Spanish Republic and Stalin. Who helped whom? Spain's gold was exchanged for weapons for the Republicans

In the autumn of 1936, when the civil war was in full swing in Spain, the republican government decided to take a desperate step - to withdraw most of the country's gold reserves to the friendly Soviet Union.

The operation to transport gold to the USSR was strictly classified. That's why long time only fragmentary information appeared about her. There were various rumors, which basically boiled down to the fact that the Soviet Union "warmed up" on the Spanish gold. And the most radical statement was that the Kremlin refused to return the gold to Spain.

And only in 2012, all documents related to Spanish gold were declassified, which allowed everything to be sorted out in this story.

As follows from these documents, the Spanish side itself took the initiative to ship gold to the USSR:

Incoming cipher telegram.

Top secret

Preliminary consent is sought for the following proposal, which seems to me expedient: it is proposed to transport to the USSR in installments the gold reserves in the amount of 100 to 250 million gold pesetas, so that in return we make payments in foreign currency in the corresponding value of this gold. The question is urgent.

Rosenberg.

A positive response from the USSR followed immediately. Less than a month later, the gold was loaded onto ships and sent to the Soviet Union. It should be noted that the speed of the decision by the Soviet government on such an important issue was simply instantaneous.

An interesting fact is that the Soviet side played it safe by making a statement that it does not take responsibility for the delivery of gold to Soviet ports. The act of accepting gold must be signed upon arrival in the Soviet Union. The Spanish side was forced to agree. And as a result, gold was transported to our country on four ships. In Moscow, an act was signed on the acceptance by the Soviet side of Spanish gold in the amount of 510 tons.

For a long time, all historians thought that gold was delivered in gold bars. As it turned out, in fact, 99% of all gold was in coins and shavings. Moreover, gold coins were from various countries. All the gold was packed in bags:

Top secret

Tov. STALIN, Tov. MOLOTOV

A total of 7800 standard boxes were delivered, sealed with the seals of the Bank of Spain, but without seals, accompanying documents and specifications.

Inside the boxes, the coins are arranged by name and denomination in special bags with a label indicating the amount in each bag.

Grinko.

Any specialist in gold trading will tell you that it is impossible to trade in this form, since gold is sold only in bullion. Therefore, all Spanish gold that arrived had to be refined. And this involves additional costs. Therefore, Moscow reacted immediately:

Extract from the minutes of the meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee

Top secret

When fulfilling the instructions of the Spanish Government for the sale of this gold, the costs of refining and losses during refining in the norms adopted at the refinery are borne by the Spanish Government.

Secretary of the Central Committee

When Moscow accepted the gold, it was self-evident that after the end of the war it would be returned to Spain, minus the gold spent on the purchase of weapons and food for the needs of the Republican army. Therefore, in the Soviet Union, the first thing was to reimburse the cost of weapons already delivered to the Spanish Government. After that, orders for various weapons simply poured from the Republicans. And in each order for armaments, the Spaniards always emphasized that all purchases should be made at the expense of their gold reserves.

Top secret

Tov. STALIN, Tov. MOLOTOV

T. Rozengolts, on behalf of the Politburo, agreed with the Spanish Government on payment for the goods delivered by us to Spain in the amount of 51,160,888 US dollars at the expense of the Spanish Government's gold stored in Moscow.

The Soviet Union did not have, according to the agreement, to spend gold without the consent of the Spanish side. Thanks to this formulation of the question, the Spanish government was constantly aware of how much was spent and how much gold remained in stock. Within two years, the Spaniards had almost completely exhausted the reserves of all their gold in Moscow.

Information on the status of settlements between the People's Commissariat of Finance of the USSR with the Spanish Government on the gold deposit

Top secret

Purchased from the Spanish Government:

For 1937 Pure gold 358.5 tons.

There is still at the disposal of the Spanish Government about 82.5 tons of pure gold.

Zverev

From the spring of 1938, the Soviet Union began to reduce the supply of arms to Spain. The reason was not only the ending Spanish gold.

GENEVA. LITVINOV

If Negrin asks for a new loan for Spain, you can answer that, in view of the complications with Japan and the need to double the armament Soviet troops on Far East Now we are having a hard time getting a loan. We can provide assistance on credit with bread and weapons for a certain, not very large amount. .

After the defeat of the Republicans, many in the world directly accused the USSR of the fact that the Nazis came to power in Spain. First of all, the accusations boiled down to the fact that the supply of weapons was stopped. Such statements were not true, since the Soviet Union supported the Republicans until the very last moment. Nevertheless, the vilification of the USSR (and now Russia) on this topic continues. For example, in the USA, Yale University published a book (Spain Betrayed. The Soviet Union in Spanish Civil War), which, based on Soviet declassified documents on Spanish gold, presents all the information contained in them in such a way as to prove the viciousness of the very deliveries of the Soviet Union to Spain . This American opus proves that the USSR made money on the war in Spain. It is alleged that Stalin constantly deceived the Spanish Government and such an example is given that only on the purchase of TWO (!) Aircraft for Spain, Stalin earned not less than 50 million dollars. A very controversial statement, since the cost of the most expensive bomber at that time did not exceed 100 thousand dollars. True, the document itself confirming this “deal of the century” is not given in the book. As this document is not cited:

Top secret

Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks

Comrade STALIN

At the end of 1936, through the Intelligence Agency through a foreign company, 17 aircraft were purchased in the USA for Spain with a total cost of 555,000 US dollars.

Voroshilov

Besides the fact that the declassified documents on Spanish gold told the whole truth about its use by the Soviet side, they also showed Stalin in a very unusual role in relation to the Spanish conflict.

In his advice to the Spanish government, Stalin tries to persuade them to avoid all extremes and work with the wider population. He even convinces the Republicans to involve the petty and big bourgeoisie in cooperation. The tone of all messages is sustained in a very delicate style. All these Stalinist advice does not fit in with the image that has already taken shape in our heads.

Among the declassified documents is one that puts an end to the Spanish gold controversy. Juano Negrino had all the documents on the use of republican gold. When the Republic fell, he emigrated to France. In his will, Negrino handed over documents on gold ... Franco!

When Franco studied the documents of the Republicans, he realized that not a gram of Spanish gold was left in Moscow. Therefore, he never even tried to make any financial demands on the Soviet Union.

And the Spanish communists were of a different opinion. The head of the Communists of Spain, Ibarruri, asked the Soviet government to clarify the situation at the expense of Spanish gold. As a result of this request, a special commission was created in the USSR, which, having studied all the documents on this issue, gave a conclusion that was disappointing for the Spanish communists:

Extract from the minutes of the meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee No. 86

Top secret

Comrades Suslov, Ponamorev, Zverev, Gromyko

Explain to Comrade Ibarruri that the Spanish gold deposited in the Soviet Union has not only been fully utilized by the government of the Spanish Republic, but also does not cover the $50 million indebtedness of the Spanish government on the credit granted to it by the Soviet Union.

Secretary of the Central Committee

(or why crowds of illegal intelligence officers fled to the West in the mid-1930s)

Among the hundreds of tales about "Stalin's tyranny", "Stalin's repressions" and similar nonsense from professional "debunkers of Stalinism", there are tales about how a despot tyrant in the mid-1930s imprisoned and shot dozens and hundreds of glorious Soviet intelligence agents in a paranoid frenzy - illegal immigrants, recalling them to the USSR. Naturally, these people, like all "victims of repression", were completely innocent and suffered "for nothing." But thank God, some of them, realizing that they would face imminent death in "Stalin's dungeons", chose "freedom" and ran away to the West in time, where they received that same "freedom" (and incidentally handed over a couple of dozen of their fellow intelligence officers and agents - illegal immigrants), began to courageously denounce the "bloody Soviet power" and the "terrible villain Stalin."

One of the most high-ranking brave "fugitives" was even Major General of the foreign intelligence service of the NKVD of the USSR A. Orlov. Who ran away from Stalin in time, lived in the West, courageously wrote accusatory books (one), but at the same time (what nobility) did not betray a single comrade who remained in the intelligence of the USSR. And Stalin was afraid to soak him even in America, because. Orlov wrote a bold letter to the tyrant, in which he frightened him that if they try to find and kill him or his relatives, they will tell everything about the "terrible Stalinist crimes" to the "free world".

The stupidity of the documentaries shown on TV about the "crimes of Stalinism" is inexhaustible. And the more these same "revelations of Stalinism" are filmed, the more and more bewilderment intensifies - the creators of these pearls are slightly not reasonable, or they are in their souls (like all orthodox "anti-Stalinists") are actually latent Stalinists and secretly lust after the "Leader of all peoples" ?

On September 23, 2009, on one of the cable channels (apparently on the central channels, "smart" leaders no longer risk putting this on, however, on the central channels they still show nonsense like "Altar of Victory. Generalissimo", in which they continue to claim that " Soviet people won the War not because of, but in spite of Stalin"), TV-3, "real mystical", showed in the daytime a documentary film about how Stalin was going to appropriate the gold of Spain in 1936.

For those who don't read books high school did not study the History of the 20th century, or "taught" History according to the "Soros textbooks", you can slightly explain what kind of Spain in 1936, and what kind of gold are we talking about. In the 1930s, there was quite a democratic and republican Republic of Spain. True, the influence of local communists increased more and more in it (naturally, with the active help of communists from the World Communist International, which had its headquarters in Moscow), which in general was quite common then in connection with the increasing authority of the USSR, and this happened in all European countries. In order to stop the Communists and prevent them from coming to Power in the West of Europe in a completely parliamentary and legal democratic way (and in Germany, the Communists scored about the same as Hitler’s Nazis who “won the parliamentary elections” and “legally” gained power), the military Spain, led by General Franco, organize and carry out a military putsch - they organize a military coup in order to overthrow the legitimate government in Spain and establish a fascist regime. In Spain, a civil war flares up between supporters of the legitimate government and the putschists.

Officially, all the countries of the world and Europe declare their "neutrality" and refuse to support one side or the other, and even more so by military means. However, at the same time, volunteers poured into Spain in droves. Some "volunteers" went to the aid of the Legitimate government, while others hurried to help Franco's fascists. At the same time, from the same Western country (USA, England, France, Germany, etc.), volunteers were from both sides. The Communists of the whole World, respectively, supported the Republican, legal government, and the fascist regimes of Europe, respectively, the fascists of Franco, who fought against the Communist Influence in Spain ("Democratic" countries of the West did not support anyone, they maintained "neutrality"). The communists of Germany and Italy fought on the side of the Republicans, and the official authorities of these countries almost openly supported Franco's putschists and sent their "volunteers". And it is natural that the Soviet Union in this War, also behind the scenes, supported the legitimate, anti-fascist government of Spain.

