Russia's gold reserves: where they are stored and located. History, location and formation of the Russian gold reserve The Russian gold reserve is located
It's no secret that gold has always been considered a symbol of wealth. People were robbed and deprived of their lives for this precious metal. Entire states got involved in military conflicts to gain the right to own gold.
Currently, the “brilliant” mineral has not lost its value and is actively used by world powers as an effective tool for protection against financial bankruptcy. In other words, a significant part of the reserve (insurance) fund, as before, is gold.
"In reserve"
It should be noted that today's statistics indicate that over 32 thousand tons of “precious” metal “lies” in the Central Banks of various countries, including the IMF reserves. Even more of it is found among the population in the form of coins and jewelry.
In this regard, many of our compatriots are interested in the question of how much gold Russia has.
It is noteworthy that at the beginning of the 21st century the volume of gold mined in the world was about 150.4 thousand tons of the “shiny” metal.
A decade later, the above figure increased by another 15 thousand tons.
About 20% of the world's onshore reserves are held by banking institutions as reserve and
Exchange structures have about 1,750 tons of “shiny” precious metal, which is intended primarily for investment companies.
Of course, citizens of our vast country, in conditions of instability of the national currency, will be interested to know how much gold Russia has.
US position in terms of gold reserves
It should be noted that in the 30s of the last century, many countries, fearing German aggression, transferred their gold reserves to the United States for storage. To this day they are located in the Federal City of New York.
Currently, American authorities scrupulously monitor all financial transactions of the IMF, which cannot dispose of gold without the permission of the legislature.
Until recently, this state of affairs suited everyone. However, in 2011, Venezuela initiated measures aimed at partially returning the precious metal located abroad, amounting to about 160 tons worth $11 billion.
The state of affairs in our country
But let’s return to the question: “How much gold does Russia have?” Let's take a short historical excursion.
Russia before the revolution
The reserve at the beginning of the 20th century was more than impressive. It should be noted that at that period of history there were many who wanted to steal, “squander” and sell off property from the country’s gold fund. Despite this, in 1913 it was considered the largest in the world. “How much gold did Russia have then?” - you ask. There were about 600 tons of precious metal, which was equivalent to almost 1 billion 700 million rubles (at today's exchange rate - 60 billion dollars)
Afterwards, a significant part of the “Russian gold” ended up in Western European countries. The wealth remaining on the territory of the USSR was plundered by both the Reds and the Whites.
When World War I ended, the Soviet government promised to transfer about 250 tons of gold to Germany as compensation.
In the 20s of the last century, USSR officials parted with 200 tons of gold in order to purchase “expensive” English and Swiss steam locomotives. Ultimately, at that time, the Soviet government “squandered” more than 500 tons of the precious metal.
By the beginning of the 30s of the last century, the gold reserves of the USSR did not exceed 150 tons.
During the years of collectivization, the authorities began to actively engage in gold mining. As a result, in the early 50s, our country extracted over 2,051 tons of gold from the bowels of the earth - this figure exceeded the volume of gold reserves of “tsarist” Russia.
As the decades passed, the “gold” fund decreased, and by the mid-80s its size was already approximately 700 tons.
After perestroika
In the early 90s, a period of “massive sale” of the government began, as a result of which the country’s gold reserves depleted to 480 tons.
In 1992, Boris Yeltsin continued the “large-scale sale” policy, and the volume of gold reserves decreased to 290 tons.
Beginning of the 21st century
At the beginning of the new millennium, officials began to place more emphasis on gold mining methods, resulting in an increase in gold production.
Already a decade later, our country was able to supplant Japan and take 8th place in the ranking of states with large deposits of “precious metal”. Do you want to know how many tons of gold there were in Russia in 2010? Approximately 800. At the beginning of 2011, the head of the Central Bank announced that the financial structure intends to increase the share of the precious metal in the gold and foreign exchange reserves, purchasing over 100 tons of bullion every year.
Not everyone has information about how much gold reserves in Russia managed to accumulate until they managed to reach 871.1 tons. The leaders in these positions today are countries such as China, India, and Germany. Production has also increased in Kazakhstan and Belarus.
Our days
Of course, many are primarily interested in the question of how much gold Russia has now. It must be emphasized that over the last five years our country has increased its gold reserves by at least one and a half times.
And yet, how much gold is mined in Russia at present? If we take into account 2014, then during its period 272 tons of gold were mined. As the practice of recent years shows, on average, in 12 months in our country, from 200 to 300 tons of precious metal are mined. This is how much gold Russia produces annually. Agree, this is a lot. If we talk about today, our country has about 1200 tons of gold.
Where are treasures mined in our country?
