange rate of the ruble for foreign economic transactions was established: 1 dollar = 5.30 rubles). In terms of gold, this was equivalent to approximately 70 tons of metal.
Various sources also mention that during the war, as part of the Soviet-American Lend-Lease agreement, the USSR was not only a recipient of assistance, but also supplied various raw materials, as well as platinum and gold, to America as a reciprocal Lend-Lease. No quantitative estimates of gold supplies are provided.
About trophy gold. For this stage, cross-border movements of the so-called trophy gold, i.e., gold that was captured during military operations in occupied territories. Moreover, to assess cross-border flows of gold during the war, two categories of captured gold should be taken into account: a) gold that Germany captured on the territory of the Soviet Union; b) gold that the USSR captured on the territory of Germany and other countries of the fascist bloc.
To date, no generalized estimates of the amount of gold captured by Germany on the territory of the USSR, not available in open sources. We believe that it was not possible to capture a large amount of gold from Nazi Germany in the occupied Soviet territories for the reason that the USSR took timely measures to evacuate gold from the vaults of the State Bank located in the European part of the country to the east of the country.
Let's take a closer look at the question movement of trophy gold from Germany to the USSR. It should be borne in mind that the USSR refused to coordinate efforts with the allies to develop a unified reparations policy towards Germany (including on gold). This is explained by the fact that the positions of the USSR, on the one hand, and the USA and Great Britain, on the other, differed significantly. The essence of these differences is outlined in our literature. For example, K.I. Koval, First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany for economic issues, notes that the Allies insisted that reparations be carried out in the form of payments in foreign currency. I. Stalin insisted on reparations in kind. The latter’s calculation was that with this form of reparations it would be difficult to control their real value volume; the monetary equivalent would have a conditional value. In addition, there was no confidence that Germany would be able to earn the necessary amounts of foreign currency. Even if the USSR received the currency due to it, it would not be used to restore the destroyed economy, but to pay off external debts (primarily, obligations to the United States under Lend-Lease). Therefore (and for a number of other reasons), the USSR relied on receiving dismantled factories, raw materials, technologies, works of art, gold and other “natural goods” from Germany, the cost accounting of which was beyond the control of the allies.
Having voluntarily renounced demands for gold located in the zone of occupation of Western countries, Stalin paid great attention to the search and seizure of Nazi gold in the zone under the military control of Soviet troops or under the political influence of the USSR. Here is what is noted in this regard in one of the publications on Nazi gold: “In 1945, the USSR renounced its claims to Nazi gold confiscated by the Allied armies. In exchange, Moscow received gold discovered by the Red Army in the territories of Germany, Austria, Finland, Hungary and other countries. Moscow did not participate and does not participate in the activities of the TGC (tripartite commission for the restitution of Nazi property. – VC). The USSR never provided information about the fate of the gold it confiscated, interest in which increased sharply after the collapse of the Warsaw bloc. Bank archives of Germany, Austria, Hungary and other countries are located in Moscow. Access to them remains difficult. Only recently did Bergier’s commission announce Moscow’s readiness to open part of the archives to it.” First of all, in the Soviet occupation zone in Germany, all banks were closed and an inventory of their assets was carried out; in addition, the population was ordered to hand over all currency, precious metals and other valuables.
There are a large number of sources that indicate that the leaders of the Third Reich in the last months and even days of the war actively withdrew their most valuable assets (including gold) from areas of Germany that could be occupied by Soviet troops to those areas that they planned to occupy our allies. Secret separate negotiations were conducted on this matter between the Nazis and the Allies. In the last days of the war, Soviet intelligence learned that the gold reserves had been evacuated to Central and Southern Germany. Based on this, Stalin did not count on receiving any large amount of captured gold. On May 15, 1945, in the basements of the Reichsbank, Soviet representatives found only 90 gold bars and $3.5 million in currencies from different countries, as well as various bonds. Everything else disappeared without a trace.