All these "volunteers", both from one side and the other, if they did not receive an official salary, then they had to take weapons from somewhere and they had to at least be fed. And if Franco's military was supported by "sponsorship" from Germany and Italy, then the Legitimate Government of Spain had in its hands the country's gold and foreign exchange reserves, with which it bought weapons and equipment with food abroad for the needs of the volunteers who arrived. What was discussed in this wonderful documentary film on the "real mystical channel" (unfortunately, I did not immediately stumble upon this film, and the program does not indicate the name of this pearl of "anti-Stalinism").

The main theme of the film was just about how the "villain Stalin", having learned that in Spain there are over 500 tons of gold bullion (the entire gold reserve of Spain), decided to "appropriate" this gold for himself. The film makes it clear what exactly he was going to personally, and Stalin the tyrant was to appropriate this gold.

At that time in Europe, Stalin, more precisely, the OGPU-NKVD, in each country, had a fairly strong network of intelligence officers and residents. And the film was about one such resident - Alexander Orlov, nee Leiba Feldbina.

Here is what you can find about this person on the Internet on various sites with various details of his activities and life path.

" Orlov AlexanderMikhailovich - Nikolsky Lev Lazarevich - FeldbinLeibaLazarevich (1895-1973), Senior Major of the State Security...

:after the Trotskyist uprising in Barcelona in June 1937, Trotskyist leader André Nina was kidnapped from prison and later killed. The head of the NKVD station in Spain, Orlov-Nikolsky-Felbin, also known as "Swede" or "Leva" according to operational correspondence, a senior major in 1936, who acted under the guise of the post of attaché for political issues of the Soviet embassy in Spain:

:From the moment he was exiled from the USSR in 1929, Leon Trotsky took personal security very seriously, realizing that Stalin did not intend to let him live.
We find this evidence in the protocol of interrogation of Ya.G. Blyumkin, an illegal resident of the NKVD in Turkey, dated October 20, 1929, who was shot in the same year for his connection with Trotsky.
Joseph Stalin, at that time General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, believed that the Trotskyist movement would fall the hour its leader was liquidated.
The first stage of the operation to eliminate Trotsky from 1937 to 1939 proceeded without apparent success.
The head of the operation, S.M. Shpigelglaz, who was the head of the foreign intelligence service of the NKVD of the USSR, was recalled from Mexico with the wording "for failure to fulfill the state task", arrested and shot without trial in 1940. Perhaps this happened in connection with the destruction of the leaders of the NKVD in 1939,as employees who took part in mass terror (37th year) , Andcoming to power in the NKVD L.P. Beria .
We also assume thatin the failure of the first stage of the operation, the flight of the NKVD resident Orlov played a role, who, being on the wanted list, warned Trotsky about the impending assassination attempt on him. The leadership of overseas intelligence was forced to withdraw from Trotsky's secretariat an experienced agent "Patria" Maria de Las Heras, whom Orlov knew personally.

Eras de Las Maria, agent "Patria" (1910-1988), during the war fought in the partisan detachment of the Hero of the Soviet Union Medvedev as a radio operator, after the war for more than two decades worked as an illegal immigrant in the countries Latin America. She returned to the USSR in 1970 with the rank of colonel, died in 1988:"

"Orlov Alexander Mikhailovich - Nikolsky Lev Lazarevich - Feldbin Leiba Lazarevich (1895-1973), senior major of the state security of the NKVD, fearing reprisals, fled to the USA in 1939. In 1936, he was the organizer of the export of the gold reserves of Republican Spain to the USSR, the destruction of the leaders of the Trotskyists, an experienced agent. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin and the Red Banner, died in the USA in the 70s, having published his memoirs under the name of Alexander Orlov. In 1953, his book "The History of Stalin's Crimes" was published in the USA. L.L. Felbin is the author of the Handbook on Counterintelligence and Guerrilla Warfare.
The terrorist method, widely used in the fight against the enemies of the USSR, was logically determined by the foreign and domestic policy of the state, personal experience party leaders who took part in the exes, in the mass political murders, on whose account 40 thousand senior officers of the Red Army, 14 thousand officers of the OGPU-NKVD, one hundred percent of the leaders of overseas residencies, millions of Soviet people:"

(Especially touching on such sites are all the same ": 40 thousand senior officers of the Red Army, 14 thousand officers of the OGPU-NKVD, one hundred percent of the leaders of overseas residencies, millions of Soviet people: "At the same time, one site says that Beria removed the leaders of the NKVD (including intelligence leaders) involved in the massacres of the 37th, and on the other, nonsense rushes about "40 thousand senior officers of the Red Army" shot by Stalin. But in general, talking about the shot "40 thousand" and even "senior officers" in the Red Army, even the hardened orthodoxes of "exposure" are no longer trying, but by the way, the story is not about them.)

"Orlov Alexander (FElbIN Leiba Lazar.) (1895-April 1973), Soviet resident, defector. Major GB. Jew. In the party he was known under the name of Lev Lazarevich Nikolsky. In 1933-37 illegal. INO resident in France, Austria, Italy, England; since 1936 resident of the NKVD and adviser to the republican government on security in Spain. Stalin personally entrusted him with the task of organizing the export of the Spanish gold reserves for storage in the USSR. July 9, 1938 received a telegram with the order to go to Antwerp, and there to meet with important person from Moscow aboard a Soviet ship. Suspecting something was wrong, July 11, 1938 with his wife and daughter fled through Canada to the United States. There he made contact with American intelligence agencies. In 1953 he published a series of articles in the journal Life, which formed the basis of the book The Secret History of Stalin's Crimes. Then he published another book - "Manual on counterintelligence and guerrilla warfare":."

"Orlov Alexander Mikhailovich (real name Feldbin). Born in 1895 in the city of Bobruisk into a Jewish family. Lawyer by education. In the bodies of the Cheka - OGPU - since 1920. He served in the Economic Department, since 1925 - in Transcaucasia, a year later - in the Foreign Department of the OGPU. From 1926 he worked in France and Germany, in 1933-1936 as an illegal immigrant in Austria and Great Britain. Since September 1936 - head of the representative office of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs in Spain (in official correspondence it was called residency). He was considered the most qualified employee of the middle management of the intelligence service. In July 1938, together with his wife (a staff member of the residency) and his teenage daughter, he fled to the West (at the same time, 68 thousand dollars disappeared from the cash register of the residency). His escape dealt a significant blow to Soviet intelligence - many employees associated with him were declared "enemies of the people" and repressed. In 1953 he published a book in the USA: "The Secret History of Stalin's Crimes". In 1971 he lived in the USA."

There is also such an option, which refers to both its parent and "origin".

"Orlov Alexander Mikhailovich (08.21.1895-04.1973). Major GB (1935). Real name Feldbin Leiba Lazarevich, in the NKVD bodies - Nikolsky Lev Lazarevich. Born in the city of Bobruisk, Minsk province, in the family of a petty forestry officer: "

But let's look at more mature years, closer to the events that interest us.

":In 1924, L. L. Nikolsky completed his studies at the School of Law at Moscow University and returned to the state security agencies. From May 1924 he was the head of the 6th department, from 1925 he was the head of the 7th department and assistant to the head of the ECU of the OGPU, then he was the head of the border guard of the Sukhum garrison. (": In 1924 he completed his studies at the School of Law at Moscow University and again comes to serve in the state security agencies. From May 1924 - head of the 6th department, from 1925 - head of the 7th department and assistant to the head economic management OGPU, then - head of the border guard of the Sukhumi garrison. In special departments in the Red Army, Arkhangelsk, ECU and Transcaucasia, he worked under the leadership of his cousin Z.B. Katsnelson. In 1926, transferred to the (INO) OGPU:")
In 1926, L. L. Nikolsky was transferred to the INO OGPU. In 1926-1927. he is a resident in Paris, acted under the name of L. Nikolaev and under the guise of a position as an employee of the USSR trade mission in France. In 1928 he was sent to the Berlin residency under the surname L. Feldel and covered the post of trade adviser to the USSR embassy in Germany.
In 1930 he returned to the USSR, head of the 7th department (economic intelligence) of the INO OGPU. In September 1932, he went on a short business trip to the United States under the guise of a representative of Flax Export, where he was able to purchase a genuine American passport in the name of William Goldin.
In the spring of 1933, L. L. Nikolsky (pseudonym "Swede"), according to the documents of U. Goldin, was sent to Paris at the head of the illegal operational group "Express" with the task of developing the 2nd Bureau (intelligence) of the French General Staff. In the process of a business trip in December 1933, he went on a special mission to Rome. In the spring of 1934 he was identified former employee Soviet trade mission, in connection with which in May 1934 he left France.
Since July 15, 1934 - an illegal resident in England under the guise of a representative of the American Refrigerator Company, Ltd. Orlov arrived in London, where he became the chief operator of the Cambridge University graduate K. Philby ("Zenchen"), recruited shortly before by the residency officer A. Deutsch ("Lang").
At the end of October 1935, upon his return to the USSR, he was appointed deputy head. TO GUGB NKVD. However, he actually worked at the INO, where he continued to supervise the activities of the "Cambridge Group". In December 1935, using American documents, he traveled to Rome to complete a recruiting assignment, and in 1936 to Estonia and Sweden, where he successfully conducted an operation to recruit an ambassador from one of the Western countries.
In September 1936, under the guise of a political attaché of the Soviet embassy in Spain, Orlov was sent to Madrid as a resident of the NKVD and chief adviser on internal security and counterintelligence to the republican government. At the same time, I. V. Stalin personally entrusted him with the task of organizing the export for storage in the USSR of the Spanish gold reserves, which amounted to more than half a billion US dollars.
From December 1936, he was directly involved in organizing the counterintelligence service of the Republicans - SIM. The apparatus led by him spent significant work to expose Francoist agents and prepare partisan and sabotage groups for operations behind enemy lines. At least 1,000 people were trained in 6 sabotage schools created with his participation.
Under his direct leadership, an operation was carried out to suppress the armed rebellion of the anarchists and the Trotskyist organization of the POUM in Catalonia. In June 1937, he also organized the kidnapping from prison and the subsequent liquidation of the leader of the POUM, Andre Nin.(The Trotskyist left-wing extremists of Spain, in the midst of the civil war, raised a bloody putsch there against the government of the Popular Front. Andre Nin, the head of the Partido obrero de unification of the Marxist, the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), was involved in the rebellion. The betrayal in the rear turned into a thousand victims. To suppress extremists entrenched in Barcelona, ​​​​the government removed a division from the front, which took three days to take the city. Republicans did not doubt the involvement in the putsch of Trotsky himself. After the Barcelona events, the former ally of Lenin began to be openly called an accomplice of the Nazis who fought on the side of Franco, while while the Soviet Union provided aid to the Republicans.)
At the end of 1937, Orlov, secretly from the Spanish authorities, organized an illegal intelligence school under the code name "Construction". Candidates for training were carefully selected from the fighters of the international brigades. Many of the school's graduates were deemed too valuable to fight in Spain. They were taken through France to Western Europe and with assignments sent to various countries of the world.
In Spain, Orlov again had to supervise the work of K. Philby, who was on a special mission under the Francoist government. In April 1938, Orlov recruited Morris Cohen, a fighter of the International Brigade from the United States, a future "atomic intelligence officer", a liaison for R. I. Abel and K. T. Molody.
In July 1938 Orlov received an order to leave for Antwerp to meet with a representative of the Center, S. M. Shpigelglaz, on board the Soviet steamship Svir. Fearing arrest and deportation to the Soviet Union, he fled to the West. Later he lived in the USA under the name of Igor Konstantinovich Berg.
After the death of I. V. Stalin, Orlov published abroad the books "The History of Stalin's Crimes" (1953) and "A Handbook on Counterintelligence and Guerrilla Warfare" (1954). During numerous interrogations at the FBI and other Western intelligence services, having reported quite a lot of information about the work of the USSR state security agencies in Europe and within the country, he did not betray the foreign agents of Soviet intelligence known to him personally, including the K. Philby group. Died in the USA.
Awarded with Orders of Lenin, Red Banner:"

":He also completed Stalin's top-secret task to transport Spain's gold reserves to the USSR.