The strategic regions for the extraction of precious metals in our country are: the Republic of Bashkortostan, Magadan, Irkutsk regions, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Khabarovsk Territory. The main enterprises in this area can be considered OJSC Gold of the Northern Urals, ZRK and CJSC Silver of Magadan, OJSC Seligdar, LLC Neryungri-Metallik, CJSC Rudnik Aprelkovo.
Where is the wealth stored?
About 70% of Russia's gold and foreign exchange fund is concentrated in the capital's metropolis, namely in the premises of the Central Vault of the Bank of Russia. The main treasure is stored in ingots, which are arranged in 6,100 boxes. The average weight of one standard ingot ranges from 10 to 14 kilograms. The mass of a measuring ingot varies from 100 to 1000 grams.
Currently, our country's gold reserves are an integral part of the stabilization fund, which will provide protection for Russians in the event of economic shocks.
One way or another, today every resident of our state can form their own gold reserve by opening a metal deposit or purchasing an ingot of a “shiny” mineral from a banking institution.
After Russia’s gold reserves began to decline sharply starting in September 2014, many experts began to give disappointing forecasts about the inevitable depletion of the reserve and about a catastrophic scenario for the development of events in the country. The dynamics of the Russian Federation's reserves show a completely opposite picture to the one that many are accustomed to perceive in connection with the military conflict on the territory of Ukraine and due to the collapse of the world oil market. The financial position of the state is very stable and stable.
Dynamics of the gold and foreign exchange reserves of the Russian Federation
The main concerns regarding the Russian economy relate to the size of the state’s external debt. Taking into account the debts of banks and companies, its volume by the beginning of the year amounted to 600 billion dollars. The state must pay more than $65 billion by the end of 2015. What is striking is the fact that the lion's share of the gold and foreign exchange reserves are specialized drawing rights and funds in the IMF plus Russia's gold reserves. About 150 billion dollars are the funds of the Ministry of Finance: national welfare and reserve. Despite the fact that the assets belong to the country’s gold and foreign exchange fund, they have a specific purpose. Their use is intended for the implementation of large-scale infrastructure projects and other purposes. The Central Bank has no access to this part of the reserve; it cannot use it to maintain the ruble exchange rate. Experts insisted that the country’s financial cushion would exhaust itself by 2017, since the dynamics of reserve reduction corresponded to minus 10 billion per month back in mid-2014.
Fund structure as of March 2015
In the fall of 2014, a fairly large amount of funds from the Reserve Fund was spent on foreign exchange interventions by the Central Bank aimed at maintaining the ruble exchange rate. In November, the country's leadership, in order to preserve Russia's gold reserves, decides to switch to a floating ruble exchange rate. The maximum allowable volume of daily interventions was set at $350 million. The decision caused a change in the main expense items. Now the funds are directed largely toward foreign currency loans to commercial banks, which are organized by the Central Bank in the format of currency repo auctions. In parallel with the reduction in the country's gold and foreign exchange fund, a decrease in the external debt of domestic companies by about 129.4 billion rubles was recorded.
One-stop problem solving
The Central Bank, by making a decision on the free floating of the ruble, significantly supported the economy. The currency issued by banks at auctions returned to the state’s gold and foreign exchange reserves some time later, after many companies had solved the problems associated with entering international financial markets. The Russian economy managed to maintain a positive trade balance. The Ministry of Finance states that by the end of 2015, exports will exceed imports by about $75 billion. It is these funds that will be used to repay external debt and will serve as a cover for the outflow of capital.
What caused the catastrophic decline in stock?
Russia's gold reserves have significantly depleted as a result of the state's policy of de-dollarization. Since the beginning of 2014, as part of the activities of the Central Bank, a sale of US debt obligations has been carried out. There was an intensive build-up of positions in dollars and euros. This procedure occurred in parallel with a sharp depreciation of the European currency. Thus, since May 2014, the euro exchange rate has decreased from 1.4 dollars to 1.05 dollars. The political decision to abandon the dollar caused large financial losses. Today, a correction can be observed in the dollar-euro pair, which has led to the fact that the size of Russia’s gold reserves began to gradually increase. A negative scenario for the development of events for the country’s economy with a parallel reduction in gold and foreign exchange reserves is possible only in a situation if there is a fall in oil prices and an active outflow of capital abroad.
Increasing gold reserves by Russia
After the temporary crisis at the end of 2014, Russia took an active course to increase the gold reserves in the gold and foreign exchange reserve. Despite the difficult situation in the country last year, experts recorded an increase in the volume of “yellow metal” by 18.8 tons in November. As a result, the total amount of gold was equal to 1187.5 tons. This is a record figure that the country has not been able to achieve over the past two decades. The tendency to accumulate this metal is due to the systematic increase in its value in the long term. Even a drop in the price of the precious asset in 2013 by about 28% did not change the general direction of price growth.
