Kolchak's Gold

The account

When the empire fell, the whole tsarist gold reserve fell into the hands of the White admiral Kolchak, 645 million rubles of it. Some bought guns abroad; a fortune of it simply vanished in the chaos of the retreat across Siberia. The favourite legend has a gold train slip off the cliffs into Lake Baikal, the deepest lake on earth. Mini-submarines have hunted its floor and found wagons, but no gold. Yet.

Known intelligence

• When the empire fell, the entire tsarist gold reserve, some 645 million rubles, passed to the White admiral Alexander Kolchak.
• Roughly 235 million rubles' worth went unaccounted for in the Civil War retreat across Siberia.
• The favourite legend: a gold train slid off the Circum-Baikal line into the deepest lake on earth.
• Mini-submarines have found rail wreckage on the Baikal floor, but no bullion.

Theories of the hunt

• Most was spent or deposited abroad as loan collateral (this part is documented).
• A portion was genuinely lost or hidden during the chaotic retreat.
• A train really did go into Lake Baikal and the gold is still down there.

Leads, where the trail points now

• Admiral Kolchak seized the Imperial Russian gold reserve in the Civil War, and roughly 235 million rubles went unaccounted for in the 1920 retreat across Siberia.
• The favorite lead is Lake Baikal, where a gold train is said to have slid off the Circum-Baikal line; mini-subs have found rail wreckage but no bullion.
• Much was likely spent abroad or seized, so the documentary trail runs through the Czechoslovak Legion's records and the trans-Siberian retreat.