Bank vaults in Madrid held about $783 million worth of gold bullion - the fourth largest gold reserve in the world. In August 1936, $155 million of this stock was transferred to France to finance the supply of fighters and tanks. The rest of the treasure was secretly transported to a huge cave in a mountain near Cartagena.With the Francoists approaching the capital, the republican government offered to give gold to the storage of the Soviet Union. Stalin seized on the opportunity to receive half a billion dollars for the cost of weapons and advisers. He gave Yezhov the overall responsibility for delivering the gold to Moscow. Orlov was sent a secret order to take the necessary measures: "... the operation must be carried out in absolute secrecy. If the Spaniards require a receipt for the cargo, refuse to do so. I appoint you personally responsible for this operation." The message was signed "Ivan Vasilyevich". So Stalin signed the most secret messages.

... It took three nights to complete the entire operation. Under the protection of Soviet tankers dressed in Spanish uniforms, trucks with gold (7900 boxes, each box of 145 pounds) were delivered to the port with great precautions. From Cartagena by sea, the cargo was sent to Odessa. On November 6, four ships arrived at the port of destination. From there, on a special train guarded by thousands of "commanders", the gold was delivered to Moscow. The deputy chief of the Ukrainian NKVD personally accompanied the train to report on the successful completion of the mission to Yezhov (Tsarev O., Costello D. Fatal illusions. M., 1995. S. 291-298). The secrecy of the operation was explained, among other things, by the fact that Stalin did not want to destroy his image (in the eyes of "progressive mankind") as a disinterested assistant to the Spanish Republicans. Orlov was awarded the Order of Lenin.

In the spring of 1938, he fled to the USA with his wife (Rozhnetskaya Maria Vladislavovna, 1903-1971) and daughter (Veronika, 1922-1949). Lived in Cleveland, Ohio as a private individual. Shortly before Stalin's death, he published a series of articles in Life magazine, which then made up the book The Secret History of Stalin's Crimes (Orlov A. The Secret History of Stalin's Crimes. New York, 1953). This book was soon translated into many languages, including Russian in 1983. The appearance of Orlov's book shocked FBI director Hoover, who learned that an NKVD general had lived in the United States for fifteen years.

According to Orlov, the main factor that allowed him to avoid death at the hands of the murderers was a letter with a threat of exposure, written by him to Stalin in 1938 ("I warned him that if he takes revenge on our mothers, I will publish everything that I know about him and the secret operations of the OGPU").

In 1969, in a conversation with a KGB officer who sought him out in the United States, Orlov called his book "a cry from the soul," an attempt to reveal the facts relating to the ascent of a tyrant to the pinnacle of power. According to Orlov, this was important from a historical point of view, since most of the information given in the book was known only to him, as a senior member of Soviet intelligence. Moreover, according to Orlov, he personally knew Stalin even before his appointment to Spain, and it was Stalin who gave him the pseudonym "Orlov". Many facts were told to him by the brother of Stalin's wife, P. Alliluyev, who worked in Germany under Orlov in the late 1920s.3) (Tsarev O., Costello D. Fatal illusions. M. 1995. S. 19, 26).

Information from this book was widely used by Russian historians and writers even before its publication in Russia. In our country, Orlov's memoirs were published in 1991. In 1962, Orlov's second book "A Handbook on Counterintelligence and Guerrilla Warfare" (Orlov A. A Handbook of Intelligence and Guerilla Warfare. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1962). This book did not attract as much attention from the public as the first. In Russia, the material about Orlov first appeared in the newspaper "Trud" (1990. 20-21 Dec.).

In 1964, the leadership of the KGB removed all charges of betrayal from the fugitive general. The special report noted that agents whose names Orlov "knew very well" continued to work after 1953, when he showed up in the United States, until 1963, "until they were withdrawn to the USSR."

Notes

1. Orlov had the special rank of major of state security (1935). At that time, this rank of officer of the NKVD was equated with the brigade commander of the Red Army. According to the current table of ranks, his rank would be equal to major general. Thus, to this day, Orlov remains the most senior of all Soviet intelligence officers who ever fled to the West.

2. After Orlov's revelations, the Spanish government(Frankists) repeatedly raised the issue of returning the exported gold. In the 1960s, an agreement was reached that the USSR would compensate for part of the gold reserves with oil supplies to Spain at clearing prices.

3. Stalin's decision to send his brother-in-law to work under Orlov in Berlin shows that he attached great importance to secret cooperation, which gave the Soviet armed forces access to German weapons technology. Stalin used Russian-German relations to rearm the Red Army. However, the hidden benefit that Stalin derived from this "marriage of convenience" with Berlin was the massive penetration of Soviet agents into Germany to carry out industrial espionage (Tsarev O., Costello D. Fatal Illusions. M., 1995. P. 51):"

In general, the life of an illegal intelligence officer is quite full of adventures and events.

But let's get back to the documentary, in which fairly accessible facts from Orlov's biography are presented in a traditionally "revealing" form.

This "A. Orlov", according to the authors of the film, was Stalin's favorite and was in Stalin's "personal intelligence". Apparently, the authors of the film heard somewhere that Stalin had his own "personal intelligence", so they recorded Orlov-Feldbin in this same "Personal intelligence of a tyrant." But in fact, Orlov really enjoyed a certain confidence in Stalin and often carried out especially important assignments in various countries. However, he was still on the staff of the Intelligence Directorate of the NKVD. But just Stalin's "Personal Intelligence" had nothing to do with these structures (NKVD, NKGB, GRU). People from Stalin's "Personal Intelligence" could not be in the public service at all, or could be in various power structures of any countries of the World and at the same time report important information personally to Stalin through one of the communication channels known to them. And people from Stalin's "personal intelligence" worked at a higher level of intelligence and politics. But the conversation is not about them. And about a specific illegal resident intelligence officer Orlov-Feldbin and his fate.

And this is what they say in this semi-artistic, semi-documentary, semi-journalistic film about the dangerous and romantic fate of the Soviet illegal, a resident of Soviet intelligence in Spain, and how he organizes the export of Spanish gold to the USSR "on Stalin's instructions".

The film tells in passing that Orlov recruited such a well-known intelligence officer from England as Kim Philby and advised him, as a journalist from England, to get a job at Franco's headquarters. In fact, he was not entirely and was not the first to attract K. Philby to work for the USSR, but he himself was looking for connections with Soviet residents and in his memoirs he names slightly different names of his first "curators". ": Orlov arrived in London, where he became the chief operator of the Cambridge University graduate K. Philby ("Senchen"), recruited shortly before by the Soviet residency officer A. Deutsch ("Lang"):" ("Wikipedia")

Orlov also sends telegrams to Stalin in Moscow (at the same time these "telegrams" are shown), and in response he receives telegrams from Stalin. And since Stalin (this is "commonly known") "loved to personify-identify" himself with Ivan the Terrible, in telegrams to Orlov Stalin signed "Ivan Vasilyevich".

Then comes the story that Orlov proposed to the Minister of Finance of the Republican government of Spain to send the gold reserves of Spain to the USSR. But in fact, it was the government of Spain itself, through its minister, appealed through Orlov to the Soviet government to send the gold reserves of Spain to the USSR. But the film makes it clear that it was Stalin who turned to the Spaniards through Orlov with a proposal to send their gold (like for "storage"?), in order to actually appropriate this very Spanish gold by fraudulent means.

Also in the film they said that the Spanish guards guarding the gold in the caves found out that they were guarding, and Orlov sent a telegram to Stalin about this terrible fact. Why the hell did Stalin need such details, where Orlov sent his telegrams from and where Stalin sent the answers, is not reported in the film. Either Orlov had his own walkie-talkie at hand, or he ran to the post office every day (in the film they show the forms of the "Government Telegrams"), the authors of the film do not particularly focus on attention. Then the most difficult thing in this whole operation of "appropriating" Spanish gold by Stalin begins - the shipment of boxes of gold to ships going to the USSR.

Franco, giving an interview to K. Philby, who is constantly spinning at the headquarters of the putschists as an accredited journalist from England, reports that he is well aware of what the Republicans are going to load in that port. This is "rum from the Republicans for Stalin." At the same time, Franco gives the command to shell the port and ships. Orlov courageously, under fire, continues to load gold, personally counts the boxes and sends ships to the Union, while sending telegrams either to "Ivan Vasilyevich", or to Kim Philby (from the port or what?) with or without reason. But in the end, the loading was successfully completed and all the ships safely reached Russia, though one almost ran into an inspection of Francoist boats, but a Republican warship arrived in time to help him.

It was all carried out in October-November 1936. But as soon as Orlov sent the gold to the USSR, he realized that he, as "an unnecessary witness, must be removed" !!! Stalin will not leave alive a person, even if he was previously especially trusted and "favorite", who witnessed how Stalin appropriated the gold of another state in the amount of more than 500 tons, and "will definitely kill too many knowledgeable residents" !!! Moreover, at that time, many of Orlov’s comrades began to respond to the USSR and there they were either imprisoned, but most often shot in the basements of the Lubyanka. Crowds to do with it.

In short, Stalin decided to "remove" Orlov. But then the authors of the film, perhaps due to their general thoughtlessness (or maybe on purpose - who knows), began to give out funny details of further events, which were just not worth talking about, because. they are "biographical facts" of a courageous illegal intelligence officer, from the Internet and from the book of Tsarev O., Costello D. "Fatal Illusions", they simply begin to discredit.