An interesting unofficial message from the head of the Russian delegation at the international conference on Nazi gold, which was held in December 1996 in London, Ambassador Valentin Kopteltsev: “Under the Potsdam agreements, all German assets that were located in the eastern occupation zone and on territories of Germany's allies in Eastern Europe. 98.5% of German gold went to the Americans(italics mine. – VC). The rest may have ended up with us, although there is no documentary evidence of this.” This assessment once again proves that the amount of Nazi gold received by the Soviet Union in the occupied territories was extremely small.
Search for Nazi gold by the USSR MGB in 1945–1953. carried out as part of the special operation “Cross”. According to some reports, Operation Cross was aimed at finding not only Nazi, but also tsarist gold, which ended up outside Russia after the First World War and the 1917 revolution; Moreover, the operation was started by Stalin in the late 1920s. Probably, the scope of the search for Nazi gold extended beyond the borders of the countries that were located in the zone where Soviet troops were located. The fact is that at the end of the war, the authorities of the Third Reich sent significant quantities of gold to Switzerland and other neutral countries - Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Turkey. There is a large amount of evidence supported by documents that a significant amount of Nazi gold ended up outside the Third Reich at the end of the war.
Taking into account the above, it is clear why the task of identifying Nazi gold was entrusted by I. Stalin to state security agencies, including Soviet foreign intelligence. Materials related to Operation Cross have not yet been made public.
About the so-called gold ruble of Stalin . To raise the prestige of the Soviet ruble and for political purposes, in 1950 it was freed from its direct “peg” to the US dollar and other Western currencies, the rate of which fluctuated quite noticeably, and its direct “peg” to gold was established. True, such a “link” did not provide for the possibility of exchanging rubles for gold either for foreigners or for individuals and legal entities within the country.
On this occasion, S. M. Borisov writes: “In order to demonstrate the firmness of the position of the Soviet ruble against the background of the massive devaluation of Western currencies, its exchange rate from January 1, 1950 was transferred to a gold basis with the gold content being established at the level of 1 ruble. = 0.222168 g of pure gold. Based on this value, the exchange rate increased to 4 rubles. for 1 dollar versus 5 rubles. 30 kopecks, used in all cash payments for foreign economic transactions since July 19, 1937.
How was the new gold content of the ruble determined? There is a version that it was originally planned to establish a new exchange rate ratio at the level of 1 dollar = 5 rubles. However, when the draft of the corresponding resolution was shown to Stalin, he crossed out the number “5”, wrote “4”, and this decided the matter. “The required gold content was obtained by dividing the gold content of the dollar, which then amounted to 0.888671, by this figure.”
Thus, we see that the gold parity of the Soviet ruble was established without taking into account the size of the country’s gold reserves.
USSR gold reserves in 1953 . In the post-war years (1946–1953), the accumulation of the country's gold reserves continued due to domestic production, and the export of gold abroad was practically stopped. The search for gold continued actively, primarily through the above-mentioned Operation Cross (the operation was curtailed after Stalin’s death in 1953). Vyacheslav Molotov spoke about these Stalinist reserves in conversations with Felix Chuev: “We had a huge gold reserve accumulated, and there was so much platinum that we did not show it on the world market, for fear of devaluing it!”
In 1953, the country's gold reserve reached a maximum of 2048.9 tons. In total, during 1925–1953. the increase in gold reserves of the USSR amounted to 1900 tons. This means that in order to accumulate such a reserve, an average of about 70 tons of metal per year had to be sent to the gold reserve through domestic production annually. During this period, according to various expert estimates, the average annual gold production was no more than 100–150 tons. Some part of the gold from the new production had to be used to satisfy the country’s internal needs. In the best case, on average, approximately 50 tons could be exported per year during the specified period. Various publications that socialist industrialization, preparations for war, the war itself and the liquidation of its consequences were financed by large-scale exports of gold are a clear exaggeration.
So, 2049.8 tons in 1953. For comparison: in 1953, according to the data of T. Green, already mentioned by us, the leading countries of the world had the following volumes of gold reserves:
USA - 19631 tons;
Great Britain – 2011 tons;
Switzerland - 1296 tons;
Canada - 876 tons;
Belgium – 689 tons;
Netherlands - 658 tons;
France - 548 tons.
