Russia (bbabo.net), - Member of the Yekaterinburg Military History Club, historian Alexander Kruchinin, at the presentation of the book "Diary of the Czechoslovak legionnaire Frantisek Nowak" answered the question about Czech legionnaires and Russia's gold reserves, the so-called "Kolchak's gold".
There are a lot of rumors and myths around this topic. According to one of the popular versions, the leadership of the Czechoslovak Corps returned some of the gold in exchange for guarantees of evacuation from Russia, but the Czechs allegedly took a significant part with them.
- Just this Frantisek Novak, being a second lieutenant of the tenth Jan Sladky Kozina regiment, in Irkutsk participated in the protection of the golden echelon. And he tells how he transferred this train under the protection of the Irkutsk Council. He talks very picturesquely, - says the historian, pointing to the book in the hands of the translator and editor Konstantin Brylyakov.
According to the expert, the Czechs dealt with this gold on two occasions. The first time was when they transported gold reserves from the Ufa region to Chelyabinsk and Omsk (then they carried only external guards).
- And the second time they were involved in the protection of the gold echelon already in January 1920 in Nizhneudinsk, when the Czechs were instructed to take Admiral Kolchak into custody.
Kolchak, as you know, was eventually shot. And on February 7, 1920, the Czechoslovak legionnaires concluded the Kuytun (from the name of the Kuytun station) agreement with the Bolsheviks. According to it, the new Russian authorities were supposed to provide the Czechs with coal and not interfere with their departure. And when all the legionnaires leave for Baikal, the golden echelon will be handed over to the Bolsheviks.
- There are documents about this transfer - acts, protocols. They were written in duplicate, in Russian and Czech. I saw these documents in a copy, and I can confirm that the Czechs did not take gold, - Kruchinin assured.
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