Dynamics and active purchases
Russia's gold reserves in tons today correspond to 1187.5 - which is an order of magnitude more than last year. Today, the Central Bank is actively purchasing all precious metals mined in Russia. A similar scheme for increasing reserves is used by Kazakhstan. The extraordinary situation is due to the harsh sanctions imposed on the country by the West and which significantly complicate the sale of the precious metal abroad. The situation, which at first glance seemed unfavorable for the country, became an excellent opportunity for it to increase the liquidity of its foreign exchange reserves.
Gold reserves of the Russian Federation compared to other countries
An interesting fact is that the largest reserves of gold belong to countries that have developed economies and have high-tech production. Their financiers agree that abandoning a universal asset, despite the favorable situation in countries, is irrational. The largest reserves of the yellow metal are in the United States of America - 8133 tons. Italy and France follow with figures of 3,384 tons and 2,451 tons, respectively. The fourth position went to France with 2435 tons. Next comes Russia. The list of largest gold owners is completed by countries such as China with 1054 tons and Switzerland with 1040 tons.
Significant differences are also noticeable in terms of the ratio of gold to the total volume of countries' reserves. So, in America, 75% of the reserve consists of gold. In Germany, Italy and France the figure remains at 71%. In the Netherlands - 54%, in Switzerland - 16.3%. Despite the fact that gold is no longer considered a highly liquid asset and does not act as a collateral for paper money, in practice this thesis is completely refuted. As for Russia, its state gold reserves today account for only 10% of the reserve volume. Gradually the situation is changing, and the volume of precious metal is increasing. Experts talk about increasing the share of the latter in the structure of the Reserve Fund to 15% by the end of 2015.
Where is Russia's gold reserves and what does its increase mean?
The largest country in the world is radically changing its monetary policy and restructuring its financial cushion. We have already figured out what Russia’s gold reserves are, in fact, as well as its volume and share in the general reserve of the state. It is worth mentioning that precious metals are stored on the territory of Russia in specialized storage facilities. Two thirds of the assets are located in Moscow in the Central Vault of the Bank of Russia, located on Pravdy Street. When studying the question of where gold reserves are stored, it is worth talking about its impact on the country’s economy as a whole. Increasing assets in the metal will reduce the influence of the US dollar and euro on the situation in the country. Dependence on negative events that may take place in Western countries will be reduced to a minimum. A similar policy is being pursued by China, which has the largest metal reserves in the world. Many experts say that in the near future Russia will abandon foreign (American and European) currencies and will conduct mutual settlements with states exclusively in their national monetary units.
MOSCOW, July 25 – RIA Novosti, Natalya Dembinskaya. The country's gold reserves are close to 2,000 tons. In the first half of the year, the Central Bank bought almost 106 tons of the precious metal, bringing its share in international reserves to a record 18%. At the same time, the regulator undertook a large-scale reset of US government bonds, selling off almost all of the US government debt. Why the Central Bank is stocking up on gold, how many bars it needs and why Russia is getting rid of dollar assets - in the RIA Novosti material.
Currently, the volume of international reserves is $460 billion; the target level set by the Central Bank is $500 billion. Moreover, the structure of reserves has changed significantly over the past decade: the share of gold has increased tenfold, but investments in US Treasury debt securities, on the contrary, have fallen to a minimum. Back in 2010, the volume of investment in American national debt reached $176 billion. The issue of dedollarization and reduction of relevant assets has been brewing for a long time.
Total sale
After the United States began to impose sanctions and threats arose to disconnect Russia from the international settlement system and restrictions on transactions with Russian government debt, the Central Bank began to take decisive action. Over the course of six months, the regulator reduced investments in treasuries to a paltry $15 billion.
Switching to other assets, in particular gold, is a more than reasonable strategy. The world is approaching a new era of instability, and the threat of a repeat global crisis due to geopolitics and trade wars is increasing. Precious metals are a tool for preserving investments and diversifying risks.
Treasuries and the dollar are considered the most liquid and reliable assets in the world, but uncontrolled money emission, which, in addition to the United States, is the fault of other global central banks, can serve as one of the triggers for the coming collapse.
Debt pyramid
The world has accumulated too much unsecured debt (current global debt is $247 trillion, or 318% of global GDP). In these conditions, gold reserves are a reliable anchor; they cannot sharply depreciate, unlike the same treasuries.
Let's remember 2008: the threat that some countries, in particular China, would collapse the value of the American national debt was real.
This is quite possible now - against the backdrop of the trade war launched by Trump.
“If suddenly, for some reason, a number of states present the United States with all these papers for payment, they will simply become worthless. This is a pyramid, because the United States, apparently, will never pay off its debt. It will work as long as people believe in it “,” notes Alexander Egorov, currency strategist at TeleTrade.