Thus, in 1953, the USSR, despite the enormous losses in World War II and the need to restore the destroyed economy, found itself in second place in the world in terms of official gold reserves (although, of course, lagging behind the United States, which managed to enrich itself in the war, was almost tenfold).
The main task of accumulating the country's gold reserves was to provide it with a strategic resource in case of emergency situations. At the same time, the task of providing the ruble with gold reserves after the war was not practical, and the so-called gold content of the national currency was in no way tied to the gold reserve of the State Bank of the USSR.
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The collapse of Tsarist Russia left the country virtually without gold and foreign exchange reserves. It took significant efforts and decades to not only make up for the losses, but to create a margin of safety, thanks to which the country carried out large-scale industrialization.
Wasted
After the Bolsheviks came to power, the country's gold reserves slightly exceeded 1,000 tons. The Provisional Government did its best, transporting about 500 tons of precious metal abroad. The Bolsheviks also began to squander the funds they had inherited from the former owners of the country. After all, the rednecks need something to restore the country?
Due to difficulties in obtaining Western loans, the new government was forced to pay for the import of essential goods with national gold reserves. Only 60 locomotives purchased in England and Sweden cost the treasury 200 tons of gold. 100 tons were given to Germany as reparations. As a result, by 1922 the treasury was reduced by another 500 tons.
The Bolsheviks, of course, tried to plug holes in the budget by expropriating valuables from the “owning classes,” but the purchase of food, manufactured goods, military equipment and equipment also absorbed these funds. Of course, the coveted bullion could not be avoided. As a result, by 1928 the country's gold reserves were practically exhausted - there were some 150 tons left.
Top up at any cost
In the first years of Soviet power, there was no real opportunity to replenish the country's gold reserves. The main reason is that the Bolsheviks were not able to fully control gold mining. Only a small fraction of the precious metal extracted from the Russian depths ended up in the treasury.
In 1928, it was decided to sell off part of the country's museum collections. This resulted in the loss of 21 Hermitage masterpieces, for which they fetched a measly 10 tons of gold. The looting of the palaces abandoned by the aristocracy also did not add much weight to the treasury.
In 1930, the authorities began to confiscate gold from the wealthy part of the population - during this year the State Bank enriched itself by 8 tons of the despicable metal. And in 1932, they collected 12 tons of “surplus”. But this was not enough.
In January 1931, the government opened Torgsin - the All-Union Association for Trade with Foreigners on the Territory of the USSR. In Torgsin stores, guests from abroad, as well as wealthy Soviet citizens, could exchange gold, silver, precious stones and antiques for food and other consumer goods.
And things went well. In 1932, 22 tons of gold were brought to Torgsin, and a year later - 45 tons. Thanks to Torgsin's gold injections, imported equipment was purchased for 10 industrial giants. In 1936, Torgsin ceased to exist, giving a total of 222 tons of pure gold to the state.
Everything for industrialization
Despite the fact that individual mining was an alien element for the Soviet consciousness, the need for gold turned out to be above all. The practical Stalin understood this very well, giving enthusiastic gold miners all kinds of benefits. The country desperately needed funds for industrialization.
Any obstacles to the free pursuit of gold mining were removed. Almost any category of the population was allowed to engage in gold mining, with the exception of former criminals. In a short time, the number of miners in the USSR reached 120 thousand people.
In 1927, Stalin set the Soyuz Gold trust the task of becoming the world's leading gold producer, ahead of even the richest South African mines. Things, however, were going neither shaky nor smoothly. The plan for the extraction of currency metal - 258.9 tons - during the first five-year plan (1929-1933) was not fulfilled. However, the errors have been corrected. By 1936, compared to 1932, gold production increased 4.4 times - from 31.9 to 138.8 tons.
Subsequently, the pace of gold production reached a record 320 tons per year. Unfortunately, it was not possible to overtake the gold mines of South Africa, since the leader, Transvaal, increased gold production to 400 tons per annum. However, it helped bring industrialization to life. The authorities managed not only to invest in industry, but also to save for a rainy day.
