Not Russian Aid, But the Gold of the Bukhara Emirate Treasury

Treasury of the Bukhara Emirate was first transferred to Samarkand, and from there later to Moscow. 100.000.000 gold rubles were personally delivered to Moscow by Feyzullah Khoja, then the Prime Minister and also the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Bukhara. According to the book, during the Kronstadt Sailor Rebellion that broke out in early 1921, weapons were purchased with this gold brought from Bukhara to support the rebels, and the gold played an important role in the establishment of the Bolshevik government. Only 18,326,800 gold rubles of the gold (100.000.000 gold rubles) sent by the Bukhara Government was delivered to Türkiye over a period of three years. The remaining 81,673,200 gold rubles of Uzbek gold that were supposed to be sent to Türkiye were blatantly confiscated by the Lenin government.

 

Kemal Pasha wrote a letter on April 26, 1920, just three days after the opening of the Assembly, asking the Soviet Union for money as well as weapons, ammunition and supplies, and without waiting for a reply to his letter, he sent a delegation to Russia on May 11.

Following this request, starting in 1920, the Soviets sent ammunition, military supplies, and money to the Ankara Government at regular intervals. The majority of the aid from the Soviet Union was delivered after the signing of the Moscow Treaty on March 16, 1921. The financial aid received from the Soviets over three years was as follows:

In 1920: 3,066,800 Gold Rubles, 100,000 Ottoman Gold Coins

In 1921: 9,800,000 Gold Rubles

In 1922: 4,600,000 Gold Rubles

It has been said that this money, known as Soviet aid, was actually money collected through donations by the people of Bukhara Emirate. However, the accuracy of this information is debatable. Considering that the people of Bukhara had been living under the difficult conditions of Tsarist Russian occupation since 1868, it seems unreasonable they would have the financial means to donate one hundred million gold rubles during this period. Recently revealed information indicates that the gold sent to Anatolia came from the treasury of the Bukhara Emirate, which had been overthrown by the Bolsheviks.

Osman Kocaoğlu, the First and Last President of the Republic of Bukhara, Tells the Story of the Soviet Aid

Osman Kocaoğlu, the first and last president of the Republic of Bukhara, described the aid issue in an interview he gave to the journal Yakın Tarihimiz in 1962 as follows:

“After the establishment of the Republic of Bukhara in 1920, as its first president, I went to Moscow together with our late Prime Minister Feyzullah Khoja to meet with Soviet Russian officials, including Lenin himself. It was understood that a short while before us, in mid-July, the first delegation representing the national movement from Türkiye came to Moscow under the chairmanship of Bekir Sami Bey and held negotiations with Lenin, Chicherin and Karakhan, especially on the issue of providing aid.

Indeed, on the day we met with Lenin at the Kremlin Palace, he brought up “Türkiye”, a subject he clearly regarded as important, and said to me:

“– A Turkish delegation from Ankara has arrived. They explained their situation and urgently requested assistance. What is your opinion on this matter?”

Without hesitation, I replied:

“– Of course, assistance must be provided… and without delay.” Upon my response, he said that they were already determined to provide aid but were facing some difficulties, stating:

“– There are two challenges that concern us regarding the aid issue.” He continued:

“– First, the type of gold currency the Turks are requesting—we have very little of it.” At that point, I interrupted him:

“– We have gold currency!” I said. “We can provide it…”

Lenin, nodding in approval, continued:

“– The second issue is the matter of transportation. Because we need to provide not only money but all kinds of military supplies to the Turks as well. We need a secure route to deliver them to Ankara. However, due to the situation in the Caucasus, the roads are closed. When they will reopen is unknown.”

We expressed that we shared the same view and added:

“– It is possible to reach an agreement with the republics established in the Caucasus. Muslims are the majority in this region. The Georgians, for their own interests, are close to the Muslims. The Armenians as well… If we make an effort, it is possible to find a mutual route,” I said.

In addition, the amount of money needed had to be determined. We said that experts should decide on this, and the matter was referred to a committee consisting of our Prime Minister—who was also the Foreign Minister—Feyzullah Khoja, and Russian experts. After extensive negotiations, this committee determined the amount of aid to be at least one hundred million gold rubles. We met with Lenin again. In this meeting, Lenin once again brought up the topic of money and asked how much we could provide 

“– One hundred million rubles…” I said.

Lenin repeated:

“– One hundred million?”

“– Yes… We can provide it immediately!”