Gold insures against such risks. Of course, the precious metal is less liquid than US or German bonds; it can become more expensive and cheaper. But if the dollar system collapses, gold will definitely not depreciate. By maintaining the function of a means of payment in global trade, this asset reduces dependence on any currency.
Among the three largest holders
"I believe the global reset will happen when the world's governments need to get rid of debt and they link everything to the price of gold. That's why countries like Russia and China are hoarding gold - they know what could happen in a few years," says Keith Newmeyer, Chairman of the Board of Directors of First Mining Gold.
Back in February, Russia entered the top five countries in terms of gold reserves, overtaking China for the first time. If the current pace of purchases continues, Russia could take third place among the largest holders of gold in three years. And in ten to fifteen years, the record of the Soviet period will be updated: 2800 tons, says Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at Otkrytie Broker.
However, it will not be possible to completely abandon the dollar. The global financial system is designed in such a way that it accounts for 70% of all payments. “Russia trades oil, and it is denominated in dollars. Accordingly, in order to support import and export operations, a significant part of the reserves must be in American currency,” the expert notes.
Gold will skyrocket in price
The continuous operation of the printing press, increasingly threatening the stability of the world economy, will also accelerate gold prices. Moreover, not only monetary factors will have an impact, but also supply problems.
According to Goldman Sachs forecasts, in the coming years, global gold production will begin to decline, and by 2022, according to Goldcorp, one of the largest gold mining companies, production of the precious metal will drop to the level of the beginning of the 21st century.
The US Geological Survey believes that gold reserves in the bowels of the earth will be exhausted by 2034.
Analysts are confident that the combination of all factors will cause a truly explosive increase in prices for the yellow metal - up to two thousand or even three thousand dollars per ounce.
By chance I came across your issue for January 30, 2001 with a conversation on gold with Mr. V.G. Sirotin.
This conversation surprises with a mixture of myths, reality and absurdity. Following the professor's humor, let's start from the stove, from the history of gold. It begins in Egypt, where 6 thousand years ago native gold was used as jewelry. By the 7th century BC. Egypt accumulated about 3 thousand tons of gold, which in 671 BC. passed to the Assyrians as a result of the war, and half a century later this gold migrated to the great Babylon, where its reserves increased to 5 thousand. But Babylon fell under the blows of the Persians, who began minting their own gold coins “Darikov”. But - another war, and the gold passed into 331 BC. into the hands of the Greeks. Alexander the Great became the owner of almost all the gold in the world. Together with silver, these reserves amounted to about 9 thousand tons. But fantastic wealth did not save the empire from collapse, and it fell under the blows of Rome, which added about 2 thousand tons more to this amount. After the fall of the Roman Empire, all its wealth was scattered throughout the world. For the next 10 centuries, the world lived on this gold, adding to it on average one ton of gold per year.
To humanity by the beginning of the 15th century. There was a sharp shortage of gold, and it rushed around the planet in search of it. They found it in America, and caravels from the New World reached the Old World. In the XVI-XVIII centuries. About 2,600 tons of gold migrated from America to Europe. But America's gold was gradually depleted, although in Canada even in 1914-70. About 5.5 thousand tons of gold were mined. To replace American gold in the 19th-20th centuries. gold came from Australia and Alaska, which we gave to America for free, which then gave America more than 1 thousand tons of the precious metal. But the largest gift to humanity was kept in Africa, in South Africa, where about 70 thousand tons of gold accumulated in an area measuring 270x100 km. 45 thousand tons have already been extracted from this deposit. All countries of the two Americas still produce annually from 300 to 500 tons of metal.
Russia was twelve centuries late for this golden feast! Officially, the first gold was discovered in Russia in May 1745 near Yekaterinburg. This was followed by other discoveries of placer gold in the Urals, Altai, and Siberia. And we started a gold rush. First tons, then tens of tons of gold went into the treasury. By the end of the 19th century. gold production exceeded 40 tons, continuing to increase steadily in the following decades, reaching almost 64 tons in 1913. This allowed Russia to create a gold reserve of 1,684 tons, which was only 200 tons less than the American one. This reserve created a good basis for the rapid economic growth of the country and the transfer of the country's monetary system to a gold basis. Since 1897, Russia switched to a gold coin standard and issued gold coins in denominations of 5, 7.5, 10 and 15 rubles. 900 hallmark with a pure gold content of 3.87, 5.80, 7.74 and 11.61 grams in each coin, respectively.
With the introduction of the gold coin standard, gold began to fulfill all its main functions: to be a measure of value, a means of payment, a medium of exchange, a treasure and world money. Coins in circulation until 1897, issued since Peter the Great's time in denominations of 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 rubles. and various samples from 781 to 985, were bought out and went to the meltdown or state storage facilities.