By the beginning of World War II, the state treasury contained about 2,800 tons of gold. It was this gold reserve, multiplied by human resources, that laid the foundation for industrial success during the war and contributed to the rapid restoration of the country from ruins.
Melted before our eyes
After the war, the USSR government stopped selling gold abroad; moreover, due to confiscations and reparations, gold reserves began to grow again. By the end of the Stalin era, the country's gold and foreign exchange reserves amounted to 2,500 tons.
However, over the next few decades, the USSR's gold reserves began to decrease before our eyes. After Khrushchev's removal they amounted to 1,600 tons, and at the end of Brezhnev's reign there were only 437 tons in the treasury.
The Soviet leaders of the early 80s - Andropov and Chernenko - despite the short duration of their stay at the top of power, were able to increase their gold reserves by 300 tons. But with the arrival of Gorbachev, gold reserves began to rapidly disappear again.
As an investigation by Yegor Gaidar’s group showed, the gold and foreign exchange reserves of the USSR, including the savings of enterprises and ordinary citizens, located in the accounts of Vnesheconombank, were “squandered” by Prime Ministers Valentin Pavlov and his predecessor Nikolai Ryzhkov.
The problem was aggravated by the fact that the supply of large cities with food, consumer goods, and medicine was largely dependent on imports. Now there was nothing to pay for them: the country was threatened by a collapse of supplies, the shutdown of a significant part of enterprises, and even famine.
End of an era
The situation with the country's budget at the time of the collapse of the USSR was truly catastrophic. Gold reserves have decreased by approximately 5.5 times compared to the mid-80s. In 1991, a period arose when the gold and foreign exchange funds available to the government amounted to no more than $26 million. The Russian Federation inherited only 290 tons of gold and numerous foreign debts, reaching a fantastic amount of 63 billion dollars.
In the fall of 1991, the new authorities tried to clarify the situation with the so-called “party gold.” The names of major Soviet officials were revealed who transferred millions of dollars to their foreign accounts, but nothing more. No one knows where the billions went.
Petr Aven, who headed the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations in Gaidar’s government, is sure that the money of the CPSU is a myth. During Soviet times, he oversaw Vneshtorgbank and understood the schemes for getting money into party accounts. According to him, amounts of more than 1 or 2 million dollars did not appear there. It was absolutely impossible to carry out a larger-scale operation in that system of power, Aven assured.
It is interesting that by the 2000s, the government of the Russian Federation planned to increase the country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves to 900 tons, but it turned out to be impossible to realize the intention then. When Vladimir Putin took the presidency for the first time, the treasury contained only 384 tons of gold. But a little time will pass and the weight of the noble metal will increase to 850 tons.
Some “interesting” facts about the activities of the CPSU have become known. One of the high-profile incidents was the disappearance of the party's gold reserves. In the early nineties, a variety of versions appeared in the media. The more publications there were, the more rumors spread about the mysterious disappearance of CPSU values.
Gold in Tsarist Russia
One of the main factors determining stability in the country is the availability and size of the state gold reserve. By 1923, the USSR had 400 tons of state gold, and by 1928 - 150 tons. For comparison: when Nicholas II ascended the throne, the gold reserves were estimated at 800 million rubles, and by 1987 - at 1095 million. Then a monetary reform was carried out, filling the ruble with gold content.
From the beginning of the twentieth century, supplies began to deplete: Russia prepared for the Russo-Japanese War, was defeated in it, and then the revolution occurred. By 1914, gold reserves had been restored. During the First World War and after it, gold was sold (and at dumping prices), pledged to creditors, moving to their territory.
Stock restoration
The Soyuzzoloto trust was created in 1927. Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin personally led gold mining in the USSR. Industry rose, but the young state did not become a leader in the extraction of valuable metals. True, by 1941 the USSR's gold reserves amounted to 2,800 tons, twice as much as the Tsar's. The government stockpile has reached an all-time high. It was this gold that made it possible to win the Great Patriotic War and restore the destroyed economy.
