Bukhara gold. The sad story of the last emir of Bukhara. From MBAND to Timati

From left: Nozim Dzhumaev (Maxim Bukharsky) and Tokhtar Tuleshov

Using the influence of high-ranking officials from the security departments of Uzbekistan, crime boss Nozim Dzhumaev commits especially serious crimes even while in prison. Nozim Dzhumaev is better known under the nickname Maxim Bukhara, as, according to some sources, he is a native of Bukhara. However, perhaps this is a “legend”, since according to other information, Nozim Dzhumaev was born in Turkmenistan in Chardzhou.

According to sources, he was recruited by the special services back in the 90s, when he was serving his first prison term in one of the colonies. In general, Nozim Dzhumaev was convicted three times, between 1994 and 2002. Moreover, under fairly serious charges - murder of a person, extortion and robbery.

Among prisoners, Nozim Dzhumaev became famous under a different nickname. He was called Executioner Number One, as he committed crimes against prisoners convicted for religious views and opponents of President Karimov's regime. In addition, Maxim Bukharsky deals with imprisoned entrepreneurs on the instructions of their competitors.

Close ties with representatives of Karimov’s government allowed him to open almost any cell in any colony of the GUIN. Dzhumaev especially often visited colony 64/21 in Bekabad; he could easily enter the Jaslyk colony. Tashprison is also available to him. For him, it is simple to kill a person, inflict grievous bodily harm on him or commit sexual violence against him. There is evidence that Dzhumaev beats a prisoner's head against the walls of his cell until he loses consciousness, and then kicks him in the kidneys and liver, causing irreparable damage to the victim's health. His cruelty and unscrupulousness attracted special attention from SNB operatives, who took him under their protection.

Bukhara entrepreneurs paid him tribute. For example, a restaurant in Bukhara was donated to him by the Muzaffar Fayz furniture company. He has been involved in racketeering and extortion since the 90s of the last century.

Entrepreneurs whose capital attracted the attention of high-ranking officials or the daughters of Islam Karimov also became victims of Nozim Jumaev. He and members of his criminal group force many entrepreneurs to give up their property in favor of third parties under the threat of reprisals against loved ones or sexual violence. In Uzbekistan, investigations into these types of crimes are practically non-existent; the victims are the ones to blame.

For a long time, the brothers Khayot and Dzhavdat Sharifkhodjaev remained his patrons. Khayot Sharifkhodjaev at that time served as deputy chairman of the National Security Service of Uzbekistan with the rank of general. Subsequently, Khayot Sharifkhodjaev himself ended up in a pre-trial detention center in 2015 on suspicion of corruption.

And Nozim was detained in February 2015 for purchasing and storing narcotic or psychotropic drugs. According to sources, Nozim Dzhumaev was found with half a kilogram of narcotic drugs. Other sources say that Nozim Dzhumaev was arrested after he was specially recalled from Moscow to Tashkent last year and brought to participate in the interrogation of SNB officers. According to sources, Nozim Dzhumaev was specifically “removed from view” because he became involved in the secrets of the National Security Service.

Nozim Dzhumaev ensured that tongues were “untied” and that NSS officers quickly wrote confessions during interrogations. Before this, Nozim Dzhumaev lived permanently in Moscow.

Relatives of former SNB employees imprisoned in Bekabad prison were forced to pay a lot of money so that Nozim Dzhumaev was not allowed near the convicts. According to sources, Nozim Dzhumaev made a significant contribution to the recognition of guilt of 12 former SNB employees in illegal entrepreneurship, corruption and embezzlement of public funds.

After 12 NSS employees were sentenced to long prison terms, Nozim Dzhumaev himself went to prison in December last year. Sources who know Nozim Dzhumaev say that his arrest is not related to “half a kilogram of drugs.”

— Nozim Dzhumaev, a well-known authority in the criminal world, is the owner of the Blue Domes restaurant in Bukhara. It is impossible to believe that the executor of punishments on the orders of the National Security Service could carry half a kilogram of drugs with him. Nozim Dzhumaev became familiar with big secrets, so he was covered up. I believe that the SNB is behind the arrest of Nozim Dzhumaev,” the source said.

The commercial enterprise “Blue Kupala” in the city of Bukhara, obtained by Nazim Dzhumaev through a raider takeover

Sources independent from each other spoke about Nozim Dzhumaev’s close ties with the SNB. According to these sources, Nozim Dzhumaev was supervised by a certain Sergienko from the SNB.

Sharifkhodjaevs

It is worth noting that the brothers Khayot and Dzhavdat Sharifkhodjaev, who previously held influential positions in the Uzbek intelligence services and brought Jumaev into their service, participated in the process of confiscation of the property of the eldest daughter of the President of Uzbekistan, Gulnara Karimova, who at the end of 2013 unexpectedly fell out of favor with her father. A business owned by Karimova in Uzbekistan was closed, people close to her were arrested, and some managed to leave the country.

Later, in her interviews with Western publications and on her page on the social network Twitter, she named the names of Uzbek high-ranking officials, among whom were the names of the Sharifkhodjaev brothers, who, in her opinion, took away businesses and were involved in the theft of government funds.

Sources point out that the affairs of those officials whose names were mentioned by Gulnara Karimova “are not going well.” In mid-July 2015, by decision of the Uzbek authorities, expensive real estate properties in the Tashkent region that belonged to high-ranking officials of the country, in particular the brothers Hayot and Javdat Sharifkhodjaev, were on the government’s “black list” were demolished.

According to the source, the situation related to the Sharifkhodjaev brothers can also be assessed as a victory for the group led by another SNB general, Shukhrat Gulomov. Recently, two groups, led by generals Sharifkhodzhaev and Gulomov, have been fighting for leadership in the NSS.

It is alleged that Sharifkhodjaev’s group was patronized by Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyaev, and Shukhrat Gulomov was a supporter of Gulnara Karimova.

Dzhavdat Sharifkhodzhaev, former head of the Department for Combating Corruption and Organized Crime, colonel of the National Security Service of Uzbekistan. He is accused of illegal entrepreneurship, corruption and misappropriation of public funds. At the end of 2014, at a closed meeting of the Military Court of Uzbekistan, Dzhavdat Sharifkhodjaev was sentenced to 4 years in prison. He is serving his sentence in the maximum security prison facility 64/21 for former security officers in the Bekabad district of the Tashkent region.

For some time, the executioner Nozim Dzhumaev, through the head of the Zeromax company Miradil Jalalov, was patronized by the eldest daughter of dictator Islam Karimov, Gulnara Karimova. Nozim Dzhumaev and Miradil Dzhalalov are long-time friends; they even served their sentences in the same cell.

Nozim Dzhumaev has not recently traveled outside of Central Asia and the CIS under his own name. Not long ago he was in Urumqi (China) on business with the Abusahi company, which is headed by Timur Tillaev, the husband of Islam Karimov’s youngest daughter, Lola Karimova. He often visited Russia - with Russian oligarchs of Bukharan origin - and in Kazakhstan.

The famous Shymkent businessman Tokhtar Tuleshov, with the help of the same Maxim Bukharsky, became the owner of several commercial properties in Uzbekistan - the Shobyt hotel, a paint factory and the Lyazzat confectionery factory. And also became one of the major shareholders of Uzpromstroy Bank.”