By the First World War, Russia, as mentioned above, came out with the second gold reserve in the world. In the hands of the population in the form of jewelry and other gold products there was another 1-1.2 thousand tons. The church, which sacredly adhered to the divine commandment: not to accumulate wealth for itself on earth, for rust will eat it up, scraped into its bottom ends about 2 thousand tons of gold in the form of utensils, decorations, etc., and communist rust ate them. Now accumulation has begun in a new circle. Apparently, they forgot the Savior’s commandments!
Therefore, it is not clear which five exported trains with gold the professor is talking about, if at that time payment in gold for goods was a common international practice, because gold in the short period described was not gold, as we look at it today, but a medium of exchange, a means of payment. And if a peasant could buy a cow, a horse, etc. for a fiver of gold, then why couldn’t the state do this on the foreign market, buying guns, rifles, etc. with gold money?
Continuing his fantasies, the professor gives us another canard about the export of as many as 3,600 tons of gold abroad by the tsarist government. How 3,600 tons could be exported with Russia's state gold reserves in 1684, the professor does not specify. And what kind of nonsense is the professor of many academies hanging on our ears! Isn't it from the Sorbonne cuisine? His statement that the one ruble coin exported then now costs as much as 12 US dollars cannot but cause a smile. dollars! What a discovery! True, with a small clarification, because the professor is cheap, since a gold coin worth 1 ruble, issued, for example, in 1756, contained 1.48 g of pure gold and costs 13-13.5 dollars at today's price of gold. The numismatic value of this ruble, depending on the safety of such coins, can be tens or hundreds of times higher than the value of the gold contained in it. But that's a separate conversation.
So, having a gold reserve in 1684, the tsarist government managed not only to export 3,600 tons at the same time, but also to mint gold coins, produce jewelry, etc. If only we could have such a magical government now! A fairy tale, and nothing more! What really happened then? Documents show that from the gold reserves of Russia then stored in Kazan, at the end of 1917 there remained 640 tons of gold bullion, 480 tons of silver, a small amount of platinum, gold nuggets, precious stones and banknotes.
It was this reserve that was captured by Kolchak, which he carried with him throughout Siberia. The recount of gold in Omsk on May 10, 1919 confirmed the presence of only 504 tons of gold in the train. And when this train was captured in Irkutsk by the Red Guards, only 317 tons remained in it. The fate of the remaining 323 tons is still unknown. One part of it was probably stolen, the other could have gone to Japan as payment for military supplies to Kolchak. This gold fulfilled its functions as money and means of payment.
Echelons to the West? During the war, Russia created a special insurance fund in London, to which 498 tons of gold were supplied, of which 58 tons were sold to pay for military orders, and the remaining 440 tons are still considered to have been loaned out. The official value of this gold at the rate of 42.22 dollars per troy ounce is 577.7 million dollars, the market value at current prices is about 4 billion dollars. You can still fight for these 440 tons. But to whom? Our leaders today have completely different goals and objectives!
And the professor’s latest fantasy is about $100 billion worth of gold abroad. The professor has obvious problems with arithmetic. Or maybe he bought his titles? Over the entire history of mankind, starting from ancient Egyptian times, about 110 thousand tons of gold were mined. At 1971 prices, this would amount to 110-115 billion dollars. At current prices, the value of all gold mined by humanity will be about one trillion dollars. And what kind of 100 billion dollars can we talk about in relation to 440 tons of gold in England, if the nationalized part of the property and capital of England in Russia significantly exceeds the value of the 440 tons of gold that settled with them? You can imagine the bill they give us! It is wiser to forget this unfortunate gold. It is more expedient to pay attention to the hundreds of billions of dollars stolen from us by the oligarchs. We need to start developing this gold mine, and not cry about the mythical lost billions.
Mr. Sirotkin deigned to kick Lenin and Stalin. Today, every mongrel or bulldog like Sirotkin can afford to do this - bite a dead lion. But, Mr. Sirotkin, “a defeated temple is all a temple, a defeated idol is all a god,” even if this idol is criminal! And since you touched on Lenin, let me remind you what Lenin said on the issue raised in 1921: “When we win on a global scale, I think we will make public latrines made of gold on the streets of several of the largest cities in the world. Now “We must save gold in the RSFSR, sell it at a higher price, and buy goods with it at a lower price.” And this Leninist ideology was strictly implemented for many decades. Despite the terrible losses during the Great Patriotic War, we again recreated our gold reserves, which by 1953 reached 2049 tons. By the beginning of perestroika, this stock reached 2,500 tons. And this despite the fact that in these years the country was forced to sell in some years at international prices up to 400 tons of gold per year. But this was done for the benefit of the Soviet people. Perestroika opened all channels for the theft of the country, including not only the gold reserves, but also the national treasure of the country, stored in Gokhran. Hundreds of kilograms of diamonds and other national valuables were stolen. A classic example of the complete insanity of our justice was that farce when all the thieves who stole almost $190 million different kinds of values. This is according to the swindlers from Gokhran themselves. The real value of the stolen valuables is many times higher than the amount indicated in the case! The same thing happened with the country’s gold reserves, of which only horns and legs remained during the years of perestroika. From 2500 thousand tons it shrank to 200-250 tons. Why doesn’t Mr. Sirotkin ask where today’s Russian gold is, along with hundreds of kilograms of diamonds and other valuables, and where they went? 120-130 billion dollars. loans received in the past decade?