USSR gold reserves
Joseph Stalin left his successor about 2,500 tons of state gold. After Nikita Khrushchev, 1,600 tons remained, after Leonid Brezhnev - 437 tons. Yuri Andropov and slightly increased the gold reserves, the “stash” amounted to 719 tons. In October 1991, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation announced that 290 tons of valuable metal remained. This gold (along with debts) passed to the Russian Federation. Vladimir Putin accepted it in the amount of 384 tons.
Gold cost
Until 1970, the price of gold was one of the most stable parameters in the world. The US leadership regulated the price at $35 per troy ounce. From 1935 to 1970, America's gold reserves were rapidly declining, so it was decided that the nation's currency would no longer be backed by gold. After this (that is, since 1971), the price of gold began to rise rapidly. After the price surge, the value fell slightly, reaching $330 per ounce in 1985.
The price of gold in the Land of the Soviets was not determined by the world market. How much did a gram of gold cost in the USSR? The price was approximately 50-56 rubles per gram for 583 standard metal. Pure gold was bought at a price of up to 90 rubles per gram. On the black market, a dollar could be bought for 5-6 rubles, so the cost of one gram did not exceed $1.28 until the seventies. Thus, the cost of an ounce of gold in the USSR was a little more than 36 dollars.
The myth of party gold
Party gold refers to the hypothetical gold and currency funds of the CPSU, which allegedly disappeared after the collapse of the USSR and have not yet been found. The myth about the existence of the untold wealth of the leaders of the Union became popular in the media in the early nineties. The reasons for the increased interest in this issue was the participation of Communist Party leaders in privatization, while the majority of the country's population was below the poverty line.
The first publication devoted to this issue is the book “Corrupt Russia” by Andrei Konstantinov. The author gives the following possible scheme for the receipt of funds into the party’s “black treasury” using the example of a scheme that was revealed during an inspection of the Lenrybkholodflot party organization.
Thus, prosecutors established that high earnings resulted in significant contributions to the party treasury. In this case, double statements were used, and most of the funds were sent to higher authorities, that is, first to the regional committee, and then to Moscow. The incident was resolved with the participation of senior party officials.
Where did the USSR gold go? Many public and political figures dealt with this issue: Russian writer Alexander Bushkov, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Gennady Osipov, international observer Leonid Mlechin, chairman of the KGB of the USSR and close associate of Yuri Andropov Vladimir Kryuchkov, dissident historian Mikhail Geller and others. Experts have not come to a clear conclusion about the existence of party money and its location.
Three suicides in a row
At the end of August 1991, Nikolai Kruchina, the manager of the CPSU, fell out of a window. The party's chief treasurer was considered close to Mikhail Gorbachev. More than a month later, Georgy Pavlov, Brezhnev’s comrade-in-arms and Nikolai Kruchina’s predecessor in office, died in a similar manner. He held this position for eighteen years. Of course, these two people were aware of the party's affairs.
A few days later, Dmitry Lisovolik, the head of the Central Committee department that dealt with the American sector, fell out of the window of his own apartment. This department carried out communications with foreign parties. The death of three officials at once, who were well aware of the financial activities of the Communist Party, gave rise to the legend of the existence of USSR gold, which disappeared in the last year of the existence of the state of peasants and workers.
Was there gold?
The Communist Party ruled the state for 74 years. At first it was an elite organization consisting of a few thousand chosen ones, but towards the end of its existence the Communist Party grew thousands of times. In 1990, the number of officials was almost 20 million people. All of them regularly paid party dues, which made up the treasury of the CPSU.
Some of the funds went into the salary fund for nomenklatura workers, but how much money was actually in the treasury and how was it spent? This was known only to a select few, among whom were Dmitry Lisovolik, Nikolai Kruchina and Georgy Pavlov who died mysteriously. This important information was carefully hidden from the eyes of outsiders.
The Communist Party received considerable income from publishing. Literature was published in huge editions. The most minimal estimates indicate that monthly amounts amounting to hundreds of millions of rubles were received into the party treasury.
No less large sums of money were accumulated in the Peace Defense Fund. Ordinary citizens and the church made voluntary and forced contributions there. The fund was a non-profit organization, but was actually under the control of the same communist party. The Peace Fund did not publish any financial statements, but (according to rough estimates) its budget was 4.5 billion rubles.
