It is December 1916 and Romania is in a bit of a pickle. World War One is raging all around them, and Bucharest, the Romanian capital, has been occupied by the forces of the Central Powers: Germany, Austria, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.
These were not countries friendly to Romania, who was fighting on the side of the Russians and had already moved to take steps to address this occupation. The seat of government had been moved to the city of Iaşi, along with many valuable treasures which were at risk of looting in the old capital.
However this was only a temporary solution, and something needed to be done. Romania had at the time some 120 tonnes of gold reserves, made up of coins and bullion, and they could not risk losing this to the occupying forces. Something had to be done.
Off to Russia
The simplest thing to do was to ship the reserves off to a neutral or geographically distant country where they would remain out of reach of looters. Denmark, the UK, and even the US were floated as possible destinations, but the risk of German warships sinking the bullion was considered too high.
So another ally was chosen, one that was much closer and one which could be reached by land, minimizing the risk of losing the gold. Romanian Prime Minister Ion Brătianu announced that the gold would be sent to Romania’s ally Russia, noting as an aside that “Russia would feel offended if we sent it to England”.
So the deal was struck and the 120 tonnes of gold, valued at $5 billion today, was loaded into a train in December 1916 and sent to the Kremlin. Seven months later with the situation in Romania worsening another train would follow containing many other treasures, including ancient artifacts and art, many rare books and the royal jewels of Romania.
Of course, most who are familiar with the First World War know that something extreme happened in Russia in 1917. The failure of the military and the suffering of the people led to a populist uprising and the Tsar and his family were arrested, and eventually executed.
Imperial Russia was now Communist Russia, and the Soviets did not want to talk to Romania about their missing gold. Communications between the two countries were severed, and when after the war in 1922 Romania asked for their treasure back, they received no reply.
Over the following decades there would be some success in recovering items from the second train. In 1935 and again in 1956 parts of the collection were returned, but it was clear that the goods had been picked over by the Russians and there were many missing items.
Nor do the Russians particularly deny that they took the gold. Every Romanian government since the First World War has tried to recover the gold, but the Russians simply will not give it back. The theft has even outlasted the Soviet Union itself, although post-Soviet Russia has continued to refuse to address the situation.
As a result, the gold reserves of Romania demonstrably exist. But they are held by a foreign power, they are inaccessible to their owners, and they may never be returned. Do the Russians even still have the gold? Hard to say.
Top Image: Romania shipped off all their gold to Russia in 1916, and none of it has been seen since. Source: Mordecio / Adobe Stock.
By Joseph Green
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