Even during the year, Stalin could not find a reason to recall Orlov from Spain to "settle accounts." The resident continues to do his hard work as an illegal intelligence agent, and Stalin, in exchange for Spanish gold, sends weapons and other property to Spain. And only a year later, in the fall of 1937, Stalin finally instructed Yezhov, the head of the NKVD and the NKGB, to conduct financial audits in the SVR in all European residencies and a financial audit of the Spanish residency in particular. In short, Stalin spread the conspiracy with these "checks", and found the same "reason" to kill Orlov personally. The film also said that back in the 1920s, Orlov was in charge of the financial and economic department of the OGPU-NKVD (and this department was engaged in identifying the true income of "Nepmen" during his service in it as a chief, revealed "unearned income", so to speak) , and now he himself faces a financial audit.

The fact is that foreign illegal residencies must have (and received from the USSR) cash to "bribe presidents", in order to eat in a decent restaurant (in order to disguise, of course, and according to legend), in order to buy batteries for a walkie-talkie , safe houses to pay for a communal apartment, and in general: And in the film they said that the audit showed that Orlov was in charge of overspending and shortages of funds, and a lot of money was squandered no one knows where. But Orlov realized that this "test" was just a "reason." The very reason to lure him to the USSR and shoot him there. Indeed, for financial crimes in the USSR of those years, they could have been shot, the authors of the film said. And Orlov decides to flee to the West (of course, not out of fear of squandering state funds accountable to him, but solely for the "fight against Stalinism").

Having received only in July 1938 (a year and a half after the export of Spanish gold) a telegram stating that he should arrive with his family at the port of Antwerp in Belgium, to be sent to the USSR, on July 9, he does not appear on this ship. But since life in the West is not very cheap, Orlov along the way grabs 60 thousand US dollars from the safe, which, according to the authors, is more fully justified, because the intelligence officer is leaving the punishing hand of Stalin's NKVD !!! (60 thousand of those dollars will probably cost several million dollars today?), and leaves for France. Then Orlov and his family moved to Canada, wrote a letter from there personally to Stalin (they were very surprised at the post office that the envelope says "Moscow, the Kremlin, Stalin") in which he says that if the ubiquitous murderers of Stalin with ice axes try to find him, he will tell everyone To the world, how Stalin appropriated the gold of Spain!!! And then his traces are lost for a long 16 years, until he publishes articles in US newspapers, and a book about how he participated in the export of gold from Spain to the USSR. This happens only after the death of Stalin, in 1953.

The appearance of Orlov in the United States, in which he turned out to have lived illegally all these years, caused, in 1953, a hysteria from the FBI - "a Russian resident, an NKVD general, lived in the United States for so many years and was not found" !!! The publication of articles "about the gold of Spain" in American newspapers caused a scandal, and in 1954 the Pravda newspaper published a report of the USSR on Spanish gold - how many weapons and other property were sold to Spain, which fought against fascism in those years, for this gold, down to the last gram.

On this optimistic note, a documentary film in which historians A. Penzensky, S. Pozharskaya, journalist V. Telitsyn took part as narrators, and even deputy A. Mitrofanov was noted, about a brave and courageous intelligence officer who was not afraid of a villain-tyrant and boldly escaped to the West he hated is over. But a small but tricky question remained: so why did the glorious and noble intelligence officer from Spain, Alexander Orlov, aka Leiba Lazar Feldbin, escape?

If the Government of Spain agreed with the Soviet leadership on the transfer of gold from Spain to the USSR, and even on its own initiative, and even this gold was used to purchase weapons and other property for the war against the Nazis, and these weapons were supplied from the very moment the gold arrived in the USSR, in 1936 (and even earlier), why should an ordinary resident (even a general), although he took an active part in organizing the shipment of this gold, fear for his life? If Stalin had killed all the decent intelligence officers who worked abroad in those years and performed important tasks, then in a couple of years no one would simply want to work for him, and the number of those who fled to England and the USA would be hundreds of agents. Moreover, for a whole year, Stalin thought about how it would be more clever for him to sew on his beloved intelligence officer Orlov? But during this time, in exchange for that gold, there were deliveries to Spain of the very weapons with which the Republicans fought, and Stalin did not appropriate anything for himself or for the USSR. And "suddenly", Stalin's "paranoia" escalated and he decided a year later to bang his "beloved intelligence officer"? And a telegram with a response to the Motherland was sent six months later? Loved, loved, and fell out of love: These are the quirks of consciousness among tyrants. What they want, they do with their loved ones: just manage to dodge. And at the same time, Stalin seems to be some kind of slow-witted person, thinks for a long time and sways to "eliminate" Orlov's beloved.

True, at least no one from Spain has sent claims for this gold for all these years after Franco and still does not send (probably they are still afraid of Stalin :). In 1977, after the death of Franco himself, who tried to return this gold, diplomatic relations between Spain and the USSR were restored. However, the gold reserve never came back, because. for him, the official Soviet authorities, the official Spanish authorities during the civil war in Spain regularly sent the necessary weapons and equipment.

So why did Orlov run away to Canada and then move to the USA? And why in the US? In Canada, it seems to be even calmer and the fishing is decent.

It turns out that Orlov was actually more afraid of the embezzlement revealed during the financial audit??? That is, Alexander-Leiba Orlov-Feldbin, a banal crook who escaped punishment for squandered government money, and not a "prisoner of conscience" and part-time "fighter against totalitarianism and Stalinism"? Yes, and a tidy sum, 60 thousand dollars allocated for the work of intelligence officers in Spain grabbed (according to data from the Internet - 68 thousand)?

And now some details about the illegal intelligence officer A. Orlov, which were not included in the film, and you will not immediately find it on the Internet.

In various sources and books about Feldbin-Orlov, you can also read the following. Indeed, in the 1920s and 30s, L. Feldbin enjoyed Stalin's special confidence and carried out special assignments leader abroad. Which he could not entrust to ordinary scouts. Moreover, while serving in the border service of the NKVD of the USSR in Transcaucasia, in 1925 he guarded Beria and even Stalin, from whom he allegedly received his pseudonym "Orlov". At the same time, L. Feldbin was never a member of "Stalin's personal intelligence", but only served in the Intelligence Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR. But he earned trust on the one hand with his successful and honest work, and on the other hand, with his origin.

Leiba was born in the city of Bobruisk, Minsk province, but not quite "in the family of a petty forestry officer." Leiba Feldbin's father (according to some sources) was a rabbi, and as a rabbi, Leiba's dad was not a simple Jew. Moreover, Leiba was born only in Bobruisk ": From the age of 16, he worked as a private tutor. Finishing secondary educational institution in Moscow in 1915, in 1916 he entered the Faculty of Law of the Moscow University and at the same time the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages, but in the same year he was drafted into the army:", reports Wikipedia. Agree, for a "simple Jew" from a provincial town in Belarus in Tsarist Russia, with her "Pale of Settlement", such training is somewhat unusual if dad would be just a "petty forestry officer." But to be born in the family of a rabbi means to be born in the family of the "elite" Jewish.

The peculiarity of the Jews is, first of all, that they always hold together their fellow tribesmen, and always help their own. Especially Jews with position. So, some distant relative of Pope Leyba (according to some sources) worked in the Administration of US President F. D. Roosevelt - either the Attorney General, or the Supreme Judge of the United States, however, this is not the point. But if this is at least a little true, then it is precisely this kinship that explains why Orlov enjoyed such confidence in Stalin and why he was trusted with responsible operations of an international scale, and how later, after his flight to the West, Orlov managed to get lost at first, and then and successfully hid from the FBI for all the years of his residence in America, until 1953.

At the same time, Orlov, in principle, really retained the remnants of a certain "honesty". During Stalin's lifetime, he did not stick out (and maybe quite rightly he was afraid of an ice ax on his head?), And after his death he limited himself to generally insignificant "sensational" stories of his violent activity. And Wikipedia says: During numerous interrogations at the FBI and other Western intelligence agenciesOrlov reported a lot of information about the work of the USSR state security agencies in Europe and within the country. , but did not betray the foreign agents of the Soviet intelligence known to him personally, including the K. Philby group :"

Indeed, Orlov did not hand over Soviet illegal agents of the K. Philby class and others like him in the USA and Europe. However, if his family ties allowed him to live comfortably illegally all these years of silence, then he didn’t need to hand over “such” colleagues and thereby earn a crust of butter and caviar from the FBI and the CIA. Yes, and they could have given him a “prick with an umbrella” for something like that at the same time, even after the death of the “tyrant”, already under Khrushchev and early Brezhnev. Although he handed over middle-level agents, as befits all traitor defectors and, as subsequent "runners" from the "Sovdepiya" practiced. Trotsky, warned of the impending assassination attempt:

And there is a version that Orlov could not open his mouth until 1953 for a slightly different reason. And for a very important reason. When recruiting the same Kim Philby in England, he was "recruited" and another interesting character was used. And his name was Victor Rothschild. The same Victor Rothschild, one of the same Rothschild family that owned banks all over the world and at the same time helped the same Stalin and made "a little" money on this "help" (nothing personal - just business, only "Rothschilds" Hitler "helped" , and others - to Stalin.). But just for such chatter, Orlov would not have lived long and no "witness protection program" from the FBI would have helped him for sure.

Here it is worth digressing a little from A. Orlov and dwelling in more detail on interesting character History (and having a direct "some" relation to Orlov), on Victor Rothschild.

On the site http://www.argumenti.ru/publications/2745 newspaper "Arguments of the Week", in? 5(39) dated February 1, 2007, there is an article by S. Lekarev "Baron Victor Rothschild. The history of the sponsor of the "Cambridge Five".

":Before World War II, the most famous spy group of the 20th century, known throughout the world as the "Cambridge Five", worked for Soviet intelligence in England. It consisted of gifted aristocrats and intellectuals who studied at Cambridge. Agents of the Foreign Department of the OGPU-NKVD came out of the walls of this institutionDonald McLean ("Stuart", "Homer"),Guy Burges ("Medchen"),Anthony Blunt ("Tony"),Kim Philby ("Sonny", "Stanley"), as well as a ScotJohn Cairncross ("Sheet").(Five did study at Cambridge - Rothschild, Philby, McLean, Burges and Blunt. But the Scot J. Cairncross did not study at Cambridge. So in fact, formally and in fact, only Rothschild and his friends and classmates at the university can be called the "Cambridge Five" - K.O.Yu.) In fact, the "Cambridge Five" included many more sources of information, many of which, as is often the case, are undeservedly forgotten. One of the key figures in the Cambridge undercover group was the oligarch and baron, a member of the famous family of financiersRothschild - Victor . His history is like this.

Nathaniel Meyer Victor Rothschild was born in London on October 31, 1910. His happy father was the heir of one of the five brothers of the Rothschild family, who founded in early XIX century in London, Paris, Vienna, Frankfurt and Naples, an international banking network. Having reached the age of twenty, Victor Rothschild entered the University of Cambridge, famous for its freethinking. In those years, he was very self-confident driving a Mercedes at a speed of 100 miles per hour, which did not prevent him from sympathizing with the ideas of the British Communist Party. The latter became especially popular in Cambridge after Hitler came to power in Germany. Shocked by the Fuhrer's anti-Semitic slogans, back in 1932, Rothschild secretly joined the Communist Party, about which he preferred not to tell any of his relatives.