We had a large amount of gold rubles from the Tsarist era. The Russians had not touched the money in the Bukhara treasury. Even though Bukhara Emirate was a protectorate under the Tsar, it was autonomous in administrative and financial matters. For this reason, we had more than enough gold an extraordinary (belegan mebalag) amount.”  (Yakın Tarihimiz, Vol. 1, pp. 292–293

After reaching an agreement with Lenin, the delegation returned to Bukhara. They brought the matter of financial aid to the parliament. At that time, Bukhara’s population was four and a half million. The Bukhara Parliament unanimously approved the aid of one hundred million gold rubles to Türkiye, without a single voice of objection, amid applause and cheers.

On the very next day following the parliament’s decision, they completed the necessary formalities and handed the money over to the Russian treasury to be delivered to Ankara.

This event was also recounted in the memoirs of Turkish officer Raci Çakırgöz. Raci Çakırgöz, who came to Turkestan after escaping from the Russians who had captured him during World War I and was working as a teacher in Tashkent, wrote the following about the aid known as Soviet aid in his memoirs published under the title Çarlık ve Bolşevik Rusya’da 10 Yıl.

“While I was in Tashkent, I heard that the Provisional Government of Bukhara had provided financial aid to the Ankara Government, which was waging a War of Independence. Unfortunately, in our newspapers, this aid was reported as financial assistance from Russia. However, recently, authoritative figures have shed light on the true nature of the event. The person who played the biggest role in providing this aid to Türkiye was Osman Khoja (Kocaoğlu), who at the time was the Minister of Finance. He later became President of the Republic of Bukhara, declared in 1921. In 1923, he moved to Afghanistan, and later to Türkiye, where he passed away in Istanbul on July 28, 1968.

I later learned that out of the 100 million gold rubles of aid provided by the Bukhara Government to the Turkish Government through the Russians, only 10 million gold rubles reached the Ankara Government. The Russians likely kept the remaining ninety million as a sort of brokerage fee!

Essentially, the Russians took to Moscow 12 wagons full of gold, including a very heavy gold chandelier, jewelry and very valuable lambskins that they had collected from the people of Bukhara and from the palace. The sheep skins of Bukhara used in the production of ‘astragan fur’ were produced in the area surrounding the lake called Karakul.” (p. 68)

The Treasury Abandoned by Emir Alim Khan of Bukhara

During the coup carried out by the “Young Bukharans” in alliance with the Bolsheviks, Emir Alim Khan was still in power. Having lost his power, Alim Khan was forced to flee from Bukhara and take refuge in Afghanistan on September 1, 1920. He left behind some of his family and the Bukhara Emirate treasury. Uzbek writer Nabijan Bakiyev, using Soviet intelligence archives, described the seizure of the Emir’s treasure in his book titled Enver Paşa’nın Vasiyeti as follows:

“On the second day after Emir Alim Khan left Bukhara, Sitare-i Mah (Palace) was occupied by the Russians. On September 2, 1920, the inner city of Bukhara was completely captured and taken under control by the Bolsheviks, and the Emir’s family members and relatives were detained. Meanwhile, some of the revolutionaries wanted the chief, the judge, the palace officials and the Emir’s family members, especially the Chief of the Viziers (Kuşbeği), to be executed. On September 2, 1920, Kushbegi (the Chief of the Viziers) Osman Beg was captured and interrogated by Red Army soldiers. In his statement, he said:

“What astonished me was that Emir Alim Khan had not taken a single coin (teng) from the treasury. All the gold and silver coins, jewelry, and valuables remained in their special places in the vault. It was impossible to count them.” 

According to the Emir’s later statement, the treasury contained thirty-two sacks of royal coins, gold ornaments, and precious jewels such as pearls and rubies—of which even he did not know the full amount—as well as 20,000 rifles.

After the occupation, Russian soldiers and Red Bukharans engaged in massive looting in Bukhara for three days. Finally, when the looting ended, the Turkestan occupation commander began collecting the plundered treasure back from the soldiers, in exchange for signed receipts.” (p. 86)

On September 5, 1920, Russian government officials, representatives of the Central Committee of the Russian Bolshevik Party and the leaders of the Bukhara Revolutionary Committee agreed to establish a mixed council and held a meeting under the chairmanship of M. Frunze, with the participation of Kovrov representing the Russian government, the leader of the Bukhara communists Huseynov, the head of the Bukhara Council of Ministers Feyzullah Hocayev and the secretary of the Bukhara Revolutionary Committee Aripov. At the meeting, the following decision was taken regarding the preservation of the Bukhara treasury that was spared from plunder:

“Since the war is ongoing, and the treasury of the Bukhara Republic is at risk of being plundered, and given the difficulty of protecting it, the Bukhara Revolutionary Committee has decided to request the Russian government to temporarily safeguard the treasury in one of the banks located in Samarkand or Tashkent.” (p. 88)

Following this decision, the Bukhara treasury was first transferred to Samarkand, and later to Moscow. The 100,000,000 gold rubles were personally delivered to Moscow by Feyzullah Khodja, the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Bukhara Republic. According to the book, weapons were purchased with this gold—taken from Bukhara—in order to protect the rebels during the Kronstadt Sailor Rebellion in early 1921. This gold played an important role in the establishment of the Bolshevik government.