Tuleshov is also the owner and director of the large Darkhan holding, which includes a glass factory, the South Kazakhstan Agrarian Union, the Shymkent Pictures film studio and a number of other enterprises. There are branches of this holding in Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Let us note that it also became known that Tuleshov did not use the services of criminal authorities for nothing. He financed both Nozim Dzhumaev and Gafur Rakhimov. There is also evidence that Tokhtar Tuleshov himself is the leader of a gangster group that took photographs and videos of torture and torture of people. And the journalists’ investigation showed that, on Tuleshov’s instructions, the gangster element of his organized crime group committed a number of murders, kidnappings and beatings of people.

Tokhtar Tuleshov is suspected of financing a transnational criminal community. His closest connections were also established. Among them was Ilyas Sultanov (Ilyas), who was killed in 2013, as well as thief in law, crime boss.

During the journalistic investigation, irrefutable documentary evidence was obtained of regular transfers of large funds from Tuleshov to these individuals with the help and direct participation of Gafur Rakhimov and Nozim Dzhumaev.

In addition, the investigation established that Tuleshov and a number of his accomplices were preparing for a violent seizure of power, including organizing hotbeds of social tension, riots and protests on the territory of Kazakhstan. As it became known, high-ranking accomplices of businessman Tuleshov planned to head the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Detention of accomplices

As the KNB reported at the beginning of June last year, a number of Tuleshov’s accomplices were detained. Among them: former first deputy prosecutor general of the Republic of Kazakhstan, former member of the constitutional council of the Republic of Kazakhstan, state counselor of justice of the second class Ilyas Bakhtybaev, former head of the department of internal affairs of the South Kazakhstan region, major general Khibratulla Doskaliev, former first deputy head of the department of internal affairs of the South Kazakhstan region, police colonel Saken Aitbekov , commanders of military units 35748 and 55652 of the regional command “South” of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan, colonels Bekzat Zhumin and Kairat Pernebaev, respectively.

The investigation established that Bakhtybaev and Doskaliev were aware of Tuleshov’s plans to prepare for a violent seizure of power and fully supported them. After the coup d'état, they were to occupy the positions of Chairman of the Supreme Court and Minister of Internal Affairs, respectively.

Other accomplices - commanders of military units Zhumin and Pernebayev - for illegal monetary rewards, provided Tuleshov with combat aircraft, military equipment and military personnel with standard weapons to participate in a private military sports event, which he organized and held in August 2015 in South Kazakhstan.

“Saken Aitbekov is accused of malfeasance, which he committed on the direct orders of Tuleshov,” said a KNB representative. Tokhtar Tuleshov held large-scale military sports events last year to demonstrate the seriousness of his intentions.

Serious intentions

To demonstrate to his accomplices the seriousness of his intentions and his organizational abilities, in August 2015, Tuleshov, under the guise of celebrating his father’s birthday, held large-scale military sports events in the South Kazakhstan region, in which he managed to involve military personnel with standard weapons, heavy military equipment and three combat aircraft of military units Regional Command South of the Ministry of Defense.

At the special invitation of Tuleshov, representatives of foreign private military companies, the so-called “mercenaries”, arrived at this event and demonstrated their skills in eliminating and protecting a protected person from attack.

Tuleshov's birthday

It is not surprising that the footage of Tokhtar Tuleshov’s birthday party, which appeared on YouTube in 2010, where the main guest of the Kazakh businessman was Gafur Rakhimov, who drove up in a Rolls-Royce with Shymkent license plates X001AA, came to the attention of specialized publications in both Western countries and Russia.

By the way, apparently, the scandalous filming was made in 2009. At the same time, it cannot be ruled out that they were made by order of the law enforcement agencies of Kazakhstan, who closely followed the celebrations in Shymkent, having their own grudge against Gafur Rakhimov and Tokhtar Tuleshov, associated with him. This is indirectly indicated by the fact that in December 2009, unexpectedly for Tuleshov himself, the police, with the help of special forces units, tried to find weapons from the main shareholder of Shymkentpivo LLP.

Frequent visitor to Russia

Probably, this conflict with Kazakh law enforcement officers forced Tokhtar Tuleshov to visit Russia more and more often. True, he did not come to the attention of the Russian and Kazakh press, and he was not listed among the experts or representatives of any organization. Even despite the fact that in his biography he indicated that he was also the chairman of two expert councils under the State Duma of the Russian Federation, was an adviser to the Supreme Ataman of the Union of Cossack Public Associations of the Republic of Kazakhstan and was related to the “Russian Community” of Kazakhstan.

By a strange coincidence, the search engines of all these organizations without exception, when typing his last name in the corresponding line, produce a zero result.

It is also impossible to find his articles as a correspondent for the journal “Asymmetric Threats and Low-Intensity Conflicts.” By the way, according to information from the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Communications, this magazine was officially registered only on November 7, 2013. Although there are separate references to it in both 2008 and 2009.

Tuleshov expert

Be that as it may, after the scandalous chronicle of 2009-2010, the first mention of Tokhtar Tuleshov appears only in February 2012. In his LiveJournal blog, a certain Oleg Zenor, probably an international journalist, describes a meeting in St. Petersburg with his “old acquaintance” from Kazakhstan, Tokhtar Dzhusipovich Tuleshov. An extensive interview with Tuleshov also appears here, in which he shares his thoughts on the situation in the Republic of Kazakhstan, explaining the reason for his appearance in the State Duma of the Russian Federation as an expert.

Tuleshov is especially concerned about the trend observed in Kazakhstan towards the allegedly artificial displacement of the Russian language from everyday life (quote): “For example, some regional officials locally violate the law “On Languages ​​in the Republic of Kazakhstan” by hiring persons who do not speak two languages ​​to work in government bodies , or deliberately ignoring the Russian language. As a result, we get a situation where an elderly person, who due to age will not learn the state language, when entering these institutions, cannot receive qualified assistance or cannot obtain the information of interest, since everything is presented only in the Kazakh language.

What will happen if such a person, for the same reasons, does not receive qualified assistance in a medical institution or rescue services? Such actions grossly violate the constitutional rights of citizens and directly violate the language policy pursued by the President.”

After the publication of material about the “St. Petersburg meeting,” Tuleshov’s appearance as an expert in various Russian publications became, albeit relatively, regular. So in 2013, he, together with the director of the Center for Analysis of Terrorist Threats and Low-Intensity Conflicts Ramil Latypov (by the way, declared persona non grata in Azerbaijan) became a participant in the “Panorama” program dedicated to the situation in Afghanistan on the Rusiya Yaum TV channel.

A little later, his book “Eurasian Integration. Building the future." In it, he writes, in particular: “Only incompetent people can claim that the Eurasian space can prosper in its currently fragmented state. Economic and cultural self-isolation is a completely inadequate response to the challenge of globalization.” Probably at the same time, Tokhtar Tuleshov also took part in the operation to free hostages in Libya, for which in August 2015 he was awarded the Order of Peacemaker, which was presented to him by one of the leaders of the Russian division of the International Police Center (Interpol), Police Colonel General Vyacheslav Pavlov. Leading Russian media are widely covering this event.

However, Tokhtar Tuleshov does not forget about his philanthropic activities. Few people know that in June 2015, a businessman from Shymkent became one of the sponsors of large-scale events of the Year of Russia in Monaco. With his assistance and participation, the book Les Grimaldi et la mer Noire (“Grimaldi and the Black Sea”) was published, on which a scientific conference was held. Thanks to Tuleshov, residents of Monte Carlo were able to watch an exclusive performance by the stars of the Bolshoi Theater ballet.

