Operation X: the secret of the secrets of Spanish gold
Vault of gold reserves at the National Bank of Spain
Will order a yellow idol to us -
And rush towards crazy days.
And it seems to the vulture that rats
They run somewhere on the stones.
Again, again, gold beckons us!
Again, again, gold, as always, beckons us!
V. Obodzinsky. McKenna's Gold
And rush towards crazy days.
And it seems to the vulture that rats
They run somewhere on the stones.
Again, again, gold beckons us!
Again, again, gold, as always, beckons us!
V. Obodzinsky. McKenna's Gold
Secrets of modern politics. When I was teaching journalism at the university, when I was asked what to do if material was urgently needed and there was nothing to write about, I always answered: “Write about the“ gold of the party ”, well, the same, membership fees to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in recent months before the State Emergency Committee, which, after all, have not been found. By the way, the issue of the "party gold" was dealt with by many very difficult people, not "from the street", but public and political figures, including Yuri Baturin, Alexander Bushkov, Arkady Vaksberg, Mikhail Geller, Boris Grekov, Alexander Gurov, Boris Kagarlitsky, Vladimir Kryuchkov, Leonid Mlechin, Alexander Nevzorov, Gennady Osipov, Nikolai Ryzhkov, Marina Salye, Vitaly Tretyakov, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Andrey Makarov and many others. And the funniest thing: to an unambiguous conclusion that this party money existed and who exactly got it, it never came. Therefore, you can write here anything and how you want. But it turned out that in stories The USSR has a more interesting topic, and there can be no doubt about its mystery, since its very name speaks of its secret nature: "Operation X". Behind this name was a plan to export to the USSR the entire gold reserve of the Spanish republic, which our country provided assistance to during the civil war raging there in 1936-1939.
And it so happened that in Spain two forces clashed: the republicans (the official government of the country) and the rebels (nationalists who stood up for the development of the country in line with traditional national values). The nationalists managed to interest the leadership of such countries as Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, who immediately sided with them and began to actively help them.
So, Mussolini sent a whole expeditionary force to Spain, Tanks and planes, and Hitler - aviation a subdivision of the legion "Condor" and a tank group "Drone". The Soviet Union, or rather, let's say, Stalin represented by the “Soviet Union”, at first was not too interested in Spanish affairs. But then he rightly judged that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," and began to provide the Spanish republicans with various types of assistance, especially since the communists had a strong influence there and one could at least theoretically count on the fact that if it was they who would win there Spain will become another outpost of the world revolution. Details of Soviet aid to the Spanish republicans are described in the monograph of Colonel Y. Rybalkin, Candidate of Historical Sciences * ("Operation X". Soviet military aid to Republican Spain (1936-1939) "/ Y. Rybalkin; Foreword by V.V. Shelokhaev. - M., 2000. - 149, p.: Ill., Maps; 20 p. Series "First monograph" / Assoc. Issled. Russian islands of the XX century).
And there he writes that during the entire civil war in Spain, the Soviet Union sent there about 650 aircraft, more than a thousand artillery pieces, as well as tanks, machine guns, several torpedo boats and almost half a million rifles with ammunition. These were modern I-15 and I-16 fighters and SB bombers, as well as tanks and armored vehicles, which were already described on the pages of "VO" (and the story about which will continue).
But in comparison with the fascist states, the assistance of the USSR did not look very impressive: half as many guns, two and a half times fewer planes, three times fewer tanks and armored vehicles, although our tanks were many times better than the tanks of our opponents.
So, Yu. Rybalkin writes that Stalin's position in relation to the Spanish Republic "changed depending on his mood, on the situation at the fronts and in the international arena." Gradually, Stalin's interest in Spain disappeared, on the contrary, it was replaced by rejection of reports on Spanish affairs.
"There are many known appeals of the republican government to the USSR for help, which Stalin simply ignored."