While studying at Trinity College, young Victor Rothschild became friends with Rutherford's lab worker.Peter Kapitsa. The latter gave him a very positive response in Moscow. As a resultRothschild soon became friends with a fellow student and a Soviet intelligence agentKim Philby . Another friend andfellow student of Rothschild - Guy Burges , also an agent of Soviet intelligence, was a financial adviser in the office, which belonged to the mother of Victor Rothschild. But Rothschild's closest relationship at Cambridge was withAnthony Blunt, whose mother was a cousin of the Earl of Strathmore. The latter's daughter married King George VI. Thus,Anthony Blunt was a close relative of the Queen Mother Elizabeth and a second cousin of the current reigning Queen Elizabeth II.. It so happened that Anthony Blunt, with all this, was a young communist and, again, an agent of the NKVD. Later, the head of the foreign counterintelligence service of MI6, Valentine Vivien, worried about national security, will say: "...everything is rotten to the ground, we are surrounded by NKVD agents and communists ".

Against Hitler together with the communists.

Rothschild and his friends were members of the elite Cambridge club of Marxist intellectuals, the Apostles. The leader of the secret society wasAnthony Blunt. During this period, Soviet intelligence paid special attention to "promising youth in terms of recruitment." They worked hard. In August 1934, Victor Rothschild unexpectedly received a ticket to a symphony concert, and a couple of days later he was given a short "recommendation" note from Kim Philby (with a clear hint at the initiator of the upcoming acquaintance) with the text: "Dear Victor, have you received any invitations recently? " It became clear to Rothschild that someone wanted to meet with him, and at the suggestion of Philby. A few seconds before the start of the concert in the auditorium, a tall blue-eyed man took a seat next to him. During the intermission they talked about music, the stranger introduced himself as Otto.It was the best recruiter of the Soviet intelligence Theodor Malli, a Hungarian by nationality, a staff member of the Foreign Department of the OGPU.

Shortly thereafter, Victor was brought into cooperation on the basis of the idea of ​​​​fighting fascism and helping the USSR - the only country that was capable of defeating Hitler.

Undoubtedly, of all the listed members of the "five" of the greatest interest to Soviet intelligence was Viktor Rothschild. Moreover, in 1937 he took the place of his deceased uncle in the House of Lords, becoming Lord Rothschild. It must be assumed that he knew perfectly well "who is who" among his friends. He was not embarrassed that many of them adhered to leftist views and supported the Soviet Union.Work in the House of Lords and the friendship with Winston Churchill based on the merits of the Rothschilds in the history of the empire created a unique opportunity for Victor Rothschild to engage in not only technical, but also political intelligence for his new like-minded friends.

At the very beginning of the war, Victor Rothschild served in London in a secret laboratory at Porton Down, where chemical and biological weapons were developed. At work, he had constant contacts in the Foreign Office (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), as well as in British intelligence and in the country's decryption service. At the same time, he quite often met with the heads of national intelligence services and personally with Churchill.There was a time when, thanks to his closeness to Churchill, he was responsible for checking the food that was served to the Prime Minister, because information was received that the Germans would try to poison him.

Mysterious apartment.

During his work in counterintelligence, Victor Rothschild lived in the center of London in an apartment that he rented on Bentinck Street. In September 1940, he and his pregnant wife, afraid of becoming victims of German bombing, decided to move into their country house and rent the apartment to old friends from Cambridge - Burges and Blunt.

Later MI5 officerKenneth Youngersaid that this apartment in intelligence circles was the subject of constant ridicule. The fact is that its tenants constantly brought collections with documents from the British special services to the apartment.At the same time, regular visitors to the apartment were representatives"non-traditional sexual orientation" and faces"prone to alcoholism ". Burges combined both vices, except for the fact that he was known as a "notorious Marxist". In addition, the well-known and prestigious "house of the Rothschilds" was visited by many prominent Londoners out of old habit. Among them were ministers and other high-ranking officials, as well as prominent military and high-ranking intelligence figures. Until late at night, visitors were engaged in "bone-cutting" and discussion of professional gossip and intrigues circulating in the corridors of the British special services, in which numerous common intelligence and counterintelligence acquaintances were involved. Later English writerJohn CostelloIn one of his books he wrote about this:"The main headquarters of the NKVD could congratulate itself on a great achievement". Indeed, it seems that the apartment on Bentinck Street was the place where the information feed of the London residency of the INO NKVD took place.

So was Rothschild an agent?

If the baron was an agent, then he should be attributed to representatives of the highest category of the agent class, known as"influence agency". Experts know that a candidate for the high title of "agent of influence"no offer is made on behalf of intelligence, he is not taken a signature on his voluntary cooperation, he is not given a monthly monetary reward with the withdrawal of a receipt. An agent of influence may not even guess that he is being used by special services in the interests of a foreign state.

After the failed MacLean and Burges fled to the USSR in 1951, Rothschild began to slowly withdraw from contact with Soviet intelligence, fearing exposure. His friendship with the fugitive diplomats was well known, and journalists hinted at him more than once, but every time he threatened to sue anyone who "speculated without any reason" on this topic. However, he never filed a lawsuit, although there were reasons for this. He was haunted by various allusions for the rest of his life, although his credibility was not questioned in the English establishment.

He died in 1990 at the age of 80.

character arguments.

Rothschilds are born .

Rothschild, on the one hand, was of interest to the NKVD residency, on the other hand, he was well aware of the risk he was exposed to due to contacts with Soviet agents. True, unlike the latter, there was nothing to "hook" him on. Being by nature an energetic person, he always strove to remain the master of the situation. He followed the rules as long as they did not contradict his own ideas, goals and objectives. When discussing the actions of Rothschild and his connections with various, sometimes opposing political groups, one should not forget thatVictor Rothschild came from a family that made history in England by buying the Suez Canal for the British government.

Why did Rothschild meet with people whom he might suspect of communist sympathies? Being a noble man, he did not refuse the friendship that developed during his student years. But he did not allow himself to be compromised by rash acts. As an MI5 officer, Rothschild naturally took every possible measure to ensure that his own reputation was beyond suspicion. With most of the leaders of the British intelligence services among his closest contacts, he was able to cope with this most difficult task.

Many foreign authors, in support of the version of Rothschild's work on Russians, often refer to conversations with mysterious colonels of Soviet intelligence. But is this proof? It is clear that Rothschild was a friend of the "Soviet Cambridgeites" and at one time sympathized with the communists, but this is not enough. What if all this is the machinations of ill-wishers who are digging under the famous banking house? Perhaps someday this mystery will be revealed...."

It is hardly naive to believe that Lord Rothschild maintained an old friendship with friends from the "Cambridge Five" solely from "noble" motives and sentimental memories of student pranks and vices. Do not forget which family the Lord and Baron Rothschild was a member of. So this family had a purely monetary "interest" in Russia and its spies, and these Rothschilds of the USSR "helped" solely for "business" reasons. As they say, "nothing personal - just business."

Here is an opinion about Victor Rothschild from an article by Andrey Petrov and Vladimir Denisov on the website http://www.dazzle.ru/spec/rotshield.shtml"Soviet secret services helped create the state of Israel using secret communication channels, or how the Jewish Baron Rothschild worked for the USSR intelligence:

": It is known that after the disclosure of the true role of the "Cambridge Five" Victor Rothschild has repeatedly stated: he will sue the one who accuses him of spying for the Soviet Union. Nobody publicly accused him. Already after the death of the Baron, journalist Roland Perry wrote about him a whole book, which is called: "The Fifth Man" ("The Fifth man").Perry makes an attempt to prove that the fifth in Philby's group was Rothschild and not Cairncross, who never studied at Cambridge.. An entire chapter of the book is devoted to the secret activities of Rothschild as a "double" of the Zionist underground and Soviet intelligence. The direct connection of certain information received in Moscow with a source, which could only be Victor Rothschild, is indicated. Soviet scientists and physicists who were trained at Cambridge, including Pyotr Kapitsa, were involved in the "double game" by him.

Given the work of Rothschild in important positions in the British intelligence services, his access to classified information, Perry concludes that the baron is working for Moscow. In addition, Victor Rothschild was the coordinator of the activities of the British intelligence services on the issue of the atomic bomb and oversaw this line in the scientific and technical intelligence department of the SIS. It turns out that he really, unlike his friends, was only more skillfully disguised?

A conclusion is possible from a number of materials: Rothschild probably understood that he was involved in "double" conspiratorial activities, and partly even "directed" this process. But unlike the main figures of the "Cambridge Five" he was not a recruited agent. Occupying a prominent and independent position in British society, Victor Rothschild played his own game in realizing the idea of ​​creating the State of Israel. The Soviet Union played the "Palestinian card" against the British, and in this matter Rothschild "worked" with Soviet intelligence, being an important source of information for her. The creation of a Jewish state undermined the influence of England in the Arab world, which also met the interests of both the United States and the USSR. Therefore, in the American direction, Moscow's efforts to strengthen ties with the Jewish community did not weaken. Through representatives of the special services, new contacts arose..."

Does it appear that Victor Rothschild was "working" against the National Interests of his own country of England? Yes, in general, no. He ALWAYS worked primarily for the Interests of his Family. Rothschild families. As they say - "nothing personal - just business." And where Capital is more concentrated, there are more "national interests" for such "families". "Where it is good - there is the Motherland."

At the time of Hitler's taking Power in Germany, the history of England as a world Empire was heading towards sunset and a new Empire, the USA, was entering the World Arena from across the ocean. The interest of the United States (and the Rothschilds in the United States also had a lot of assets) was to take part in the drive (along with England) of Hitler to Power in Germany, to push it against Russia, but in such a way that England would not stand aside in this massacre . The colonies of which will become "independent" and pass under the control of the United States, which remained aloof from the fight and became rich on Lend-Leases for both England and Russia-USSR, and then on "aid" for the destroyed post-war Europe. Russia, bled dry by the next World War, in this case also ceases to be a global Competitor and becomes something like a raw material colony of the future Empire - the United States. So the Rothschilds never betray anyone. They are always loyal to their "Family". Well, maybe sometimes they remember their nation, unless of course this will also be connected with the interests of their "Family". And how it will develop with the "nation" at the moment is not so important, even if several million tribesmen are slaughtered at the same time. Which then can also always be turned into a voiced coin.

So now it's probably worth going back to interesting question: "Why did Alexander Orlov, aka Leiba Lazar Feldbin, remain silent about his ties with the NKVD and Stalin until 1953? about his involvement in their recruitment at one time? Was it the "nobility of a scout" and the result of some kind of "deal with the tyrant-Stalin", or something else?"

