of gold, which had been brought there during the war from the cen- 
tral region of Russia. 
[n the month of August 1918, when the Bolsheviki hastily had 
to evacuate Kazan, they did not have the time to take along that 
gold, of which over 492,000 kilograms, valued at 633,600,000 rubles 
($326,304,000) was seized there. The figure of 645,000 kilo- 
grams of gold, which has been given in a number of official and 
private reports, is inexact. The error is probably due to the fact 
that the weight of the alloy and of the wrapping was counted with 
that of the gold. In the statement of the Omsk Branch of the State 
Bank gold figures to an amount of 645,256,387 rubles ($332,307,038) 
namely, 501,233 kilograms of gold in coin and in bullion and 
32,800 kilograms of gold and silver of various descriptions. 
From Kazan, at the end of the month of August 1918, the gold 
was shipped by steamships to Samara, where it was kept until the 
time when the members of the Constituent Assembly moved to Ufa; 
it was then shipped to the last named city. During their stay in 
Ufa, the members of the Constituent Assembly were conducting 
negotiations with the Siberian Government, which had been set up 
by that time as a coalition government. Each of the two parties 
had a real force to back it, and endeavored to utilize it in the course 
of the negotiations: the force of the members of the Constituent 
Assembly resided in the gold stock which they held, whild that of 
the Siberian Government was embodied in the newly formed volun- 
teer army. The first mentioned group was seriously hampered by 
the lack of good troops, as the remnants of the People’s Army* by 
that time were completely demoralized. On the other hand, the 
financial situation of the Siberian Government was a critical one, 
and the only way for it to acquire real financial strength was to get 
possession of the gold stock. Under the pressure of the Bolshevist 
advance, the People’s Government decided to transfer its seat from 
Ufa to Cheliabinsk, taking along the gold .stock, and there to con- 
tinue the negotiations with the Siberian Government. But then 
something happened which was not anticipated by the mem- 
bers of the Constituent Assembly. When the train carrying 
the representatives of the people and the gold arrived in Chelia- 
binsk, the members of the Government went to look for a place 
where they might store the gold in safety, and they selected for 
that purpose the grain elevators of the State Bank. Upon returning 
to the station, however, they no longer found there the trains loaded 
* That was the name borne by the Government of the Constituent 
Assembly and by its army.