There were few in Spain and Soviet military advisers: 600 people during the entire war, from 1936 to 1939, and at the beginning of 1939 their number decreased to 84 people. And what kind of advisors were they? They did not know Spanish, the manners and customs of the Spaniards did not know, as a result of which it was difficult for them to find a common language with the commanders of the Republicans. In addition, they often changed, and those recalled to the USSR were immediately repressed, which did not add respect to those who remained with the Spaniards.
Well, the leadership of the "advisers" from the USSR was also very strange. For example, the order of the People's Commissar of Defense Voroshilov regarding the Saragossa operation, which came from Moscow, sounded like this:
"Collect a powerful fist in one place, stock up on a reserve and blow into the most sensitive place of the enemy."
Such an order could have been given, probably, by any more or less literate person, and not just the "first red officer" and the Marshal of the Soviet Union!
Many of the Soviet pilots, before being sent to Spain, had a flight time of only 30-40 hours, while the German and Italian pilots who fought for Franco, if they were not all aces, had a lot more flight time in any case. And the result is a high percentage of accidents and disasters due to the human factor, because of which nearly one and a half hundred Soviet aircraft were lost in the first year and a half of the war!
The motivation was also different for everyone. The combat work of the Franco pilots was provided at the highest level, while the salaries of our pilots were the lowest among all internationalist pilots, and for some reason ... American pilots received the most! But how, for example, the nationalist aviation command took care of their pilots. Their daily routine on the Northern Front during the battles for Santader is taken from Hugh Thomas's book The Spanish Civil War. 1931-1939 " ("Tsentrpoligraf", 2003):
- 8.30 - breakfast (for families with families) or in the officers' mess;
- 9.30 - arrival at the unit, flights to bombard and shell the Republican positions;
- 11.00 - playing golf in the infirmary;
- 12.30 pm - swimming and sunbathing on the beach in Ondaretto;
- 1.30 beer, light snacks and friendly conversations in the cafe;
- 2 hours - lunch at home;
- 3 hours - short rest;
- 4.00 - the second sortie;
- 6.30 - film screening;
- 9.00 am - aperitif at the bar with good scotch whiskey;
- 10.15 - lunch at the restaurant "Nicholas". "War songs, war brotherhood, general enthusiasm."
But in Spain agents of the NKVD were very active, whose main enemies were not the “fifth column”, not Franco's supporters in the army and government, but the “Trotskyists” and their accomplices. It didn't matter that they fought bravely as part of the international brigades, or that they were (like Andreas Nin) ministers of the regional governments of the Popular Front. If you have an opinion different from Stalin's line, they will point out to you that you are a "Trotskyist." And that's all, your fate is to disappear in the basement, which, in fact, happened to the same Andreas Nin. And if only with him! .. So in Spain, the famous figures in the international Fourth International were destroyed Wolf, Freund, Rein, Robles ... Destroyed secretly. And this is understandable: so that indignation and split does not arise in the republican camp. The leader of POUM Kurt Landau was secretly captured and killed in the fall of 1937. The fighter of the international brigades, the Italian anarchist Bernelli, whom the NKVD considered dangerous for the internationalist brotherhood, was killed. Well, in Barcelona, an Englishman who had come to fight against fascism, Robert Smiley, also a Trotskyist, and very famous, was kidnapped and then killed.
What have the Chekists got to do with it when it comes to Spain's gold reserves? Such a question will surely be asked by some meticulous reader of "VO", ready to see "the denigration of the USSR" in any impartial mention of the NKVD.
The reason is that it was precisely the people from the NKVD who were instructed to transport Spanish gold to the USSR, which was used to pay for Soviet military aid by the Spanish government!
The Chekist Alexander Orlov, who was the deputy chief military adviser of the USSR in Spain, aka Lev Nikolsky, comrade Miguel, and ... many others, should have been in charge of this operation ("Operation X").
