“We acted safely”
The Romanian government transferred the gold to the Russian Empire due to the failure of the First World War. Romania prepared for this longer than other European powers and entered only in 1916, at first succeeding in attacking Austro-Hungarian territory. However, in the autumn of the same year, German-Austro-Bulgarian troops occupied Dobruja, Oltenia and Muntenia in southern Romania. The situation turned into a disaster. There was an immediate threat to Bucharest, which was semi-cut off from the rest of the region. Therefore, the capital was moved to Iasi, Moldova, near friendly Russia.
Russia sent troops to help the Romanians but there was no confidence that they could hold Iasi. exactly then The National Bank of Romania decided to transfer its gold reserves to the allies to ensure greater security, as France did by sending them to the United States. The ideal option for the Romanians was to transport it to London, but the sea route to it was blocked by the Turks in the Black Sea and the Germans in the Baltic. Romania decided to hide the gold in the Kremlin, where Russia’s gold reserves are stored. Besides gold, other national treasures were transferred: ancient manuscripts, paintings, rare books and many state archives. 93.4 tonnes of gold (mostly) was transferred in the form of coins.
In October 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia, but not everyone accepted the revolution. The commander of the Russian Romanian Front, General Dmitry Shcherbachev, also resisted him. He supported the Ukrainian Central Rada and the seizure of Bessarabia by the Romanian army, and also got rid of the Bolsheviks in the army.
After this, the People’s Commissars said: “The workers’ and peasants’ governments of Russia and Ukraine reject all responsibility for the future fate of various valuables transported to Russia during the reign of the Tsarist government and belonging to the Romanian government and the Romanian National Bank. , other Romanian banks, as well as Romanian landowners and capitalists ” The expropriation of gold was officially presented as a retaliatory measure, but this was fully consistent with the general policy of the Bolsheviks, who did not recognize the property rights of capitalists and capitalist governments.
The mystery of “Kolchak gold”
At the beginning of the Civil War, Romanian gold and Russian gold reserves were stored in Kazan. In August 1918, white troops led by Vladimir Kappel captured Kazan. Valuables were sent to Omsk by rail to finance anti-Bolshevik forces led by Alexander Kolchak. Soon the white movement in Siberia was crushed by the reds, and the captured gold reserves became very difficult to keep track of. Some was sold and spent, some was stolen, and the remaining share was seized by the Czechoslovak Corps, an Allied military unit of Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war. The Czechs returned 409 million rubles to the Soviet government for the right to unhindered return to their homeland, and the fate of the rest became a historical mystery of the “Kolchak gold”.
The head of the Russian Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, offered the following version: “As for gold reserves, then The Czechs took with them some of the money that became the basis for the gold coin of the National Bank of Czechoslovakia in Prague. Most returned to Moscow. And what was lost along the way made many happy.
Kerensky believes that at that time Romanian gold was considered part of Russian gold and had a common destiny. This is most likely true, but there is no documentary evidence of this and it can be assumed that the trace of Romanian gold has been lost. However, Romania dreamed of getting its valuables back after the end of World War I and planned to rescue them from the Russian Empire’s successor, the USSR.
100 years of determination
It was impossible to get the Bolsheviks to return the gold, especially under Stalin’s rule. However, in 1935 the Soviet government made concessions on a less important issue. 17 freight wagons arrived in Bucharest with 1,443 boxes of material and cultural valuables, transferred along with gold reserves. Old documents, works of art and bank documents were also very valuable, but it was very difficult to convert them into money and put them into circulation. However, the return of the items improved relations with Romania to some extent.
During the Stalin period, only some of the cultural assets were transferred. The rest was published only in 1956, during Khrushchev’s reign, when a friendly Communist Party was in power in Romania. “The Soviet people carefully preserved all these works of art of enormous historical and artistic value. “The USSR government and the Soviet people have always considered these values to be the inalienable property of the Romanian people,” the Soviet government’s statement said. Later, 33,068 gold coins, 2,465 medals, 1,350 paintings and drawings, approximately 2,500 medieval jewels, painted canvases, icons and fabrics were returned.
However, even though the Romanian government was communist, it still dreamed of seeing 93.4 tons of gold. Nicolae Ceausescu tried to negotiate this issue with Leonid Brezhnev but was met with a harsh refusal. As Brezhnev believed, the history of Romanian gold is very ancient and relates to the Kingdom of Romania and the Russian Empire. Moreover, the Kingdom owed the Tsarist government 300 million dollars, that is, 274 tons of gold. Following the consequences of World War II, Romania had to pay the USSR an additional $300 million, which was less than the damage caused, but the USSR refused reparations. Therefore, Brezhnev wanted to think that this issue was closed forever.
Romanians continued their efforts after the fall of communism in both countries. In 1994, Romanian President Ion Iliescu sent an ambassador to Russia to request the return of valuables, but received much the same response from Yeltsin’s government as Brezhnev. In 2004, the Joint Public Commission of Historians was created with the aim of improving relations between the countries, and the Romanian side has repeatedly raised the issue of gold at its meetings.
European Parliament Resolution
Despite all the rejections, the Romanian government does not give up and brings the gold issue back to the agenda. March 14 decision requesting return accepted European Parliament.
“The European Parliament calls on the Russian Federation to fully return to Romania the remaining part of the Romanian national heritage that was sent to Russia for safekeeping in 1916 and 1917; Calls on the Commission and the European External Action Service to include the issue of the return of Romania’s national heritage in the bilateral diplomatic priorities governing relations between the EU and Russia, as soon as the regional situation allows the resumption of political dialogue between the parties,” reads the text of the document.
The answer of modern Russian diplomacy remains the same. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova on the Telegram channel WroteIt was stated that the forgiveness of the compensation debt that Romania had to pay due to World War II included “Romanian gold” and therefore Russia did not need to make any payment.