And everything will probably be a little easier. It was not Stalin's death that inspired Orlov to write bold and incriminating "memoirs" about "Stalin's atrocities." His book "The History of Stalin's Crimes" was published in the USA in 1953. But articles from it appeared in US newspapers as early as 1952, shortly before Stalin's death (in the Life magazine), and these articles then made up the book The Secret History of Stalin's Crimes. But by this time, Stalin was still alive. But some members of the very "Cambridge Five" have already been exposed and more fled to the USSR in 1951, the failed McLean and Burgess. (Their "old friend" Kim Philby (Harold Adrian Russell Philby) also falls under suspicion. Who is also interrogated by the British counterintelligence MI-5, but released due to "lack of evidence", remains in limbo right up to 1955, when he goes to However, in the same 1955, Philby returned to Intelligence (but not to senior positions), to MI6, when he went to Beirut under the guise of a correspondent for The Observer and The Economist. K. Philby is smuggled into the USSR.)

After that, information about Orlov could, and certainly leaked, and there was no point in keeping silent for him. Now it was possible to earn extra money on "memoirs about the revelations of Stalinism", and one could no longer be afraid for one's life.

But who could Orlov really be afraid of if, during Stalin's lifetime, he had begun to testify to the FBI? Stalin with Beria and agents with ice axes? Not at all.

There was no need for the "tyrant" to remove the "extra witness", and even the General of Intelligence, and even a friend of such agents as the "Cambridge Five", and even tied with the Rothschilds themselves! Such people are always very necessary for any "regimes". And the Spaniards themselves (albeit in secret from the rest of the cabinet of ministers of Spain and even more so the whole world) turned to Stalin with a request to accept gold in exchange for military supplies, etc. for the republican troops, and there was no point in "removing the witness" Orlov, who had previously had quite an excellent reputation in the eyes of Stalin, and received the Order of Lenin for this operation. And even more so after almost two years after the export of gold to the USSR. Louder and more delicate operations were also carried out. The same Sudoplatov pulled off the assassination of Trotsky, but no one "repressed" him. Although it was a no less scandalous story of international significance - "Stalin's dirty liquidation of a personal enemy"! And Stalin did not need to touch such a person as Orlov, who had such family ties in the USA, especially before the War with Hitler, during the War and after it. Moreover, no one touched many other defectors if they did not pose a direct threat to the USSR. But Orlov, like most of the "Rezuns", did not and do not represent any particular "threat" to Russia.

Orlov-Feldbin himself, as a correct Jew, should be afraid only and exclusively of the Rothschild Family.

If only Orlov had opened his mouth to the FBI about the "Cambridge Five", then he would have to immediately talk about Victor Rothschild, and the contribution of the Rothschilds to the "nuclear project", which almost immediately became known in the USSR and from the English MI6, including . And here, for sure, no FBI programs for the "protection of talkative witnesses" would have helped him. After all, the Rothschilds (and others like them) are the true and real Power in the West. What is in England, what is in the USA. And Orlov-Feldbin would have lived in this case for a couple of days.

But in general, the story of Orlov-Feldbin is not yet the most vulgar and dirty.

It’s just that the Soviet resident was stealing a little, had a not very successful origin, and indeed it was precisely for embezzlement that he could sit down for a decent period. Moreover, at that time, the purge of the NKVD and Intelligence Agencies from people and Trotsky's tribesmen began and went on, after the failed Military Coup of Marshals under the leadership of Tukhachevsky in May 1937 in the USSR, in which employees of the NKVD and Intelligence Services were also involved. And with a hot hand, Orlov could well have fallen under the distribution and stood against the wall, like many of his colleagues, and a denunciation would have been found. Another thing is that at the same time, other intelligence officers also responded to the test in connection with the failed military coup in the USSR. They passed the necessary checks in such cases, and then returned to their duties again. The same Eitingon, and the same Sudoplatov. True, after the death of Stalin, they were already imprisoned as "Stalinists", but this really was no longer legal.

"Sudoplatov Pavel Anatolyevich (1907-1996), was the head of the Department of Special Operations Abroad of the NKVD during the Second World War, lieutenant general in 1945. In 1953 he was arrested in the "Beria case". In 1958 he was sentenced to imprisonment for 15 years. He served his sentence in the Vladimir prison. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov 2nd degree, two Orders of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree, medals, the badge "Honored Worker of the NKVD". In 1992, he was rehabilitated, in 1998, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, he was posthumously reinstated in the rights to state awards. Under the pseudonym "Anatoly Andreev" published three books. In 1997, his last book was published posthumously: "Special operations. Lubyanka and the Kremlin 1930-1950".

"Eitingon Naum Isaakovich (1899-1981), was one of the leaders of the overseas intelligence of the NKVD from 1939 to 1953. In 1945, Major General. In 1951 he was arrested on the "Jewish conspiracy", in 1953 on the "case of Beria", in 1957 he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He served his sentence in the Vladimir prison. Released in 1964. Since 1965, senior editor of the publishing house "International Relations". In 1992, his posthumous rehabilitation followed. Awarded with the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of Suvorov 2nd class, Alexander Nevsky, medals."

Nationality in their case did not play any role for the inspectors, and even more so for Stalin. And since only Stalin personally checked the cases submitted to him against people of the level of Orlov (the General of Intelligence, after all), for some reason it seems to me that Orlov, as a particularly valuable agent with such powerful connections in the West, should have passed this test. and calmly continue to work for the good of the Motherland, as his other colleagues did. (However, Orlov writes in his "memoirs" that during the transportation of gold to Spain, a "re-grading" was revealed - according to his calculations, more boxes were obtained than a representative of the Spanish government. And it is still unknown what is more dangerous - "surplus" or "shortage", in such cases.)

For example, there was the same "fugitive" from the "Stalinist satrapy", another resident and illegal intelligence agent in the same years, Walter Krivitsky. He is also nee Samuil Gershevich Ginzburg. This next future "fighter against Stalinism", being a participant in the Spanish Civil War, received the task (and quite decent money, respectively) to purchase weapons in third countries for soldiers of the republican volunteer brigades. As a true son of his working people, Samuil decided to buy weapons cheaper - in order to save the sovereign's money, of course !!! And I found not an expensive flea market, with apparently a seasonal "sale", in Europe. At this "sale" the second-hand weapons of Kaiser Germany from the First World War came true. It most likely came true by the Nazis to receive money for the rearmament of the Wehrmacht. And everything would be fine (business is business), but only this weapon began to fail in the very first battles, which led to the death and defeat of those very international brigades, the death of volunteer soldiers. And after the trials, it turned out that the German weapons that Samuil-Walter Ginzburg-Krivitsky bought "on the cheap" were not just old and cheap (although they probably paid for them as if they were new), but also brought to non-working condition deliberately before the sale. (read the book by A. B. Martirosyan "The Conspiracy of the Marshals")

In principle, it seems like the direct fault of the resident merchant in this story with the purchase of defective weapons from the Germans for the Republican army that fought fascism, as if not. But after all, after the volunteer brigades suffered losses and it became known that the defective weapon was the cause, a trial was probably held on the topic of who bought and from whom. And my heart feels that along the way, something else came out as a result of that check. For example, how much gr. Samuil Ginzburg and how much the "sellers"-Nazis unfastened him with a "kickback" from that deal. Well, along the way, the brave future "fighter against Stalinism" also grabbed his several tens of thousands of dollars of state money from the safe. For petty expenses, so to speak, yes, for the first time, until he finds a good job for himself. And then, of course, he was going to send money taken "on loans" to the USSR. Yes, there was no time to find everything. The work of "exposing Stalinism" took up all the time of the "prisoner of conscience". He barely had time to wipe the sweat from his forehead with a rag.

So, one has only to start looking into the details with each such "defector" - an illegal immigrant, and even having "relatives abroad" and an offensive column in the passport, then it turns out that the swindler was all vulgar. And thieves almost without exception.

And the experience of this brethren in their relationship with the Russian Army and the sovereign's money is enormous. While the Russian soldier on the "Shipki" was bent, the quartermasters and suppliers of the same uniforms and food for the Army were again all the same Samuils and Leibs. Russian tsars acted "cruelly". The bearers of these names and the specific ideology of hatred for the "unchosen" peoples, who, according to Their Faith, can be robbed and robbed, considering them to be "goyim", the kings crushed the "Pale of Settlement", not allowing them to occupy decent places in the Empire. And not allowing to settle in the capitals in large numbers. But the "tyrant-despot", "villain" Stalin only attracted for theft and venality of these and others like them, regardless of nationality, but for squandering State funds. And the theft of government money in the West, under Stalin in Russia-USSR was punishable by quite decent terms. And if this theft of the money of the State led to the death of people in the same war, then according to the Law they could put them up against the wall. Regardless of nationality. And we have been told everything about the brave "prisoners of conscience", and about the "fight against totalitarianism" all these years.

By the way, precisely because almost all of these "fighters" fled to the West, having been caught solely on theft, no one opens criminal cases against these "victims of repression" to the end. After all, then all this thieving punks will look painfully unsightly, and tales of "Stalin's tyranny" may be left without another "evidence" and another "victims of repression."

(Martirosyan A.B. "Conspiracy of Marshals" http://lib.rus.ec/b/144237/read

Walter Krivitsky, having escaped, wrote "memoirs". But myself ": "memoirist" also fell under the cap of the Abwehr because of his participation in organizing the smuggling of weapons to Spain after the outbreak of the Civil War in this country. Yes, this is so, and in the February 1937 message of one of the most valuable agents at that time domestic intelligence - Gestapo officer Willy Lehman (pseudonym - "Breitenbach") - it was said precisely that the Abwehrs had overlaid the front company created by Krivitsky for these purposes in The Hague with their agents. However, this was hardly the main reason - such front companies throughout Europe were Soviet intelligence created a lot at that time, so even the Abwehr could not keep track of everyone.

But even if this is so, and he really "fell under the hood" of the Abwehr as a result of the cunningly placed networks of German military intelligence{15} , then all the same, the Abwehr people would very quickly figure out his social circle, incl. and connections with the ex-Kaiser's inner circle, for this is nothing more than the usual "alpha and omega" of intelligence activities. Well, then, you yourself understand what could happen ...