He was described by Ernest Hemingway in For Whom the Bell Tolls under the name of Varlov. Orlov received instructions directly from Yezhov himself. As soon as he received the appropriate order, the loading of gold on four Soviet merchant ships, "Kim", "Kuban", "Neva" and "Volgoles", immediately began in the port of Cartagena, which were supposed to deliver it to Odessa.
Nationalists, as well as Germans and Italians, learned about this operation. They tried to bomb a convoy of trucks with gold even when it was being transported, but nothing came of it. They also failed to intercept the "golden ships" at the crossing by sea.
One of the "golden ships"
The Spanish State Bank decided to send gold to the USSR in the fall of 1936 for two reasons. First: the Francoists were approaching Madrid, so five hundred tons of gold, which were packed in 7800 boxes of 65 kilograms of gold in each, were sent, just in case, to Cartagena and then hidden near the port. The second reason was related to the fact that Stalin demanded payment for military supplies only in gold. Therefore - no gold, no military aid!
Here they are, these boxes of gold!
And Orlov successfully completed the task, received the rank of senior major of state security and the Order of Lenin, and then ... then he fled to the USA! Apparently, he knew and understood perfectly well who he was working for and what "reward" awaited him in the end.
Once safe, Orlov sent letters to the head of the NKVD N.I. Yezhov and Joseph Stalin, in which he warned that if his family or relatives who remained in the USSR were persecuted, he would expose the entire NKVD agent network in Spain and Europe. True, today it is believed that he did not actually write such a letter to Stalin.
In any case, we can say that this man looked at life without illusions - and he did the right thing, because many of his fellow Chekists who worked with him in Spain were shot upon returning home.
By the way, Stalin did not forgive Yezhov for such a puncture. And although in the documents on him (as an enemy of the people) there is not a single line about Spanish gold, the real reason for its liquidation is most likely precisely this.
As for Alexander Orlov, in 1953 he published a book in the United States, where he spoke in detail about this secret operation. So the whole world learned that from Spain to the Soviet Union during this operation, no less than 510 tons of gold, or 73% of the gold reserves of the republic, were transported. Moreover, there was not only gold bullion, but also rare gold coins, piastres and doubloons of the era of Spanish rule on the seas, which, in addition, had a colossal collection value. Selling a single such coin through the Sotheby's auction meant getting rich for life!
And I personally would not be at all surprised if a certain number of such coins (not burdensome, albeit valuable!) Would not “stick” to the hands of Alexander Orlov. After all, the Chekists had to have clean hands, but he had them covered in blood up to the elbows ...
This is what he is, the "hero" of the top-secret "operation" X ", Alexander Mikhailovich Orlov, he was at birth Leib Lazarevich (Leizerovich) Feldbin. Photo of 1930
However, he nevertheless got his hands on the money: he stole $ 90,8 thousand (about $ 1,5 million in 2014 prices) from the operational funds of the NKVD (from a personal safe that was in the Soviet consulate on Avenida Street del Tibidabo in Barcelona) and together with his wife (also a spy) and daughter, on July 13, 1938, secretly left for France, and from there on the Montclaret steamer from Cherbourg on July 21, first to Montreal (Canada), and then to the USA. By the way, Orlov's book of memoirs "The Secret History of Stalin's Crimes" was published in the Russian Federation by the World Word Publishing House in 1991.
When, on November 2, 1936, ships with gold arrived in Odessa, their cargo was immediately loaded onto a special train and delivered to Moscow under heavy guard. Well, they placed this truly priceless "treasure" in the basement of one of the houses in Nastasyinsky lane in Moscow, as if for ... temporary storage. But at a banquet in the Kremlin, Stalin suddenly said:
"The Spaniards cannot see this gold as their ears."
And they never saw their gold.
However, the Spanish edition of El Confidencial, referring to a number of famous Spanish historians and documents of the former Minister of Finance of the Republic Juan Negrin, announced in our time that, they say, all the gold went to pay for Soviet military equipment and specialists. They say that the Soviet Union did not take a dime for itself. For example, 2062 military specialists were sent to Spain and all of them were paid a salary (and an allowance to families for the loss of a breadwinner if the specialist died), paid for travel and accommodation ... from this gold reserve, 510 tons of gold in bars, ingots and gold coins!
