gold. These shipments up to the outbreak of the. revolution in
I917 totaled 60,000,000 pounds sterling, viz; ’
December, 1925 ee een,
June, 1916 oo... eben eee earner,
November, 1916 A ET ins Testrseeesriamrontene sso
February, 1917

£10,000,000
10,000,000.
20,000,000.
20,000,000
Including the initial shipment of £8,000,000, the Russian gold
reserve suffered a loss of £68,000,000, equivalent to 640,200,000
rubles. In addition, the Kerenski provisional government on the eve
of the November, 1917, revolution shipped 4,850,000 rubles gold to
Stockholm, where they were to serve as the basis of bank credits,
Deducting the amounts of gold shipped abroad and including the
amounts of newly mined gold, also the relatively small amounts of
gold withdrawn from circulation, the portion of the gold reserve
of the State bank held within the country at the time of the Oc-
tober revolution totaled about 1,164,000,000 rubles, or 440,000,
000 rubles less than on July 16-29, 1914, just before the outbreak
of the war. *
Of this total, less than one-half was held in Moscow and Pet-
fograd (Leningrad), while slighly more than one-half had been
removed out of the danger zone to Samara and Kazan, A further
loss of 120,400,000 rubles in gold was caused by the payment to the
German Government of part of the war indemnity under the Berlin
agreement supplementary to the BrestiLitovsk treaty. Under the
terms of the armistice this gold was turned over to the Allies, and
Subsequently divided between the French and British treasuries.

According to V. Novitzky, former Assistant Minister of
Finance, ** the amount of gold abandoned by the Soviet authorities
In Kazan and subsequently appropriated by the Kolchak Government
totaled 633,600,000 rubles. In the published accounts of the Omsk
Office of the State bank gold holdings (including small amounts of
Silver) figure to a total of 645,256,000 rubles. During 1919 a
considerable part of this reserve had to be shipped to Vladivostok in
Payment of munitions, and as collateral for credits opened to the
Kolchak Government by Japanese, British, and American banking
Nterests. Part of the gold thus shipped (viz., 42,200,000 rubles)
fell into the hands of Ataman Semionov, and it does not appear
8 _* According to E. Preobrajenski (Five Years of Finance and Currency in the
Oviet Republic, Moscow, 1922) the entire gold stock taken over by the Soviet
fr thorities amounted to about 1,000,000,000 rubles, of which 651.000 500 tell toc
D © hands of Admiral Kolchak. Of the latter amount only two-thirds (about 20,000
©0ds — 722,240 pounds) was recovered in Siberia.

** See a translation of an article by V. Novitzky in this pamphlet, pp. 9-25.

Xe