Only 18,326,800 gold rubles of the gold sent by the Bukhara Government was delivered to Türkiye over a period of three years. The remaining 81,673,200 gold rubles of Uzbek gold that were supposed to be sent to Türkiye were blatantly confiscated by the Lenin government.

Three Swords Sent from Turkestan

While the Turkish War of Independence was ongoing, a delegation from the People’s Republic of Bukhara arrived in Ankara on January 17, 1921, to engage in diplomatic talks. The delegation brought with them three gold-embroidered swords and a Qur’an belonging to Timur, which they presented as a gift to Mustafa Kemal. Mustafa Kemal Pasha, who was deeply moved by the gifts sent to congratulate him on the Sakarya Victory, made the emotional speech from the parliament rostrum, the text of which is given below:

“The Qur’an sent by the people of Bukhara as a gift to their Turkish and Muslim brothers in Türkiye, and the swords sent as a sign of appreciation and congratulations to the People’s Army of Türkiye, are two extraordinary and invaluable relics that symbolize respectively the True Religion and the life-giving strength of power. My heart was filled with emotion as I received these trusts from your hands. Without a doubt, our people and our army will be greatly touched and pleased by these initiatives and congratulations from our distant brothers. To fulfill the wish of our fellow believers and kinfolk from Bukhara, I shall present this Holy Book to the nation, and will give  one of these noble swords to the conqueror of İzmir. By God’s grace, our national army, which achieved victories at İnönü and Sakarya, will soon, God willing, also earn this sword. On behalf of the people of Türkiye, our army, and the government of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, I extend my thanks to your honorable delegation.”(Hakimiyeti Milliye, January 8, 1922)

One of the swords was given to Mustafa Kemal Pasha, the second to İsmet Pasha, the Commander of the Western Front, and the third to Captain Şerafettin Bey, the Company Commander of the 4th Regiment of the 2nd Cavalry Division, who raised the Turkish flag over the Government House in İzmir on the morning of September 9.

A Shameful Incident

In return for the unforgettable support and aid of our brothers from Turkestan, an action was taken during İnönü’s presidency that, whenever remembered, would bring shame to every Turk. When the Republic of Bukhara fell under Soviet occupation, its President, Osman Khoja, fled via Afghanistan and took refuge in Türkiye in 1923. Atatürk warmly welcomed Osman Khoja. He became a Turkish citizen and took the surname Kocaoğlu. A parliamentary salary was granted to him, and this salary continued to be paid to his wife even after his death.

During Atatürk’s time, the Soviets repeatedly pressured for the deportation of Osman Khoja, but Atatürk resisted to these demands. However, after Atatürk’s death, İsmet İnönü, who became president, could not withstand the pressure and, in 1939, Osman Khoja was asked to leave Türkiye within 24 hours. The President of the Republic of Bukhara, Osman Khoja (Kocaoğlu), who had mobilized to send 100 million gold rubles to support Türkiye’s National Struggle, was forced to leave the Republic of Türkiye, of which he had been a citizen since 1923. He was only able to return to Türkiye in 1946, after the Second World War. Osman Khoja passed away in 1968 and was buried in the Özbekler Tekkesi (Uzbeks Lodge) in Sultantepe, Üsküdar.

(*) Associate Professor Dr. Kemal Arı, who compiled the heroic captain’s story into a book titled The Third Sword, stated in a promotional announcement of his book, that after Şerafettin (İzmir) Bey passed away in 1951, his wife, Siret Hanım, handed over the “third sword” to the Istanbul Governorate to be donated to the Revolution Museum in İzmir that had planned to be built, but the sword was lost, and unfortunately, the name of this great hero has faded from memory.

 

References:

Osman Kocaoğlu, “Rus Yardımının İçyüzü”, Yakın Tarihimiz, Cilt.1, Sayı 10 (Mayıs 1972), shf.292-293, 1972.

Raci Çakırgöz, Çarlık ve Bolşevik Rusya’da 10 Yıl, Belge Yayınları, 1990.

Nabican Bakiyev, Enver Paşa’nın Vasiyeti,  Doğu Kütüphanesi,2006.

Source: www.sinantavukcu.com