Russian gold

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1772009490

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-156190

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Russian gold

Place of publication:: [New York]

Publisher:: Amtorg Trading Corporation, Information Department

Year of publication:: 1928

Scope:: 72 S.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: The Russian Gold Reserve before and during the World and Civil Wars (1883-1921)

Collection:: Economics Books

To WaAT Extent May THE Borsuevikr HAVE INCREASED Tuer Gorp Stock After having examined the question of gold production in Siberia with reference to the utilization of that gold by the Bol- sheviki, we have to mention two further sources from which the Soviet Government may have increased its gold stock, namely: (1) the withdrawal of gold coin from circulation, and (2) the confiscation of articles of gold in churches, monasteries, palaces, and in private homes. The value of gold coins in circulation was estimated at a total of about oo million rubles, including the 15 and 7.5 ruble coins which circulated prior to February 1896. This large gold circulation was a result of the policy pursued by the Ministry of Finance in the decade 1900-1910, directed towards introducing gold coin into circulation and thus doing away with the rush to exchange banknotes against gold in periods of political or economic tension. Early in the war an effort was made to withdraw that gold from cit- culation, by appealing to the patriotism of the public and by grant- ing special advantages to those who made payments in gold when transferring money abroad. The results, however, were slight. All those who have studied this question have reached the con- clusion that the greater part of that gold was scattered in peasants’ hoards, from which it could by no means be extracted. It is also thought, from more or less conclusive evidence, that part of the gold coin has been melted down and used for industrial and tech- nical purposes, owing to the difficulty of procuring the metal. It would, therefore, be erroneous to assume that the Bolsheviki suc- ceeded in withdrawing that gold from circulation. Tae QUANTITY OF GoLD THE BoLsuEVIKI May HAVE AT THE END oF 1921 The Soviet Government has never made. public any data with reference to the movement of gold or to the quantities of gold which it had at its disposal at any given moment. Only a very approximate estimate of those quantities can be made . . . The total amount of gold which passed through the hands of the Soviet Government since October 1917 was certainly below one billion rubles. After the payments to Germany and the loss of the gold deposited at Kazan there was left to the Bolsheviki about 450 millions; to that should be added about another 450 million rubles which they Subsequently secured in Omsk, Nijneudinsk, and Irkutsk, also the Rumanian gold stock, and finally, the insignificant amounts of the New production, which ceased almost entirely after 1918. . J 3

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