Meanwhile, in his "memoirs" Krivitsky boasts with might and main that he bought weapons even in Nazi Germany - as he allegedly writes, a batch of slightly outdated rifles and machine guns, which were sold cheaper, went on sale in Hamburg. And immediately the question is: where did the remaining money go - after all, he bought it cheaply, and they gave him money as for a new weapon. And isn't that one of the main reasons along which he fled to the West? After all, mass failures of weapons in battle quickly became known, and the representatives of the NKVD in Spain then began to deal with this problem. Understanding, by the way, was none other than the NKVD resident in Spain and later also a fugitive traitor A. Orlov. By the way, this is some kind of general phenomenon among the so-called. "fighters against Stalinism" - they were so convinced of the need to fight Stalinism that they began it, and without exception, with trivial thefts. Reiss stole 60 thousand dollars, Krivitsky pocketed several tens of thousands of francs, Orlov - 68 thousand dollars. But it was the money of those same workers and peasants, for whose innermost aspirations they allegedly fought: "

": In short, by the middle of autumn 1937, Krivitsky had a very poor choice - either into the clutches of the Abwehr, or into the "embraces" of the British, because if Lubyanka found out about all his door and weapon "arts", then a meeting with her bone-breakers from among the same "internationalists" as himself, would have been inevitably inevitable. After all, he was summoned to Moscow after the aforementioned information from Breitenbach, and only by a miracle did he escape the cellars of the Lubyanka, and on May 22, 1937, he slipped out of the USSR. Forever.

On October 6, 1937, along the same thorny path already trodden by his friend Reiss, Krivitsky left, having managed, however, to assist in the murder of his friend. And he formalized his betrayal in the same way as Reiss, by going over to the side of the "demon of the world revolution" - Trotsky: ")

70 years ago, the Spanish Civil War began. In February 1936, for the first time in the history of this country, democratic elections were held, which were won by the Popular Front, which united a number of leftist parties. But at the same time, right-wing and frankly fascist forces were consolidating, which organized a military rebellion in order to overthrow the legitimate government. The prearranged signal for the start of the active actions of the conspirators was the words transmitted on the night of July 18 to 19 by the radio station of the city of Ceuta: "A cloudless sky over all of Spain." On September 29, the Soviet leadership decided to conduct Operation "X" - the provision of active military assistance to Republican Spain.

The fate of the Spanish gold reserves, part of which ended up in the Soviet Union at the end of 1936, is directly connected with Operation X. Until now, this "dark story" (in the words of some Russian and foreign authors) continues to excite historians. She gave rise to many rumors, myths and speculation. Until now, publications with sensational headlines appear in Spain and Russia, the meaning of which boils down to the fact that Moscow "warmed up its hands" on Spanish gold. Based on the fundamental research of Spanish specialists, as well as Russian archival sources, we will try to answer the question of what happened to Spanish gold.

THE WAY TO MOSCOW
To begin with, let us quote a report from a Polish intelligence agent dated November 24, 1936, found among captured documents in the Russian State Military Archive: "When the new Spanish ambassador Pasqua was sent to Moscow, he received: the broadest powers to conclude a secret agreement with the USSR on the further supply of Spanish red weapons. Such an agreement was signed on the third day after Pasqua's arrival in Moscow. Its essence was that that the Spanish government of Caballero undertook to keep in Moscow a gold fund in the amount of not less than two hundred and fifty million pesetas (half a billion francs), on account of which Moscow undertook to supply weapons to the Spanish Reds. just an element of the purest commerce, because Moscow, thanks to the help of the Spanish gold fund, got the opportunity, by no means unimportant in the face of possible international complications, to increase its gold fund. Having received Spanish gold, Moscow began huge and regular shipments of weapons to Spain.

In fact, military specialists and weapons from the Soviet Union began to arrive on the Iberian Peninsula much earlier than the Spanish gold ended up in the USSR. The first military advisers were sent to Spain on the 20th of August 1936. And by October 22, 50 T-26 tanks with fuel and ammunition, a squadron of SB high-speed bombers (30 units), and small arms were delivered on five ships.

(T-26 from the tank group of Colonel S. Krivosheev, tank crews
were mixed, commanders and mechanics from among Soviet specialists)

By the end of the month, 60 armored vehicles, a squadron of I-15 fighters, artillery systems with ammunition, etc., arrived. And the decision to send part of the gold reserves of the Bank of Spain to the Soviet Union was made by Prime Minister Caballero and Finance Minister Negrin at the hour of ultimate danger - the threat of the capture of Madrid by the Falangists . It seemed to many then that the days of the republic were numbered. Fierce fighting was already going on in the city itself. And the Francoist radio daily transmitted to Madrid a pre-prepared program of the solemn entry of the nationalists into the capital.

Most likely, the republican government had no choice in those troubled days. Caballero announced the decision to evacuate the government from Madrid to Valencia. It was these circumstances that influenced the decision to send part of the Spanish gold reserves to the USSR. There are at least two versions of how the Spanish gold was exported. According to the first, the Spanish government made this decision under pressure from Stalin. At the same time, arguments are given that are not supported by archival documents, so they cannot be considered sufficiently convincing. But in order to get a complete picture, we present these testimonies.

October 15, 1936 Deputy chief military adviser in Spain for counterintelligence and partisan struggle in the rear, A. Orlov (Swede) received from Moscow a cipher telegram from the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs N. Yezhov: "I give you the personal order of the Master(Stalin. - Approx. Aut.). Together with Plenipotentiary Rosenberg, organize, in agreement with Caballero: the shipment of Spain's gold reserves to the Soviet Union. Use a Soviet ship for this purpose. The operation must be carried out in absolute secrecy. If the Spaniards demand a receipt from you, refuse, I repeat, refuse to sign any document whatsoever and explain that the formal receipt will be issued by the State Bank in Moscow. You are personally responsible for the success of this operation. Rosenberg is accordingly notified. Ivan Vasilievich(Stalin's pseudonym. - Approx. Aut.)".

(Alexander Mikhailovich Orlov (Lev (Leiba) Lazarevich Feldbin) - Soviet intelligence officer,
major of state security (1935). Resident of the NKVD and adviser to the republican government on
security in Spain (1937-1938). Since July 1938 - defector, lived in the USA)

The next day, Orlov and Rosenberg briefed Finance Minister Negrin on Stalin's proposal. He agreed to send gold to the USSR. Later, in the commission of the US Senate, Orlov (after escaping to America) admitted that he and Rosenberg "were simply dumbfounded" how quickly he allowed himself to be persuaded. As Orlov believed, the ground for such an agreement had already been prepared by the efforts of the Soviet trade representative in Spain, A. Stashevsky. But today it was not possible to double-check these facts according to the documents of the archives.

According to the version of the Spanish scientist A. Viñas, on October 15, 1936, Caballero and Negrin officially turned to the Soviet Union with a request to accept approximately 500 tons of gold for storage. We find confirmation of the fact of this appeal of the republican government in the "Special Folder" of the protocols of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Here is the resolution of the meeting of October 19, 1936:
"[...] 59. Question from Comrade Rosenberg.
Instruct Comrade Rosenberg to reply to the Spanish government that we are ready to accept the gold reserves for storage and that we agree to send this gold on our ships returning from ports, on the condition that the gold will be accompanied by representatives of the Spanish government or the Ministry of Finance and that our responsibility for the safety of gold begins from the moment it is handed over to the People's Commissariat of Finance of the USSR in our port.

(Juan Negrin Lopez. During the Civil War 1936-1939 he was Minister of Finance in the government
Francisco Largo Caballero as Prietist Representative (September 4, 1936 to May 17, 1937)

The telegram with the decision of the top political leadership of the USSR arrived in Madrid on October 20. By this time the gold had been taken from Madrid to Cartagena and stored in old powder magazines near the port. About 510 tons (to be precise, 510,079,529.3 grams) of gold, packed in 7,800 standard-type boxes (65 kg each), were distributed among four Soviet ships that delivered weapons and ammunition to Cartagena. Gold was in ingots, bars, coins, including rare numismatic specimens.
Ships were loaded at night from 22 to 25 October: on the Neva - 2697 boxes; "KIM" - 2100; "Kuban" - 2020; "Volgoles" - 963. Everything happened in the deepest secrecy. For the purposes of conspiracy, A. Orlov was called "by Mr. Blackstone of the US National Bank", which President Roosevelt himself allegedly personally sent to Spain to transport gold to Washington. Only seven people in all of Spain were then initiated into the operation, on the Soviet side two were aware of the matter - Orlov and Rosenberg.

The Republican fleet was drawn up to guard the proposed route of the "golden caravan". This is confirmed by a summary of the military situation in Spain dated October 20, 1936, prepared by the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army: "The government fleet, which left the Bay of Biscay on October 13, arrived on October 18, 1936 in the Mediterranean Sea and concentrated in Cartagena". The ships departed at daily intervals. The Soviet naval attache and senior naval adviser in Spain N. Kuznetsov provided security for transports in the base and at sea. The route of the "golden caravan" was carefully planned. Having passed through the Mediterranean and Marmara Seas, the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, the Black Sea, on November 2, the transports arrived in the USSR. There was one representative of the Bank of Spain on each ship. In the port of Odessa, the gold was loaded into a special train and delivered to Moscow under heavy guard.

On November 3, 1936, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, M. Litvinov, sent his proposals for accepting gold to the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR V. Molotov: “Final execution is possible only after receiving the draft exchange of letters requested from Madrid. We could now propose to the Spanish ambassador in Moscow to write us a letter asking us to accept the gold, but since he is unable to indicate either the weight or the value, such a letter is deprived legal significance. I again telegraphed Comrade Rosenberg to speed up the exchange of letters, as well as to report data on the amount of gold sent ".

By November 6, the gold was placed in storage at the People's Commissariat of Finance of the USSR. Later, an act was drawn up on the acceptance of gold, which was signed in early February 1937 by the Ambassador of the Spanish Republic M. Pasqua, the People's Commissar for Finance of the USSR G. Grinko and the Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs N. Krestinsky. A copy of the act sent to the Republican government. On April 24, 1937, A. Stashevsky from Valencia reported in a cipher telegram to the People's Commissar for Foreign Trade A. Rozengolts: "I found out for sure that the Moscow act of accepting gold was handed over to Caballero, and he, in turn, handed it over to Baraibo, the deputy minister of war, a very dubious person". After the end of the civil war, this copy of the act was kept by Negrin, and after his death was transferred to the government of Franco.

OPERATION "X" PRICE
According to the famous English researcher A. Beevor, at a banquet in the Kremlin on January 24, 1937, Stalin, being in a good mood, allegedly unexpectedly said: "The Spaniards will never see this gold as their own ears".
Indeed, Operation X was not gratuitous, weapons and equipment were supplied on a commercial basis. The republic paid for Soviet military assistance on account of gold deposited in the State Bank of the USSR. In addition, Spain paid for supplies military equipment and weapons from third countries purchased there on instructions from the Soviet government; assistance of the USSR in the creation of the military industry of the republic; sending Soviet people to Spain and their participation in hostilities (salary); allowances and pensions for the families of those killed in the war; training in the USSR personnel for the Republican army.

