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

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.

However, when the Currency Department of the People’s Commissariat of Finance sent a memo to the People’s Commissariat of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate at the end of 1924, it referred to Romanian gold as something subsumed in the holdings and that no longer existed as an independent unit. At the same time, the memo referenced 282 pieces of Romanian valuables in the Gokhran (gold, platinum, silver, precious stones, clothing, metal, faience and glass dishes, etc.), estimated at 1,185,575 rubles.

During the Second World War, Romania sided with Hitler’s Germany and sent the second largest army (after the German army) against the USSR. Romanian forces reached Stalingrad and the Caucasus. Romania captured the Moldavian SSR, Northern Bukovina, the Crimean Peninsula, and Odessa. Romanian occupation authorities pursued the policy of looting Soviet property and terrorized the local population. On August 23, 1944, a coup d’etat took place in Romania and the new government decided to switch sides and become allied with the anti-Hitler coalition. It should be noted that both the improvement and deterioration of relations between the USSR and Romania also influenced the issue of the Romanian gold.

In 1965, after Nicolae Ceaușescu came to power in Romania, growing nationalism and Romania’s refusal to toe the Soviet line, have resulted in the Romanian leadership again raising the question of the return of the gold. The Soviet government categorically rejected this demand, arguing that Romania’s debts to Russia accumulated during the First and Second World Wars far exceeded the value of the gold reserve sent to Russia, and stated that it considered this problem closed. However, the Romanian government continued to raise this issue, and it has not lost its relevance to date.

Following the overthrow of the Ceausescu regime in Romania, the question of returning the Romanian gold reserve to Romania again surfaced during the negotiations on the signing of a new agreement on cooperation between Russia and Romania. However, when signing the treaty in 2003, Russian President Putin and Romanian President I. Iliescu agreed to consider issues such as Romanian gold to be out of scope of the treaty and tasked historians of the two countries to study the issue further. A joint public commission was created, which on the Russian side was headed by A.O. Chubaryan.

If Romania continues to makes claims for the return of the Romanian gold, one can expect Russian counter-claims with respect to losses of the Russian property in Romania and Bessarabia during the First World War and damages to the Soviet people during the Second World War.