I would like to dwell on our gold policy in the post-October period. Even in the harshest and bloodiest years, his production never stopped. After the revolution, however, it sharply dropped to 17.2 tons in 1918., sliding down to 1921 to 1.6 tons, but then began to steadily increase to 110-115 tons in 1933, 150 tons in 1936, 180 tons in 1940, our gold industry received a second wind with the discovery of gold in Kolyma. It was with Kolyma gold, mined from the bones of the people, that we paid America during the pre-war five-year plans and during the Great Patriotic War! Kolyma was filled with the bones of the best representatives of the peoples of Russia* and, above all, the Russian people, and the safes of America were filled with gold. Look at the numbers. The number of compatriots killed in two world massacres and during the first five-year plans exactly corresponds with the growth of America's gold reserves.
1913 - 1900 t
1929 - 5900 t
1937 - 11000 t
At the beginning of 1950 - almost 22 thousand tons! But our people died not only for metal, but for the revival and increase in the power of the country, improving the life of the people. And now why are they dying? For the criminal oligarchs and the regime, which with inexorable logic is implementing Hitler’s Ost plan, to fill their purses!
In the post-war years, gold production grew, like the entire national economy, at a steady pace, reaching a level of 311 tons in 1948. And production remained at this level even during the years of perestroika, because back in 1990 we were producing 302 tons! Then, as with everything, there came a collapse bordering on catastrophe, and gold production in Russia dropped to 100-120 tons. And why should Russia have a gold reserve now, because you can beg with a reserve of 200-500 tons!
How much gold went through the State Bank vaults during the Soviet period? Its total production was about 13 thousand tons. Add to this the gold confiscated from the church and population, exchanged through Torgsin for goods in a total amount of about 3 thousand tons, plus about 2 thousand tons exported from Eastern Europe after the war, and you, dear readers, will get a figure of 18-18, 5 thousand tons. Most of this gold safely migrated to the safes of America, and the smaller part - from 3 to 5 thousand tons - we, the population of the USSR, had in our hands.
The 110 thousand tons of gold mined by the sweat and blood of mankind are approximately equally distributed among its three main consumers. About 40 thousand tons have settled in the gold reserves of all countries of the world; 35-40 thousand tons are in the hands of the population in the form of jewelry, coins, medals, bars and other products. Industry absorbed the remaining 25-30 thousand tons.
So that you, dear readers, can more correctly navigate gold issues, I provide, in my opinion, information that is useful for you and, above all, on issues related to gold pricing, since it is on this issue that there are the most rumors and myths. In fact, the price of gold is formed in the same way as for any other product, and it is based on production costs. Since the main supplier of gold to the international market over the past 80-90 years has been the Witwatersrand deposit in South Africa, as mentioned above, the world price of gold was based on the production costs of this particular deposit. What are they? Over the past 30-35 years until 1972, they amounted to a little more than 27 dollars per troy ounce (hereinafter referred to as ounce), the weight of which is 31.1034807 g, which made it possible to maintain a stable price on the international market for a decade: at the level of 35 dollars per ounce, or 1 dollar for 12 cents, or more precisely - 1.125276 US dollars per gram.
Taking into account the depletion of areas with rich gold content, it was necessary to process increasingly poorer ores, which led to a sharp increase in production costs and, consequently, an increase in world gold prices, including speculative ones. By 1979, production costs exceeded $125 per ounce, and in 1984 they exceeded $203 per ounce.
This led to sharp fluctuations in gold prices. Thus, the price of gold from 1837 to January 31, 1934 was $20.57 per ounce, i.e. one dollar weighed 1.504852 grams of gold. From January 31, 1934 to December 1971, an ounce of gold cost $35.0 and 1 dollar equaled 0.888671 grams of gold. In December 1971, the price of gold rose to $38, and from February 12, 1973, the last, official price of gold was recorded in the amount of $42.22 per ounce and the dollar began to weigh 0.736662 g. This is the official, meaningless In the gold market the price still exists. What about the market? And the market continues to exist according to its inherent laws, including speculative ones. After the last dollar devaluation on 02/12/73. an uncontrolled rise in prices began, ranging from 125 to 193 dollars per ounce for the period 1972-1978. In 1979, prices continued to rise uncontrollably, averaging almost $306 for the year. In the second half of 1979, the demand for gold took on a rush character, exceeding the 500 dollar mark. The price continued to rise, and at the beginning of 1980, reaching $815 per ounce on January 21, it began to slowly decline, still remaining speculatively high. It was in the wake of this excitement that the Soviet Ost-West Handelbank went bankrupt in Zurich with losses of several hundred million dollars.