Detention

It is not surprising that the reaction from Western and Russian media followed almost instantly to the detention of Tokhtar Tuleshov in Shymkent, during which weapons, drugs, and some literature were found. Reuters was one of the first to react to the event, especially noting that the entrepreneur from Kazakhstan is known for his close ties with Russia. The message of the British news agency was immediately picked up by Deutsche Welle, Kommersant, and even the Voice of America.

At the same time, unlike other publications, the Americans did not limit themselves to just stating a fact, but suggested (which had not been noticed before) that the arrest of a businessman could seriously complicate relations between Moscow and Astana.

However, how further events will develop will become clear very soon. According to Article 128 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Kazakhstan, detention on suspicion of committing a crime can last for 72 hours, after which the suspect must either be charged or released on his own recognizance, or even have the case closed altogether. In any case, it can be stated that the high-profile detention of Tuleshov should have been authorized directly from Astana. Although, judging by the comments that appeared in several Kazakh publications with the same content, people closely associated with the Uzbek-Russian businessman Gafur Rakhimov are allegedly behind this detention.

Family

In conclusion, a few words about the children of Tokhtar Tuleshov, whom Ramil Latypov, director of the Center for Analysis of Terrorist Threats and Low-Intensity Conflicts, mentioned in his statement. The editors were able to find out the names of only 7 out of 13 bearing the patronymic Tokhtarovich. In addition to his two daughters Sevil and Daniel, whose videos have already been watched by hundreds of thousands of people on the Internet, Tokhtar Tuleshov has sons Arman, Arsen, Bakhytzhan, Kanat and Tolegen. The latter is known for being the general director of Shymkentpivo LLP, as well as for his participation in drag racing on the streets of Shymkent driving a Bentley Continental GT in August 2010. In the same car, only white, she was noted in the comments on street racing, driving around Shymkent and Seville.

From MBAND to Timati

It must be admitted that Tokhtar Tuleshov is a caring father for his children. And, it seems, he did not refuse them anything. A considerable number of people have already watched the video from the ArtGroup KZ studio, which shows the scale with which the birthday of his eldest daughter Seville was celebrated. A fragment of a video that appeared on the Internet on February 2 from the birthday celebration of the youngest of the Tokhtarovichs, Daniel, organized based on John Tolkien’s book “The Lord of the Rings,” completely amazed everyone without exception with its scale.

It is curious that, according to information from Russian concert agencies, for a performance by the currently fashionable group MBAND, whose producer is Konstantin Meladze, the customer will have to pay an amount of 15 thousand euros. At the same time, the price of participation of a popular boy band in corporate parties and birthdays can double.

The distance from capital cities, the duration of travel from the airport to the celebration venue, and the absence of five-star hotels nearby are also taken into account. However, the MBAND group is one of the “budget” performers in Russian show business. For a performance by Ukrainian pop star Ivan Dorn, they ask for between 20 and 40 thousand dollars. Whereas for 10 minutes of appearance at the festival, singer Timati, famous not only in the countries of the former Soviet Union, but also abroad, costs no less than 25 thousand euros.

Assets of Tokhtar Tuleshov

It’s not difficult to guess that holding celebrations of this kind requires a constant source of income. There is no point in guessing about the proceeds from the illegal business of Tokhtar Tuleshov, which the law enforcement agencies of the Republic of Kazakhstan are talking about, let us only pay attention to the assets that the detained businessman owns relatively openly.

The most famous of the enterprises is one of the largest brewing companies in the country - Shymkentpivo LLP, in which Tokhtar Tuleshov is not only the founder, but since 2002 he has served as chairman of the board of directors for several years.

There is no information about the shareholders and composition of the board of directors of Shymkentpivo LLP anywhere. According to the Russian holding FINAM, in October 2006, Shymkentpivo LLP bought 42.3% of the shares of Marvel Juice OJSC, the largest producer of fruit juices and carbonated drinks in Uzbekistan, bringing its share to 50% in December of the same year. The Marvel Juice company, which produces its products under the Tip Top brand, has production facilities in Namangan and Andijan with an approximate local market share of 20-25%. Since 2006, information about a change of ownership of Marvel Juise has not appeared in the press.

Shymkentpivo plant

In December 2014, the Kazakh media reported that since 2007, Tokhtar Tuleshov has been the owner of Holding-Darkhan LLP, which today is better known as Darkhan Group LLP and, being the exclusive distributor of the Shymkentpivo company, has branches not only in all major cities of Kazakhstan, but also in the capital of Uzbekistan - Tashkent. An interesting detail: reference business portals of Kokshetau and Ust-Kamenogorsk report that the trade and wholesale company Darkhan Group LLP is also engaged in the construction of residential and administrative buildings.

Sentence

On November 7, 2016, the court put an end to the case of the owner of the Shymkent brewery, Tokhtar Tuleshov, who was found guilty of attempting to organize a coup in Kazakhstan.

The trial took place in a specialized interdistrict military court for criminal cases in Astana. The case was considered behind closed doors due to the presence of information related to state secrets in the materials, but journalists were invited to the announcement of the verdict.

In addition to the businessman, there were 24 other people in the dock. Among them are the son of entrepreneur Tulegen Tuleshov, former first deputy prosecutor general of Kazakhstan, former member of the Constitutional Council Ilyas Bakhtybaev, former head of the Department of Internal Affairs of the South Kazakhstan region Khibratulla Doskaliev, police colonel Saken Aitbekov and colonel Bekzat Zhumin.

Tokhtar Tuleshov was detained earlier this year during a special operation in Shymkent. In June, Kazakhstan's National Security Committee said it was taking steps to prepare for a violent takeover.

According to the National Security Committee, the businessman planned to destabilize the situation in the country by creating hotbeds of tension, organizing protests and riots. Against this background, he planned to create a so-called “alternative government” and change the structure of the current government, the committee reported.

At the end of April, rallies were held in a number of regions of Kazakhstan, the participants of which opposed amendments to the Land Code, increasing the maximum lease period for agricultural land by foreigners from 10 to 25 years. As the KNB said, Tuleshov initiated and financed some protests against these changes. The protests were supposed to take place a little earlier, but due to Tuleshov’s detention, the organizers of the protests independently adjusted the dates. According to the special services, Tuleshov, already in a pre-trial detention center, tried to take advantage of the current situation in the country and organize mass riots in the city of Saryagash, South Kazakhstan region, in May 2016.

According to the KNB, Tuleshov was suspected of financing a transnational criminal community, as well as creating and leading a gang. This gang, at the direction of Tuleshov, committed murders, kidnappings, torture, robbery, deliberate destruction of other people's property, and more.

The department noted that Tuleshov spent huge sums of money on the needs and maintenance of his criminal group, which “coupled with a passion for a bohemian lifestyle led to the formation of large debts both to second-tier banks and to the leaders of the transnational criminal community “Brotherly Circle.” The total debt amounted to more than $200 million. It was during this period that Tuleshov came up with the idea of ​​a violent takeover in the country.

If his plans were successfully implemented, the businessman hoped, through a controlled administrative resource, to eliminate the problem of repaying a large bank debt and thereby preserve the economic well-being of his family and business, the National Security Committee added.

To realize his plan, Tuleshov began to increase his own image and recognition abroad. According to documentary evidence from the KNB, starting in 2012, he sought membership in public organizations in various ways (International Union of Journalists, Union of Cossack Public Associations and others).

The court found Tuleshov guilty of organizing torture, murder, kidnapping, illegal imprisonment, creating and leading a transnational criminal community, creating and leading a criminal organization, as well as creating, leading an extremist group or participating in its activities. Among the crimes of which Tuleshov was found guilty are financing the activities of a criminal group, actions aimed at the violent seizure of power, illegal handling of narcotic drugs, illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation or carrying of weapons, ammunition, explosives and explosive devices .

