Судьба «румынского золота» в России 1916–2020. Очерки истории [litres]

The February and October revolutions in 1917, followed by the establishment of the Soviet regime in Russia, have affected the fate of Romanian gold in Moscow. After the breakup of diplomatic relations with Romania in January 1918 owing to the seizure of Bessarabia by Romanian troops, the Soviet government stated that it was no longer responsible for the Romanian gold stored in Russia.

According to the estimates of the Soviet state commissions created in 1918 to investigate damages caused by the Romanian army and the Romanian authorities, the total damages exceeded all the debts of Romania, including the gold reserve and valuables stored in Moscow.

During the civil war, in 1918, the Soviet government decided to evacuate the gold reserve from St. Petersburg to Nizhny Novgorod and from Moscow to Kazan, respectively. Together with the Russian gold, Romanian gold was also sent to Kazan. It is possible that some of the gold was kept in other cities.

Gold stored in Kazan was subsequently sent to Samara, then to Ufa, then to Irkutsk, and finally to Omsk, where it fell into the hands of the White Guard Kolchak government. It is possible that some of the gold was stolen while en route as well.

Since 1918, the issue of Romanian gold and valuables stored in Moscow has become the subject of bilateral negotiations between the Soviet and Romanian governments. These negotiations continued until 1934, when diplomatic relations were restored. During discussions on the eve of the restoration of diplomatic relations between the USSR and Romania, an agreement was reached, according to which the problems of Bessarabia and Romanian gold would be deemed out of scope of negotiations, and hence would not be raised.

In 1922-24, two inventories of Romanian valuables held in the Moscow Kremlin were conducted. The inventory revealed that, in addition to historical and artistic values, precious metals, rare books and icons, and antiquities, there were many household and random items, including boxes with clothes, dishes, wine, and even two boxes with gunpowder. Significant amount of money was spent on the inventories to preserve Romanian collections.

In 1935, following the restoration of Soviet-Romanian relations, archival documents and materials were returned to Romania, and in 1956, historical and artistic valuables transferred to Russia in 1917 were also returned (39,320 exhibits from museums and monasteries in Romania, 33 kg. of gold in pieces and 690 kg. of silver).

However, the problem of returning the gold itself remained unresolved. In 1917, the gold fund of Romania held in Russia was estimated at approximately 117 million gold rubles. On January 1, 1921, its value was reduced to 105,102,337 rubles, and a year later reduced down to 87,074,503 gold rubles. Part of the Romanian gold was retained in the Moscow Kremlin as negotiations were underway with Romania on the peace treaty, and the return of the gold fund to Romania could become an important factor in the bilateral relations between the two countries.