After a record high average annual price of $615 per ounce in 1980, it began to gradually decline to an annual average of $459 in 1981 and to today's $270-290 per ounce.
A few words about gold samples. Today you can find all three gold hallmarks here: Old Russian spool, metric and Western European carat, which coexist peacefully. Here they are:
Metric Spool Carat
1000 96 24
958 92 23
750 72 18
583 56 14
500 - 12
350 - 10
The spool test is tied to the old Russian measure of weight - pud:
1 pood is equal to 16.38 kg, or 40 pounds;
1 pound is equal to 409.512 g, or 96 spools;
1 spool is equal to 4.266 g, or 96 shares;
1 share weighs 0.044435 g,
Therefore, “the spool is small, but expensive,” and on the royal gold chervonets on the girdle you will find the inscription: “Contains 1 gold. 78.24 shares of pure gold,” which corresponds to 7.74234 g or 1/4 troy ounce.
In conclusion, I would like, without meaning to, to upset the reader, although this is typical for most of the Earth’s mineral resources, that explored and extracted gold reserves on Earth using modern technologies vary from 40 to 70 thousand tons. Well, what next? And then new technologies will appear for extracting gold from poor ores, and then humanity will learn to extract gold from sea water, and they say there is more than 4 billion tons of it there! So Lenin’s dream can come true. And what do you think?
Again Vladimir Ilyich hit the line. Without him - nowhere! Of course, it was he and his faithful comrade-in-arms I. Stalin who put a lot of our fellow tribesmen into the ground. It was on their blood and bones that a powerful state grew, the achievements of which will go down as a bright spot in the history of the development of mankind and Russia. They died and moved to other dimensions - factories and mines, universities and hospitals, rockets and airplanes. The gold they mined was used to buy planes, cars, and the same notorious American stew. Their blood and bones lie in the foundation of our victory and post-war, in some cases truly cosmic, achievements. These dead lions still pose a threat to today's jackals, who, even in gold and diamond cages, remain jackals and, most importantly, will remain the same in the memory of generations!
Mr. Sirotkin is looking for and trying to return allegedly illegally exported gold to Russia. He can do this for decades. But what can he do if it failed during the times of the USSR, and not during the time of its stumpage - Russia, which Monaco can defeat today!
Mr. Sirotin could have rendered an even greater service to Russia if he had helped to obtain the real value of the 500 tons of weapons-grade plutonium produced in the USSR over 50 years, which was fused to America over 50 years, sold, or rather given to America for a symbolic 20 billion dollars, with its real value market value of 8 (eight) trillion dollars, i.e. 400 times cheaper than its real cost!!!
In conclusion, I note that in Rus' they knew gold well and knew how to work with it. This is evidenced by the amazing decorations found by archaeologists in Scythian burial mounds. The Scythian Slavs, who lived in the Northern Black Sea region since the first millennium BC, left us with their wonderful creativity as a souvenir. Whether it was the gold of Alexander the Great or Ancient Rome - history is silent about this.
And in 988, in the glorious city of Kyiv, the minting of the first Russian gold coin began - a zlatnik weighing 4.261 g and a silver coin weighing from 2 to 3.6 g. The history of the Russian coin began...
But that, if it is of interest to the editors and readers, is a different matter.
V.A. GRYAZNOV, economist.
Russia's gold reserves consist not only of gold in the form of bars, but also of coins and jewelry. Purely theoretically, all precious metals stored on the territory of the state should be taken into account. But most of the jewelry is in people’s hands, so counting it is impossible. The rest of the substance constitutes the official gold and foreign exchange reserve of the country. Only gold that belongs to the state is taken into account.
The highest financial authority of the country, that is, the Central Bank of Russia or large international credit organizations, has the right to dispose of this reserve. Previously, when citizens had gold in circulation, for example, in the form of coins, in moments of crisis this factor undermined the economy. Therefore, it was decided to keep gold and foreign exchange reserves under government control.
History of the stock formation
So in Russia, until 1914, gold was a unit of account. Gold rubles, chervonets and coins of other denominations were in circulation. The coins were made to strict standards and their purity was high. For example, 1 million rubles weighed almost 800 kilograms of pure gold. But after the revolution in 1917, coins were removed from use for the benefit of the state, replacing them with a cash equivalent.