The son of an entrepreneur, Tulegen Tuleshov, was found guilty of obstruction of justice and pre-trial investigation, as well as illegal handling of narcotic drugs without the purpose of sale. He received five years probation.

Colonel Bekzat Zhumin, who is involved in the case, was found guilty of taking a bribe and was sentenced to 4 years in prison in a general regime colony. The businessman's accomplice, former member of the Constitutional Council Ilyas Bakhtybaev, was sentenced to seven years in prison in a maximum security colony. The court also stripped him of the rank of State Counselor of Justice of the second class and decided to submit a proposal to the head of state to deprive him of state awards. Another accomplice, the former head of the Department of Internal Affairs of the South Kazakhstan region, Khibratulla Doskaliev, was sentenced to five years in prison in a maximum security colony with confiscation of property.

Confiscation

The court also decided to confiscate the property of Tokhtar Tuleshov, which included one camel, two she-camels and 30 heads of horses (11 of which are thoroughbreds), to the state.

The businessman will have to say goodbye not only to freedom, but also to land plots, as well as an entire fleet of cars. Among them are several dozen Mitsubishi, Toyota Land Cruiser, Bentley, Chevrolet, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche Cayenne, Toyota Camry, Volkswagen Passat, Infiniti, Rolls-Royce and Lexus cars. The court turned into state income the money in the accounts of four women who, according to Kazakh media, were the wives of Tuleshov. More than 180 gold jewelry - brooches, necklaces, rings, bracelets - will be given to the state. About 10 private houses in Shymkent and two residential buildings are also subject to confiscation.

The Kherson Museum refused to sell a unique saber, even for 100 thousand dollars. A Damascus steel saber with a hilt and a silver scabbard, decorated with the most skillful engraving of Kubachi jewelers, was made back in the nineteenth century personally for the Emir of Bukhara, Seyid Khan...

An amazing document was discovered by scientists - professor of historical sciences N. Nazarshoev and associate professor of historical sciences A. Gafurov - while working in the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (former archive of the CPSU Central Committee). The inventory, printed on a typewriter, volume 48 sheets, listed the material assets of the Bukhara emir...

Emir of Bukhara Mir-Seyid-Abdul-Ahad surrounded by Russian officers

The Emir of Bukhara and his retinue in Moscow in 1896. Photo from the State Historical Museum.

Almost every year, articles by writers, publicists, scientists and simply history buffs appear in the media and on the Internet, in which they express hypotheses and assumptions about the whereabouts of the gold of the Mangyt dynasty. This topic has been relevant since the overthrow of the last Bukhara emir, Said Mir Alimkhan. Moreover, the authors of the articles try, as a rule, to attribute as much wealth as possible to the emir. But everyone, as a rule, writes that before his flight from Bukhara, he took out in advance 10 tons of gold worth 150 million Russian rubles at that time, which today is equivalent to 70 million US dollars.

- Order of Noble Bukhara, gold; 2 - the same order of the lowest degree, silver (GIM); 3 - gold badge of the same order (?); 4-5 - Order of the Crown of the State of Bukhara; 6-8 - medals for zeal and merit (6 - gold; 7-8 - silver and bronze, from the collection of the State Historical Museum).

All this treasure was allegedly hidden somewhere in the caves of the Gissar ridge. At the same time, according to one version, Said Alimkhan got rid of unnecessary witnesses according to the classic scenario: the drivers who knew about the valuable cargo were destroyed by the emir's confidant, Dervish Davron, and his henchmen. Then the latter were killed by the Emir’s personal bodyguard Karapush and his guards, and soon Karapush himself, who reported to the Emir about the successful completion of the operation and initiated his Serene Highness into the secrets of the burial of the treasure, was strangled that same night in the palace’s bedchamber by the Emir’s personal executioner. The guards also disappeared - they were also killed.

In the 20-30s. groups of armed horsemen, numbering tens or even hundreds of people, entered the territory of Tajikistan in order to search for treasure. However, all these attacks were in vain. The search for the treasure continued illegally in subsequent years. But the treasure was never discovered.

So there was still a treasure walled up in the Gissar ridge? Having asked this question, the authors of this article decided to conduct their own investigation. And we started by searching for archival documents that could lift the veil of secrecy.

In the course of our work in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (former archive of the CPSU Central Committee), we discovered an interesting document. Printed on a typewriter, with a volume of 48 sheets, it described the material assets of the Bukhara emir.

By August 1920, Emir of Bukhara Seyid Alimkhan, a great friend of Nicholas II,
awarded the title of adjutant general and almost all Russian orders, up to the highest imperial order of St. Andrew the First-Called, decided to hide the treasury of his country, and this is 10 tons of gold. At first he wanted to take her out. But the personal bodyguard Karapush, called upon to reconnoitre the situation on the road to Iran, reported that it was too turbulent, and another confidant, dervish Davron, who, according to some information, worked for British intelligence, held negotiations at the English consulate in Afghanistan, as a result of which it turned out that the British they are afraid to take responsibility for the safety of the treasury. The treasures were hidden in the foothills of the Pamirs. Someone is still looking for them.

At night, in small quantities, gold was delivered on camels to Karaulbazar. The formed caravan headed to the Karshi steppe. He was accompanied by a small detachment under the command of Karapush. The guard also included the dervish Davron.
Initially, it was planned to hide the treasure in an abandoned city, in which a system of underground water storage facilities, as well as ancient underground passages and hiding places, had been preserved since the Middle Ages.

But Davron realized that Karapush, being from these places, might be thinking about appropriating the gold. Moreover, the place did not look deserted.

Then the detachment went through Guzar, then turned to Yakkabad, to Langar and headed further to the foothills of the Pamirs. In the mountains, in one of the mountain crevices, Karapush saw a canyon.
It was here that he decided to leave the emir’s wealth and ordered the dervish Davron to do so.
The caravan split up. The armed guards, led by Karapush, remained in the valley. Camels and horses, loaded with gold, and the drivers accompanying them, plunged into one of the mountain crevices. Davron and his men rode ahead...

For about two days, Karapush waited for Davron with a detachment of drivers who went with him. But he did not return. Alarmed by the lack of people, Karapush raised the alarm. After a few kilometers of travel, the detachment came across a mountain of corpses.
The dead were the people of Davron. After a few more hours of travel, the picture repeated itself, but here, unlike the first case, one of the fallen soldiers showed signs of life.

He also said that some of the drivers found out about the contents of the caravan packs and decided to take possession of the emir’s treasures. The dead, whom Karapush’s people saw on the road, remained at the site of the battle between the drivers and the dervishes, who managed to defend their leader Davron.
There, Davron's detachment was divided into two groups - those who wanted to steal the treasures and those who guarded them.

Karapush's detachment continued on its way to the mountain cleft and the next day they caught up with Davron. Only two people remained from his squad, and Davron himself was seriously wounded and bleeding. But still, he was able to tell the emir’s bodyguard that he and his faithful dervishes managed to cope with the rebels and hide the treasures in the very cave that Karapush spoke about.

Wise from worldly experience, Davron was able to discern unclean thoughts in the eyes of some of his subordinates. He led his companions through the mountains for more than a day so that they would show their intentions.

During these two days, the dervish had to fight the rebels three times. Even when Davron's men had already unloaded their horses and were returning, they were met by the drivers waiting in ambush. There was a fight, after which only two dervishes survived, carrying their wounded leader.