Note that cash for operation "X" were released by the decisions of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks even before the arrival of gold in Moscow. The 1910 thousand rubles and 190 thousand dollars allocated on September 29, 1936 turned out to be insufficient and on October 13 it was "Additional funds have been allocated for the purchase in Czechoslovakia on a special assignment, in addition to the already allocated 400 thousand US dollars, another 696,347 US dollars."

On October 17, the Politburo decides: "1) Approve the dispatch of people and goods to "X" according to the lists submitted by NPOs ... 3) Release NPOs from the reserve fund of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR 2,500,000 rubles to cover expenses on a special task".
By November 15, 2,300 thousand rubles and 190 thousand ammo were spent to send 455 people and 9 transports with weapons to Spain. dollars. At the meeting of the Politburo on November 22, an additional 3,468.5 thousand rubles and 48.5 thousand US dollars were allocated. dollars to finance the dispatch of 270 people and 5 ships.

Other examples of allocations by the USSR government of funds for operation "X" can be cited. The total amount of materiel supplied from the USSR from September 1936 to July 1938 was $166,835,023. And for all shipments to Spain from October 1936 to August 1938, the republican authorities fully paid the entire amount of the debt to the Soviet Union of $ 171,236,088. All these figures are contained in the reference notebook of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR K. Voroshilov with the inscription "Operation X" on the cover .

Adding the cost of military equipment sent in late 1938 - early 1939 to Spain from Murmansk via France ($55,359,660), we get the total cost of military-technical supplies. It varies from 222,194,683 to 226,595,748 dollars. Due to the fact that the cargo of the last delivery was not completely delivered to its destination and part of it was returned to Soviet military warehouses, the final figure for the cost of military cargo delivered to Republican Spain is 202, $4 million

The calculations for sending people and goods were rather complicated, since they included not only salaries, but also payment for travel to Spain and back, maintenance in Moscow, equipment, daily allowances, loading in ports, etc. For example, moving one person across railway through Europe it cost 3,500 rubles and 450 dollars, by sea - 3,000 rubles and 50 dollars, loading transport and providing the team with food - 100 thousand rubles and 5 thousand dollars (advance payment to the head of the team). Until January 25, 1938, 1,555 volunteers were sent from the USSR to Spain, the expenses amounted to $1,560,741.87 (6,546,509 rubles and $325,551.37).

The total cost of Operation "X" also took into account the allowance paid to Soviet military specialists in Spain. Their salaries were different, pilots received the most. Since January 1937, the families of Soviet servicemen who died in Spain, with the sanction of the Politburo, were given a lump-sum allowance of 25 thousand rubles and pensions. Thus, the family of the commander of the 12th International Brigade, M. Zalka (Lukach), who died in June 1937, received a pension of 1,000 rubles. In total, during the civil war in Spain, more than 200 Soviet citizens died, of which 158 were sent only through the military department.

An important item of expenditure was the cost of training national personnel for the Spanish Republican army in the USSR. Unfortunately, the final figures for the cost of education have not yet been found. Only a few components are known. Thus, the cost estimate for the construction and maintenance of the 20th military pilot school in Kirovobad to train pilots for the Spanish Air Force amounted to 4,022,300 rubles or 800 thousand dollars (this is without the cost of aviation equipment, vehicles and other expenses). Republican pilots who studied in 1938 at the Lipetsk military aviation improvement courses received a monthly salary: captain - 1000 rubles, lieutenants - 750 rubles each.
The cost of only food and uniforms for 100 cadets who studied for 1.5 months at the Ryazan Infantry School, the Sumy Artillery School (30 artillerymen), the Tambov School (40 people) and the Gorky Tank School (30 tankmen) amounted to 188,450 rubles or 37,690 dollars.

An important feature of Operation X is that, starting from March 1938, it was carried out on credit. First, the Soviet government provided the government of Spain with a loan in the amount of $70 million for a period of three years, and in December 1938 a new loan in the amount of up to $100 million. Legally, everything was formalized as a loan from the Bank of Spain, which the republican authorities undertook to repay after end of the civil war.

WAS SECRETITY NEEDED?
All events related to the movement of gold from Spain to another country took place in the strictest secrecy. In the "Short Review of Domestic and Foreign Political Events in Spain in the Third Quarter of 1938" prepared by the 3rd Western Department of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs for the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. there is no mention of the fact that the Soviet Union provided military assistance to Republican Spain, and there is not a word about the fate of Spanish gold.

For many years, everything related to the gold of Spain became a taboo topic in the USSR. Moreover, at a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on January 14, 1937, it was proposed "Comrade Maisky(Soviet envoy to Great Britain and Soviet representative in the Committee on non-intervention in the affairs of Spain. - Approx. Aut.) p object strongly to the London Committee's discussion of the question of Spanish gold".

This was the reaction of the Kremlin to the fact that "On January 12, the delegates of Germany and Italy in the London Committee raised the issue of exporting the gold reserves of the Spanish Bank". The adviser to the embassy of the USSR in Great Britain, S. Kagan, in a secret message dated April 23, 1937, informed the head of the 3rd Western Department of the NKID A. Neiman: "As the secretary of the French Embassy, ​​Marquis Castellano, confidentially informed me, the stubborn desire of the Italians to obtain, by all means, accurate data on the amount of Spanish gold exported after July 18, 1936 (where this gold is located and to what extent it is listed on the deposits of the Spanish government and other institutions of Republican Spain) is caused by the fact that one of the directors of the Spanish Bank who defected to Franco began a process in a French court in order to obtain a decision on the illegality of the export of gold reserves or part of it from Spain abroad. The main difficulty of this director is that he can not get the exact data he needs to conduct the process on the amount of exported gold and where this gold is located.Here the Italians, having no other way to obtain this data, and tried to get these data through a commission of experts.According to Castellano , the French government in given time is not interested in having this data provided, and, for its part, does not intend to give the information at its disposal on this matter".

In March 1939, the Spanish Republic was defeated. memory of civil war on the Iberian Peninsula was eclipsed by the Second World War, more terrible and cruel. Spanish gold was "forgotten" for a while. Naturally, no one was going to calculate the total balance, let alone make any payments of loans or interest on them. Much later, the Spanish scientist A. Vinas concluded that all the gold of the Bank of Spain sent to the Soviet Union was not appropriated by Stalin, but was completely spent on military assistance (that is, on Operation X).
For many years, no one knew about the operation to export the Spanish gold reserves to the USSR. Only in 1953 was the book published in the USA by A. Orlov, who fled from Spain in July 1938, The Secret History of Stalin's Crimes, in which he spoke about the export of Spanish gold.
It is now clear that it was hardly right to hide the fact that the Spanish gold reserves were sent to Moscow, this only later served as grounds for various speculations. Of course, one cannot ignore the enthusiasm with which people in the USSR and around the world reacted to the call to raise funds to help Republican Spain.

It is possible that the Soviet leadership thought that the announcement of the export of Spanish gold to Moscow could deprive the USSR of the aura of a "disinterested defender" of revolutionary ideals. At the same time, the legally elected government of the Spanish Republic had every right to dispose of the country's gold reserves at its own discretion and use it to suppress the fascist rebellion. If this had been declared openly, then there would have been no accusations that the republican government exists on the money of the Comintern - a thesis that was actively promoted by the Western press at that time.

One of the main secrets of the USSR is connected with this beautiful old building in Nastasinsky Lane, 3 in the very center of Moscow. In the cellars of this fairy-tale house built at the beginning of the 20th century in the form of an old merchant's chest for the Russian Loan Treasury (the state financial institution of the Russian Empire, designed to provide small - up to 1000 rubles - loans to small merchants and entrepreneurs at low interest) in November 1936 510 tons of gold, taken out of Spain "at the request" of the republican government, were secretly stockpiled - almost the entire gold reserve of the country.

The decision to send gold to the USSR was made by the leaders of the Republican government of Spain - Prime Minister Francisco Largo Caballero and Finance Minister Juan Lopez Negrin in October 1936. According to some historians, the proposal to export gold to the Soviet Union for storage came from I.V. Stalin as a response to requests from the Republican leadership of Spain to increase the supply of Soviet weapons to the country's capital, the city of Madrid, surrounded by the troops of General Franco. Allegedly, an encrypted telegram with this order was sent to the deputy chief military adviser of the USSR in Spain for counterintelligence Alexander Mikhailovich Orlov (who had an NKVD certificate in the name of Lev Nikolsky - his real name was Lev Feldbin) and the Soviet plenipotentiary in Spain Marcel Izrailevich Rosenberg from the people's commissar of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs Nikolai Yezhov . However, there are no documents on this subject in Soviet archives not preserved. On the other hand, and, apparently, not by chance, protocol No. 44 of the meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks has been preserved, from which it follows that the USSR "agreed to accept the gold reserves for storage" - allegedly in response to a request from the Spanish government dated October 15, 1936 of the year.

Motor ship "KIM" (Communist Youth International)

One way or another, but on October 20, in the port of the Spanish city of Cartagena, loading of gold began on the Soviet ships "Kim", "Kuban", "Neva" and "Volgoles". The total amount of gold was about 510 tons, packed in 7800 wooden boxes. To protect Soviet ships with valuable cargo, the Republican government of Spain mobilized almost all of its combat-ready navy.
As a result, the ships arrived safely in the USSR, and the cargo of gold was first stored in the premises of the Gokhran on Nastasinsky Lane, and then was transported to one of the buildings Central Bank on Neglinnaya street. The participants in this operation received a promotion, including Major Nikolsky of the NKVD - as Pravda reported - was awarded the Order of Lenin "for completing an important government task." However, this did not prevent A. Orlov from seriously fearing his arrest and execution, and after a series of orders received from Moscow and, from his point of view, very dubious orders to meet with Soviet residents in July 1938, he fled first to Canada, and then to United States, threatening in his letter to the People's Commissar of the NKVD N. Yezhov, in the event of persecution, to reveal the intelligence network of the USSR known to him in Spain and Europe. Orlov's escape, along with other intelligence officers, became one of the reasons, first for the resignation (in the fall of 1938, and then for the arrest and execution of Yezhov, who in the infamous confessed to all sins, including homosexuality.
Export Soviet Union Spanish gold has not received wide discussion and publicity. In 1937, Soviet representatives categorically refused to discuss this issue at a meeting of the international Committee on non-intervention in the affairs of Spain, which included all the countries that were actually participants in the conflict: the USSR, Germany and Italy.
For the first time, the fate of Spanish gold in the world was discussed after the publication in the United States in 1953 of the book by A. Orlov, in which he spoke about many of the crimes of Stalinism known to him - without revealing, however, a single important state secret and without betraying agents known to him, some of who were still working in the US for Soviet intelligence. Since, besides Orlov, only a few in the USSR knew about the fate of Spanish gold, hardly anyone has accurate information about where this gigantic gold reserve was sent. According to the unofficial Soviet version, the cost of Spanish gold was covered already by 1938 by the USSR's expenses for the war in Spain.