Russian gold reserves in storage
The thing is that, in addition to the poor state of the economy of the newly formed USSR, gold reserves decreased during the First World War. Part of the precious metal was sent to England as payment on loans, and gold reserves decreased by approximately 500 million rubles. Part of the precious metal was exported by Kolchak to meet the needs of the White Guards during the revolution. He knew where the supplies were kept, but did not allow himself to take all the metal. During this time, about 500 tons worth 650 million rubles were exported.
And at the end of the First World War, Russia, after signing the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk, was forced to send almost 100 tons of gold to Germany. And also part of the gold reserves was sold, or, more precisely, given for steam locomotives. And already at the time of 1923, the gold and foreign exchange reserve of Russia was only 400 tons, and until 1928 it dropped to 150 tons. Although over the next ten days the stock tended to grow, since the government had its own plans for gold production, which were even exceeded by industry workers. And at the beginning of World War II, the USSR had 2,800 tons of gold on its account, as well as the second largest amount of precious metal reserves in the world.
Therefore, after the war, the country's economy was able to recover relatively quickly. But by the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, this reserve was again practically exhausted and amounted to about 290 tons. In 2000, the reserve of the precious metal was at the level of 384 tons, and from this figure a stable growth of the indicator begins, accordingly, the gold and foreign exchange reserves are growing.
How to increase Russia's indicators and reserves?
These indicators, or more precisely, their growth, are influenced by factors such as:
- The amount of fossil gold in Russia. There is a large amount of gold in the soil in Russia. The main part of the deposits is concentrated in the Urals and Transbaikalia. Development of new deposits continues today.
- Export of goods. Products that are exported from the state are sometimes paid for in gold, and gold reserves increase.
- Borrowing internationally to stabilize the economy and support reforms or other changes. When the government issues loans, it can return the money in precious metal directly to the fund.
- The activities of banks, the amount of gold sold and purchased from the population also affect the gold and foreign exchange fund.
In order to convert the reserve into foreign currency, you need to know the gold rate. This indicator is formed and changes daily at international and national auctions. Since over the past five years there has been a steady increase in the exchange rate of gold, countries are striving to replenish the gold and foreign exchange fund. To do this, they process ore at deposits with the highest quality possible, open new territories for mining, and improve technologies.
Gold is a good protector of money from inflation. Therefore, at the state level, part of the gold should be sufficient to prevent a sharp collapse of the economy in the event of force majeure. In Russia, gold accounted for only 5% of all state reserves, but by 2013 the country increased the share of gold to 10%. Of course, compared to Germany, the USA, and England, where gold reserves are more than 70%, the Russian Federation is still far away, but the pace of development in this direction is very good. In the period from 2002 to 2012 alone, the state’s gold reserves increased by 570 tons, which allowed Russia to take 8th place in the world in terms of reserves. By 2014, Russia's gold reserves had increased to 1,041 tons, despite serious expenses in the form of the Sochi Olympics.
With such a pace of development of the gold mining industry, Russia can reach 6th place in the world, surpassing Italy and France. For 2017, no significant rise or decline has yet been observed. According to the latest data, answering the question of how much gold Russia has now, analysts cite the figure - 1614.27 tons, and it is interesting to know where Russia’s gold reserves are today.
Now gold does not serve as a confirmation of money; its rate is only partially tied to the currency. Although previously there was a mandatory rule of economics, in which the amount of money circulating in the country had to be equal to the amount of gold in the state. This is like a safety net in case of a crisis, and investors would get their money back in the form of gold.
In the USA, at one time, each dollar bill was equal to one gram of gold, and the supply of the metal itself was inviolable. This security made the dollar such a powerful currency that money simply did not succumb to inflation. True, over time, more banknotes were required, and they were no longer backed by grams of gold, although the role of the reserve itself did not change over time. You can still take it on credit or use it to pay for a loan, saving the country from default.
Storage location for Russia's gold reserves
Gold and banknotes, which are considered the official wealth of the Russian Federation, are located in different places. Most of the money stored, about two-thirds, is located in the main vault of the Central Bank of Russia, which is located on Pravda Street in Moscow. The storage area is approximately 17 thousand square meters, of which 1.5 thousand are allocated directly for storage. This is the main answer to the question of where Russia’s gold reserves are stored. The storage facility itself was built back in 1940 on the basis of the USSR State Bank Administration. The information is publicly available because the security systems are developed at the highest level.
The rest is located in Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg. Such diversification of funds is necessary for their safety. Reserves are stored in the form of bars weighing from 10 to 14 kilograms in special containers. There are also sets of measuring bars weighing from 100 grams to 1 kilogram. A multi-level system is provided for the issuance of bullion or any money from the country's reserves. Most bars are in boxes so they can be easily transported in batches in case of an emergency.
Russia's gold reserves are still gaining momentum. After the annexation of Crimea, the gold fund did not change its development vector. Therefore, it is quite possible that in five years Russia will take one of the five positions in the list of countries with the largest gold reserves.