Having rested and bandaged their wounds, the detachment moved back to Bukhara. Along the way, they came across the native village of Davron, from whose relatives, in fact, this story became known.
He also told them that, not relying too much on the ruler’s generosity, he hid some of the bags in another place. At the last night, before leaving for the Karshi valley, Karapush personally kills the two surviving dervishes, and Davron himself. Alimkhan personally ordered this to his bodyguard. His will was that either Karapush or Davron and no one else would come to him with a message about where the treasure was hidden.

In the morning, no one in the detachment asked where the dervishes had gone. The detachment moved on and four days later arrived at Karaulbazar, the last populated area before Bukhara.

Here, at the end of the day, Karapush’s people were met by the commander of the emir’s artillery, Topchibashi Nizemeddin. Here they all settled down together for the night. It was not difficult for Karapush to understand that Nizameddin was here for a reason...

At dawn, when the detachment began to prepare for the road, not a single person from the guards who accompanied the caravan with gold, Karapush’s companions, was no longer alive. All of them were killed that same night and buried behind large hills. Karapush saw the sovereign’s hand in this and did not ask Nizameddin anything. As a result, the only living person who knew about the caravan, and, most importantly, about the place where the treasure was hidden, was the emir’s bodyguard Karapush...

He hoped that he, who had been the emir’s personal bodyguard for more than ten years, to whom the emir trusted with his life, would be trusted by the ruler with the secret of his wealth. But he was mistaken... On the night of the day when the emir’s faithful servant reported the results of the campaign to his master, he was killed by the court executioner Aziz. It seems, however, that Karapush hid the true location of the cave with gold from the emir.

Two days later, Seyid Alimkhan and his entourage, accompanied by Topchibashi Nizameddin, fled from Bukhara. With a small detachment, he crossed the border of Afghanistan.
There was no gold caravan with him. He took with him only three heavily loaded horses,
among whose luggage were several khurjuns with jewelry and gold bars.
Topchibashi Nizameddin, and those who took the lives of the last witnesses of the caravan, did not reach the border...

So, the thread leading to the secret of the emir's gold was broken. But... the emir himself was still alive. No one can tell the details of further events surrounding the emir’s treasure. But it is known for certain that a search for this treasure was undertaken. Someone was persistently looking for him.
As a result, in the twenties, one after another, the relatives and friends of Karapush, the dervish Davron, and those people who were with them began to die and disappear. Apparently those who were looking for the emir's gold believed that one of them had managed to inform someone about the location of the cache with the treasure.

No one knows for sure whether anyone managed to get to the secret of gold. One thing is clear: all those who in any way touched this secret died or went missing. The emir remembered about the gold, his courtiers guessed, and this gold did not give people peace. Apparently, the former emir of Bukhara more than once sent his entourage across the border to penetrate the territory of Uzbekistan in the region of Kashkadarya or Surkhandarya. He probably indicated the places where the treasure could be located, hidden at his behest. Such detachments of the emir appeared near the left bank of the Amu Darya, which belonged to Afghanistan. In the 20-30s, groups of people passed this secret path almost every month, heading towards the mountains. But then these groups disappeared. Then the relatives of these people disappeared. And again a new veil of secrets hung over the emir’s gold.
Seyid Alimkhan died on May 5, 1943; several years before that he became blind. He found himself unable to regain possession of his wealth.

However, not so long ago, Tajik scientists, while working in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (the former archive of the CPSU Central Committee), discovered an amazing document.
It follows from it that part of the gold, most likely hidden by Davron, was given to representatives of the Soviet government by Ibrahim Beg, who was an agent of the Cheka, carrying out a special task to search for the treasures of the Bukhara emir under the legend of the leader of the Turkestan Basmachi and emissary Alimkhan.
But he failed to return the entire treasury, for which he was executed in 1931, and his severed head was exhibited for some time in one of the VDNH pavilions. By the way, he is the grandfather of Rustam Ibragimbekov, the screenwriter of the historical film “White Sun of the Desert,” and the prototype of one of its main characters, Abdullah. And the film itself just illustrates a well-conspiracy operation to transfer the found part of the treasury to the young Soviet Republic.

As for the main part of the treasures, it was found in our days, after the collapse of the USSR. Strictly speaking, it was because of her that the civil war in Tajikistan and the Osh events unfolded. The gold eventually ended up in the hands of various criminal groups in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. By decision of the meeting of thieves in law, they paid the mayor of Moscow to increase the quota for guest workers from these republics. The initial capital of the Inteko company arose from the treasury of the Bukhara emir.

Mikhail Seryakov

Bukhara is one of the few cities in world history that has always been located and developed in the same place; in the 7th century, the Arab Caliphate spread to this territory and the religion of Islam came from the Arabian Peninsula.

Bukhara was the capital of the Bukhara Emirate - an ancient Asian state headed by a ruler or emir.

In this post I would like to tell the story of the last Emir of Bukhara, while reviewing his summer residence.

Summer Palace of the Emir of Bukhara

Castle Sitorai Mohi Khosa was built at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century and was the country residence of the ruler of the Bukhara Emirate.

Main entrance to the Palace:

The palace is located very close to the city, only four kilometers away. It belonged to the last emir of Bukhara - Said Alim Khan, whose story I would like to tell. Although officially Bukhara had the status of a vassal of the Russian Empire, the emir ruled the state as an absolute monarch.

Descendants of the “Emir’s peacocks” still walk on the territory of the palace:

The name of this palace can be translated as “the stars are like the moon” and it was built over two decades. It was built by a master Usta-Shirin Muradov, with whom the emir acted very “humanely” after graduation. To prevent the master from repeating his creation on the side, they did not kill him, blind him, or cut off his hands, but simply locked him in the Palace. Now, for his services, a monument to the Architect has been erected on the territory of the complex:

The emir had been looking for a place for his summer residence for a long time and could not make a choice. But then the smart vizier gave him advice that he needed to skin four sheep carcasses and hang them in four different directions of the world, and where the carcass stayed fresh longer, the wind rose was better, which meant there would be a summer residence.

This is how the emir’s “dacha” arose on this vast territory, the territory of which has now “severely suffered”; part of the land was annexed by the Soviet government for the Sanatorium.

The emir decided to build a building in a half-European - half-Asian style:

Since Said Alim-Khan himself lived in St. Petersburg for three years while he was studying, he really liked the St. Petersburg lions, and he asked Bukhara sculptors to make him the same ones. The craftsmen of Bukhara had never seen lions in real life and had never seen sculptures from St. Petersburg either, so the lions turned out to look a little like dogs:

Palace Ceiling:

“White Hall” is the highlight of Said Palace:

The uniqueness of the hall is that the white pattern is applied on the mirror surface:

Portrait of the last emir of ancient Bukhara:

At first it will probably be difficult to guess what this thing is, and this is the great- or great-great-grandfather of the Russian Saratov refrigerators. This was a gift from Russia; it was assumed that ice would be placed on top and cold water would flow down through special tubes, cooling the contents of the “refrigerator.” No one thought then about where to get ice in Bukhara:

The emir was very fond of dishes and vases; there were a huge number of them at his summer residence; floor vases were brought by merchants from Japan and China.

Said built a special house for the Emperor of the Russian Empire, Nicholas II, who never visited Bukhara. If we step back a little from the topic, it is completely incomprehensible to me how probably the most mediocre of the Russian tsars, who stupidly destroyed almost the entire Russian fleet in the Battle of Tsushima, was suddenly canonized as a Saint; the world is truly full of mysteries.