This was the version of the Soviet side. And it seems that after Franco's death no claims for gold were sent to us. But ... how many tanks, guns and aircraft could be bought for these tons of gold, how many "advisors" should be paid a salary ?! And did Mussolini really take about the same amount for 150000 soldiers sent to Spain, Fiat fighters, his machine-gun tankettes? Let's look at the supply figures again.
In almost three years of the war, 648 aircraft, 347 tanks were sent to Spain (yes, and due to the republic's gold reserves, of course) (Soviet historian I.P.Shmelev gave a different number: 362, but the difference is insignificant), 60 armored vehicles, 1186 guns, 340 mortars, 20486 machine guns, 497813 rifles, 862 million rounds of ammunition, 3,4 million shells, 4 torpedo boats. According to the Spaniards, they received 500 T-26 and 100 - BT-5 (not counting armored vehicles), 1968 artillery barrels and 1008 aircraft ... A lot? Yes, a lot, but does it weigh 510 tons? In addition, a lot of foodstuffs from the USSR came to Spain at the expense of funds collected by Soviet citizens. Historian V. I. Mikhailenko in his work "New facts about Soviet military aid in Spain" (Ural Bulletin of International Studies. 2006. No. 6. P. 18-46), for example, writes that they collected a huge amount of voluntary donations: 264 million rubles. As a result, in 1936 - early 1937, 1 million 420 thousand tons worth 216 388 thousand rubles were shipped from the USSR to Spain, and this has nothing to do with gold.
However, Doctor of Historical Sciences V.L. Telitsyn in his book Pyrenees on Fire. The Spanish Civil War and Soviet "volunteers" (Moscow: Eksmo, 2003. 384 p., Ill.) On page 256 writes that the Spanish side at the end of the 1950s raised the issue of gold, then it was raised during the second half of the 1960s, but our side refused to return the gold. Only after Franco's death (November 20, 1975) did the governments of the USSR and Spain manage to resolve this issue, and a part of the gold reserve still returned to Madrid. But how much and how? Of course, this was not reported in our press. Why did our citizens know this?
But an interesting version of what happened was described in the book "Head over heels in gold: how Stalin got his hands on the gold reserves of republican Spain" (Tver: publisher A. N. Kondratyev, 2015. 340 pp.: Ill.) B. Simorra, son of a famous Spanish journalist Eusebio Cimorra, who led the communist newspaper Mundo Obrero during the Spanish Civil War and then lived and worked in the USSR, and in 1977 returned to his homeland with his parents in Spain ...
And now a little not about gold, but about the consequences for Spain of those sad events. The country has lost 450 thousand people. This is 5% of its pre-war population and over 10% of the male population. Moreover, almost 20% of people aged 16 to 30 died. According to rough estimates, among the dead were 320 thousand Republicans and 130 thousand Francoists, and there were also wounded (including seriously) and crippled ones. But the worst thing is that one in five died not in the course of hostilities, but became a victim of political repression that took place on both sides of the front line. There are almost no families left in the country that would not have suffered from the war. More than 600 thousand citizens, in fact, the intellectual elite of the nation (writers, poets, artists, philosophers) left the country then. That is, a real catastrophe took place in Spain, the echoes of which are still heard in this country!
* Yu. Rybalkin is one of the authors of several fundamental studies: "Essays on the military history of Western European countries" (M., 1995), "Foreign prisoners of war of the Second World War in the USSR" (Moscow, 1996), "Fulfilling the allied duty: military assistance from the USSR to countries and peoples of the world ”(M., 1997),“ German prisoners of war in the USSR ”(M., 1999), etc. Rybalkin's works have been published in five countries of the world. In four television films (Russia, Spain, Germany, Italy), he acted as an author and scientific consultant.
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