The problem of transition to state ownership
It was from the funds listed above that the party’s gold was made up. How much gold did the USSR have? It is impossible to even approximately estimate the assets of the USSR. When Yeltsin, after the putsch, issued a decree on the transfer of party property to the state, it turned out that this was impossible. The court ruled that the uncertainty of ownership of property managed by the party does not allow the CPSU to be recognized as its owners.
Where did the gold go?
Where is the gold of the USSR? The search for the party fund was taken quite seriously. The existence of the Party's gold was more than just an urban legend or newspaper sensation. In the difficult conditions in which Russia found itself in 1991-1992 and beyond, there was an urgent need for party money.
The State Bank first published information on the amount of gold in 1991. It turned out that only 240 tons remained. This shocked Western experts, who estimated gold reserves from Soviet times at 1-3 thousand tons. But it turned out that even Venezuela has more valuable metal than the Land of the Soviets.
Simple explanation
Immediately after the official publication of data on the size of gold reserves, rumors spread that the party treasury had been secretly taken to Switzerland. This process was, of course, led by the top leaders of the Communist Party. Subsequently, a very simple explanation was found for the depletion of the supply of valuable metal.
The fact is that in the last years of the USSR the government actively received loans secured by gold. The state was in dire need of currency, the flow of which was cut off due to a sharp drop in the cost of oil and the collapse of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance.
Party - not state
In addition, the gold, of which 240 tons remained, was state-owned, not party-owned. Here we need to remember that at one time it borrowed funds from the state treasury, but the state treasury did not from the budget of the Communist Party. Both Western detectives and the Russian prosecutor's office were looking for the party stock. Small amounts were found in official accounts, but they were significantly less than expected. We had to be content only with real estate that was privatized.
Versions of Western experts
The search for mysterious party gold was also carried out in the West. The government used the services of the world-famous Kroll agency. The organization's staff included former intelligence officers, accountants who worked in well-known companies, and other experts. The company was looking for money from Saddam Hussein, dictator Duvalier (Haiti) and Marcos (Philippines).
Soon after the conclusion of the agreement, the Americans sent the Russian government materials that included high-ranking government officials from the Soviet era, but there were no specifics. Russian leaders decided to refuse Kroll's services. This was motivated by the significant monetary costs of paying for the agency's services. The Russian treasury would not have been able to withstand such spending in difficult years.
So where is the money
It is obvious that the Communist Party had an impressive treasury and managed the money of some organizations. But where? It is unlikely that billions of rubles could have been transferred abroad, although part of the money could indeed have gone there.
The USSR had a sufficient number of banks abroad. Some were engaged in servicing foreign trade transactions, others operated as ordinary private banks. Branches were located in London, Paris, Singapore, Zurich and several other cities.
It was possible to withdraw money through these banks, but their employees were foreigners, so carrying out such operations was extremely risky. And it is these financial organizations that would be the first to be checked if they were seriously looking for the party’s money.
Plausible version
Most likely, the gold of the USSR remained in the USSR itself, that is, in circulation. The 1988 Cooperation Law allowed citizens to conduct commercial activities, but people did not have the initial capital for this. The Party paved the way by its example. The following year, the first private banks began to open. But where did the Soviet people get that kind of money? This is despite the fact that the authorized capital of the Soviet bank fund must have been at least 5 million rubles. Here, too, it could not have happened without the help of the Communist Party.
The main bonanza was, of course, international activity, which for a long time remained the monopoly of the CPSU. In the late eighties, private organizations entered this area. But foreign trade relations were supervised by the party and security forces. Rubles were exchanged at a reduced rate for foreign currency, and then inexpensive equipment was purchased with this money. Most often they imported computers, for which there was simply a huge demand.
So, the party's gold really existed. But these are underground gold vaults or planes loaded to the brim with banknotes. Some of the money could have been pocketed by government and public figures, but it is unlikely that these were truly significant sums. Most of the money simply turned into paper in 1992. But the real gold was the leverage that allowed leaders to form capital for themselves in the last years of the USSR.