The last emir of Bukhara and the last autocrat of the Russian Empire are even similar in some ways; they both fell under the pressure of the new Bolshevik power. In 1918, Soviet Power had already been established in the city of Tashkent, the emir assumed that Bukhara would also fall and planned escape routes.

Said turned to Great Britain for help, but the British at first seemed to agree, but then they refused to allow him to emigrate, and he began to seek refuge in other countries, and at the same time prepare a caravan of 100 pack animals.

General view of the emir's summer residence:

He loaded the best part of his treasures onto these hundred pack animals, because he could no longer take everything out. The emir had already reached an agreement with Afghanistan; the authorities of that country were supposed to provide him with asylum. He called his faithful comrade-in-arms, Colonel Taksobo Kalapush, and entrusted him with “leadership of the caravan.”

Decoration of a house built for the Russian Emperor:

Said Alim Khan planned to conduct business negotiations with Nicholas II and for this purpose he built a special hexagonal room in the center of the house, around all the walls of which there were more rooms and it had no external walls, this was done so that no one from the street could overhear conversations leaders.

The English protege in the nearest Chinese city of Kashgar and the Viceroy of India refused to accept the emir’s valuable cargo due to the uneasy situation in the region. Then the emir decided to bury his treasures in the steppes, and in pre-revolutionary times, at night, one hundred pack animals under the leadership of Taxobo Kallapush left Bukhara.

The main house of the emir, where his wives and concubines lived. The wives lived on the first floor of the house, and the concubines on the second:

Meanwhile, the caravan with the emir's treasures was heading to the foothills of the Pamirs. On the way, the guards found out what they were transporting and wanted to kill Kallapush, and then take possession of the treasures of the Emir of Bukhara. A struggle ensued in which Kallapush and his companions were more successful and killed the rebel guards.

The survivors hid the treasures in one of the many caves and blocked the entrance with stones. It is now believed that the emir’s treasures are hidden on the territory of modern Turkmenistan, somewhere between the Uzbek Bukhara and the Turkmen city of Bayramaly.

After four days of travel, the caravanners returned to Bukhara and stopped for the night before a morning visit to the emir. But at night Kallapush killed all the guards and in the morning he came to the emir in splendid isolation.

He handed him a dagger on which was engraved the path to the treasure cave. The emir very joyfully greeted his devoted comrade-in-arms, but most of all he was interested in whether any of those who had seen where the treasures were hidden were still alive.

To which Kallapush replied: “Only two people on Earth know this secret, you and I.” “Then it’s not a secret,” the emir replied, and that same night the palace executioner killed Kallapush. And two days later, the Emir of Bukhara with a retinue of a hundred sabers set off and crossed the border of Afghanistan.

Near the house there was a pond where, when it was hot, the emir's wives and concubines swam. Access to this part of the building was prohibited for absolutely all men except the emir himself. They bathed in special robes, because according to the Islamic traditions of that time, a woman should not have been COMPLETELY naked in front of her husband:

The gazebo in which the Emir of Bukhara rested. He could sit here in the cool shade, watching his wives bathe, and sometimes he would call his children over to play:

Said Alim Khan was unable to take his entire family to Afghanistan; his three sons remained on the territory of Uzbekistan and the Soviets took custody of them. The emir left with only a harem and young children.

Two of his sons entered military school, one was promoted to general ahead of schedule, but only on the condition that they publicly renounce their father through newspapers and radio. Otherwise, they faced reprisals or execution.

One of the sons could not survive the renunciation and went crazy. The second son died later under unclear circumstances, and soon the third heir also disappeared.

The emir, being in Afghanistan, even sent troops to pick up his treasures, but all these attempts were unsuccessful, the Red Army was stronger, Afghan soldiers even massacred his native village and all the relatives of Kallapush, thinking that his relatives should know about something about the treasure.

Once the emir was a very rich and powerful man, with his money the most famous Cathedral Mosque of St. Petersburg was built near the Gorkovskaya metro station, but living in Afghanistan, he quickly squandered the wealth that he took with him, dismissed the servants and was forced was to save on everything.

He eventually went blind and died in absolute poverty in the Afghan capital of Kabul in 1944. Pride did not allow him to ask rich rulers of other Muslim countries for money.

A lot of representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran came to his funeral. They provided some assistance to the family of Said Alim Khan, whose descendants still live in the territory of modern Afghanistan.

And this is the same sanatorium of the USSR, built on the former possessions of the Emir of Bukhara:

The Emir's gazebo next to the pond, from a slightly different angle:

No one fully knows how true this story is, because the treasures of the last emir of Bukhara have not been found to this day, and maybe all this is nothing more than fiction. It is always very difficult to talk about the reliability of historical events; usually any government always “corrects history to suit itself.”

I left the Sitorai Mohi-Khosa palace in a thoughtful state; now only peacocks silently see off visitors, but during the greatness of Bukhara, the emir had a huge menagerie...:

Goga Khidoyatov

Where did the gold of the Bukhara emir Alim Khan go?

Alim Khan

The story of the fate of the untold wealth of the last emir of Bukhara, Alim Khan (1880-1943), has recently become one of the most popular problems in historical works related to the history of the countries of Central Asia.

And not only in this regard. It links into a single historical knot many others related to the history of the revolution, the activities of the Bolsheviks, and the fate of peoples. Some historians make guesses, others invent myths and legends, and there are those who compose detective stories based on it. One of the articles says: “They talk about her, they still remember her, and that is why there is great interest in her.” Of course, for the modern reader it is interesting to read not serious historical works, but sensational discoveries like those detective novels that made Dumas the father famous. This is natural in an era of pop culture where all that glitters is gold, where fiction is meant to capture the imagination rather than stimulate serious creative analysis.

Meanwhile, history already knows the secret of the “countless treasures,” their fate and the address to which they sailed. All authors of works on the Emir's treasures use rumors and oral sources, while in print information about them and their fate has long been known.

Unfortunately, in the current historical society there are many amateurs and dilettantes who are trying to make a name for themselves on sensations, caring little about the reliability of their “discoveries.”

Publicists and journalists also contributed to the legend about the secret of the Emir’s treasures, introducing new details into the treasure case that distorted the historical truth.

The emir's gold was a product of his own production. Its prey has been cultivated since ancient times, according to some sources since the time of Bactria (4th century BC). It allowed Bukhara to become one of the richest centers on the Great Silk Road. In the sixteenth century. under the Sheibanids, Bukhara began to mint its own gold coins (ashrafi), which soon supplanted Arab-made gold dinars and became the main currency in market transactions. Bukhara merchants widely used them in trade relations with Russia. Gold in Bukhara was widely used for clothing production, various types of jewelry that were popular in Asia and Europe, gift weapons, inlays, household items, etc. In 1863-1864. The famous Hungarian Turkologist and traveler Arminus Vambery lived in Bukhara under the guise of a dervish for a whole year. In England, he launched a noisy newspaper campaign about the gold of Bukhara and explained to the English public about the Zar-Ofshan River, which translated means Golden Stream, and about the gold miners who take a pound of gold from the river every day. In this way, he fulfilled the order of the British ruling circles, who sought to launch an offensive campaign in England against Russia in Central Asia. Hurry up, he wrote, otherwise Russia will soon take possession of these riches. He published a book called The History of Bokhara (L.1872), in which he colorfully described how every morning gold miners began working on both banks of the Zarafshan, lowering camel tails into the river, stirring up the sand and taking them out with grains of gold.

On his initiative, in 1878, Bukhara was represented by a separate pavilion at the World Exhibition in Vienna, where Bukhara gold products delighted visitors. The European public was surprised that in such a distant country there was so much gold and such skilled jewelry craftsmen. The newspapers had to explain that in the Bukhara Emirate there flows a river called Zar-ofshon (Zerafshan), which means “golden stream” and it carries huge masses of gold. For Europe this was an important discovery - Bukhara and gold became synonymous.

Russia was also interested in Bukhara gold. For the first time, Peter I decided to go on a campaign for this gold. He needed gold to end the war with Sweden. The treasury was empty, bells confiscated from churches were cast for cannons, and there was no money to support the army. He sent two expeditions to Khiva and Bukhara under the command of Prince Bekovich-Cherkassky and Colonel Buchholz, which were supposed to establish, confirm or reject rumors about countless gold treasures in these countries. Both expeditions ended in failure and Peter temporarily abandoned his idea, although he kept it in his future plans.

In the second half of the 19th century, Russia conquered Central Asia. The Russian Empire expanded and took possession of a pearl no less important than India was for England. In 1878, after the defeat of the troops of the Bukhara emir, Russia established a protectorate over the Bukhara Emirate. Russian companies headed here in search of gold. In 1894, the Russian gold mining company Zhuravko-Pokorsky began work in Bukhara, and after it the English company Rickmers began developing gold mines. Both companies worked successfully, and large nuggets were often found during gold mining. Pointing to the successes in their work, the famous Russian traveler and politician D. Logofet wrote in 1911: “There is an abundance of gold in the mountains of the Bukhara Khanate.” (D. Logofet “Bukhara Khanate under the Russian protectorate” vol. 1, S.-Pbg 1911, p. 364).

Most of the population of the Bukhara Emirate was engaged in gold mining. All mined gold, under pain of cruel punishment and a large fine, was handed over to the emir's treasury at special prices. For the right to pan for gold, the gold miner was obliged to pay a special tax to the Bukhara treasury. The gold handed over to the treasury was melted and then minted into royal chervonets, called Nicholas. They were minted from the highest standard of gold and were highly valued on the world market. Large nuggets were stored separately in a special storage facility. Thanks to this gold mining system, the Bukhara emirs were the monopoly owners of all Bukhara gold and accumulated a huge reserve of it. True, no one has ever determined its quantity. The emir carefully concealed the true reserves of his gold.

The October Revolution, which established the power of the Bolsheviks, forced Emir Alim Khan to think about the fate of his treasures. After all, they were not only in gold coins, but also in countless precious stones, expensive carpets, such rarities that had historical value such as a collection of Korans written by talented calligraphers-artists of the 15th-16th centuries, when Bukhara was considered the dome of Islam. He tried to slowly smuggle them to Afghanistan, but they were stolen along the way by gangs of wandering robbers. He had good reason that the Bolsheviks of Tashkent would try to take possession of his treasures and, for this purpose, would try to either destroy him or overthrow him with the help of the Jadidoa or the Young Bukharan party led by the son of a wealthy carpet merchant, Fayzulla Khodzhaev. Soon his fears were confirmed.

By agreement with the Tashkent Council, the Young Bukharans scheduled an uprising for March 1, 1918. Red detachments were brought to the borders of the Bukhara Emirate. On March 3, an uprising of the Young Bukharians led by Fayzulla Khodzhaev began in Bukhara, and red troops broke through to help him. First of all, Kagan was captured, where the management of the Russian Novo-Bukhara Bank was located, in whose warehouses the emir kept his gold. But the emir managed to repel the attack of a detachment led by the chairman of the Tashkent Council, in fact the head of the Soviet government in Turkestan, F. Kolesov. He managed to capture only one carload of gold. The Reds had to retreat and the emir's troops drove them to Samarkand. The Bolshevik losses were significant and there was no strength left for a new intervention. For a while I had to reconcile with the emir. And take the Young Bukharians to Tashkent.

The Bolsheviks lay low, preparing for a new intervention. The denouement was accelerated by the conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, signed on March 3, 1918 in Brest between representatives of Germany and Russia. It was called an obscene and shameful peace, which not only humiliated Russia, but also destroying its entire economy. In fact, Russia, and then the USSR, have experienced the consequences of this predatory treaty throughout their entire history.

According to the agreement, a territory with an area of ​​780 thousand square kilometers was torn away from Soviet Russia. with a population of 56 million people (a third of the population of the Russian Empire), on which, before the revolution, 27% of the cultivated land, 26% of the entire railway network, 33% of the textile industry were located, 73% of iron and steel were smelted, 90% of coal was mined, 90% of sugar was produced ; in the same territory there were 918 textile factories, 574 breweries, 133 tobacco factories, 1685 distilleries, 244 chemical plants, 615 pulp factories, 1073 engineering factories and 40% of industrial workers lived.

But the German side did not stop there. While the German General Staff came to the conclusion that the defeat of the Second Reich was inevitable, Germany managed to impose on the Soviet government, in the context of a growing civil war and the beginning of Entente intervention, additional agreements to the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty.

On August 27, 1918, in the strictest secrecy, a Russian-German financial agreement was concluded, which was signed by plenipotentiary A. A. Ioffe on behalf of the government of the RSFSR. Under this agreement, Soviet Russia was obliged to pay Germany, as compensation for damage and expenses for the maintenance of Russian prisoners of war, a huge indemnity - 6 billion marks - in the form of “pure gold” and loan obligations. In September 1918, two “gold trains” were sent to Germany, which contained 93.5 tons of “pure gold” worth over 120 million gold rubles. It didn't get to the next shipment.

There were only a few weeks left before Germany's surrender, and the Soviet government gives her such a gift. This gold then helped Germany pay reparations to the Entente and rebuild its economy.

There is another side to the problem. According to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Russia was not recognized as a defeated country and was not obliged to pay reparations, and no force could force it to pay them. Moreover, a month later, in the Compiegne Forest in Paris, Germany signed an act of surrender, admitting itself defeated and all the terms of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty were cancelled. And the gold is already gone...

The Soviet government was left broke and the “wisdom of the great leader” led to the collapse of the Russian economy. There was no money in the treasury; the gold reserves were in Omsk with Kolchak, who used part of it to buy weapons and maintain his army and the Omsk government.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk caused a deep political crisis in the country. The country split. The Bolshevik Party split into factions, V. Lenin's authority fell to its lowest level. The people were completely unaware of the political situation in the country. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk became the main cause of the civil war in Russia. The White Guards turned into patriots who proclaimed patriotic slogans in defense of the Fatherland. It took twenty years to heal the wounds caused by the Civil War. The counter-revolution received material, moral and political support from abroad; the Soviet government could only rely on its own resources, which were melting every day. Front commanders sent telegrams to Moscow with desperate calls to send money to support the army. The policy of war communism, the Red Terror, and the confiscation of food from peasants caused mass unrest directed against the Bolsheviks. The economy deteriorated due to the inexperience of officials and theft of business executives. literally the country were taken away in parts.

History has never known such a brutal revolution. There was a national, political, family, social breakdown; families, villages, and towns went wall to wall. A huge country was sliding into an abyss of disasters for the sake of preservation Lenin and the Bolsheviks are in power.

Russia could have avoided this national disaster. Lenin could, with his authority, declare “The Fatherland is in danger” and the whole country would support him. His main argument was the collapse of the army. But it was the Bolsheviks who destroyed the army with their propaganda and political slogans such as “the enemy is in your own country.” After all, they were able to create an army of 1.5 million people during the period of intervention and civil war, which won. Weapons, ammunition, and uniforms were also found. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was Lenin's payment to German imperialism for facilitating the move from Geneva to Petrograd in February 1917.

It is impossible to find any other explanation for his activity in signing this terribly illiterate agreement on the Russian side. The dying Germany turned Russia into its tributary.

The Bolsheviks began searching for money. The question became - where is the gold reserve of the Russian Empire? Old officials of the Ministry of Finance said that the entire gold reserve of the empire, stored until then in Moscow, Tambov and Samara, previously delivered here from Petrograd, was taken to Kazan in May 1918.

In August 1918, Kazan was captured by General V.O. Kapell (1883-1920) and the entire gold reserve in one train was taken to Omsk to Kolchak. An inventory of gold reserves carried out by order of Kolchak estimated its total value at 631 million gold rubles.

On November 27, 1919, the garrison of Nizhneudinsk, led by Bolsheviks, rebelled. Kolchak's security was disarmed, and he himself was arrested. He was freed by representatives of the Czechoslovak corps, who were leaving Russia under an agreement with the Soviet government. Having learned from Kolchak about the gold that was stored in a train stationed on a siding, they took it under their guard, intending to take it out. Their path was blocked by the leaders of the local revolutionary committee, who blocked all the roads, bridges, and closed the semaphores, declaring that the Czechoslovak corps would not be released until the gold reserves and Kolchak were handed over. In the small town of Kuitun, negotiations took place for several months between the local authorities and the command of the Czechoslovak corps. The agreement was signed only on February 7, 1920. According to the Kuitun Treaty, the Czechoslovak command committed hand over the train with Russian gold intact to the Soviet authorities of Irkutsk. The act of transferring gold took place on March 1, 1920 in Irkutsk. Representatives of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee wrote down in the act of acceptance 18 wagons with gold, containing 5143 boxes and 168 bags of gold and other valuables with a nominal price of 409,625,870 rubles. On May 3, 1920, this entire stock of valuables was delivered to Kazan and placed in the bank’s storerooms. In practice, this was the salvation of Soviet power from financial bankruptcy.

The search for gold continued. Lenin was told about the emir's gold old tsarist officials of the Ministry of Finance. The Bolsheviks decided to take him, although the emir maintained neutrality and did not give rise to hostile actions. A famous Soviet military leader, who lived most of his life in Central Asia and knew the local languages ​​and mentality of the local peoples, was sent as commander to the Turkestan front. He came into contact with a party of Young Bukharans and used them in his operation. According to his plan, the Young Bukharans were supposed to oppose the emir, declare a “revolution” and, if the emir did not abdicate power, turn to the Soviet authorities in Tashkent for help. All the details were thought out in a personal conversation between M. Frunze and Faizulla Khodzhaev.

Preparations for the operation began in early August. Frunze had 10 thousand troops, 40 guns, 230 machine guns, 5 armored trains, 10 armored cars and 11 aircraft at his disposal. The emir's army, which resembled an unorganized crowd, numbered 27 thousand people, but it had only 2 machine guns and several old guns.

The entire Bolshevik army was concentrated on August 12, 1920 at its original positions. Four groups of troops were created - Chardzhui, Kagan, Katta-Kurgan and Samarkand. The entire operation went strictly according to plan. On August 23, as agreed, the “Bolsheviks of Bukhara” rebelled and demanded that Emir Alim Khan abdicate power. The emir rejected this demand and began to prepare for war. In connection with the emir’s refusal to comply with the rebels’ demands, the leadership of the Young Bukharans on August 29 turned to Frunze with a request to provide assistance in the fight against the emir. The Soviet command immediately granted this request and on the same day began military operations against Bukhara, which were called the “Bukhara operation.” As expected, the operation was fleeting, the Red Army did not meet resistance and broke into Bukhara on September 1. But there was neither the emir nor his gold in the city.

There were rumors in the city that the emir fled from Gijduvan on August 31 and took away so much wealth that it would be enough to build a second Bukhara. They also found one of the guards of the emir's treasury, who said that they loaded onto the carts a large amount of gold bullion, jewelry, diamonds of unprecedented size, gold belts with precious stones, corals, pearls, rare and beautifully designed religious books, in which she was so rich Bukhara - the dome of Islam. (See War in the Sands. Edited by M. Gorky M. 1935, p. 313).

The Emir could not go far with such luggage and Frunze ordered the pilots to find the fugitive. Soon one of the pilots discovered on the way to Karshi one of the emir's convoys of 40 carts, loaded to the brim with bags and boxes and 20 loaded camels. The convoy was accompanied by a cavalry detachment of 1000 people (ibid., p. 307).

According to the Bolshevik command, this could only be one of the convoys. Soon the Red Army soldiers managed to capture three carts with gold and the drivers confirmed that they were carrying the emir’s gold, but they did not know where to deliver it, they were only given the route without specifying the final destination (ibid. p. 313). The convoy had to follow camel paths away from the main roads.

It became clear to M. Frunze that the emir had decided to leave for Afghanistan through the mountain passes, hiding the bulk of his treasury in some safe place.

He could have done this in Karshi, Shahrizyabs or Guzar. Frunze threw his best units in pursuit of the emir. He was especially interested in Shakhrizyabs, where the emir’s influential relatives lived, to whom he could entrust his cash. He wasn't wrong. The emir stopped for a day in Shakhrizyabs and, according to information from local residents, left in the direction of Guzar. It was not difficult to establish the addresses of the possible storage of the emir's treasury, and soon the Cheka employees found his treasures.

On September 6, 1920, Frunze reported to V. Kuibyshev, head of the Political Directorate of the Turkestan Front (1888-1935): “A huge amount of gold and other valuables was taken from Shakhrizyabs. All this is put into chests, sealed and, by agreement with the Revkom, will be transported to the Samarkand bank.” (M. V. Frunze Selected works. T. 1, Moscow 1957, p. 343).

Apparently in Shakhrizyabs The bulk of the emir's treasures were found. The rest was stolen by the Basmachi kurbashi detachments commanded by Ibrahim bek, appointed by the emir as commander-in-chief of the troops of Bukhara.

Some of them ended up in the Baysun Mountains, where they were stored in hard-to-reach natural storage facilities. There were mainly carpets, copies of the Koran created by talented calligraphers of Baghdad and Cairo in the 15th-17th centuries, household utensils made of gold and silver, Chinese porcelain and much more. What happened to them is known only to Allah.

Before 1927 they were under the protection of the mounted detachments of Kurbashi Ibrahim Bey. They came here from time to time and checked the safety of the valuables. The priests spread rumors that in these caves live the spirits of dead Bukhara emirs, who turned into poisonous snakes that guard the property of Alim Khan and anyone who touches them will also turn into a mountain snake. And he will live in this state forever.

One of the participants in the Basmachi movement told the author of these lines about this in 1958. He also told how from time to time, at the request of the emir, who lived in Kabul and was engaged in the astrakhan trade, some of the valuables were confiscated and sent to unknown addresses.

Copies of the Koran were distributed to Samarkand priests, and some fell into the hands of local residents. They were protected as a shrine. These rumors later became legends and provided a historical basis for writers who wrote historical novels. True, enriched with their own inventions.

The emir's gold was transported to Samarkand, and from there by rail to Tashkent. From Tashkent through Orenburg, where by this time the “Dutov traffic jam” had been eliminated, it went to Moscow. At this price the Bukhara People's Soviet Republic was created.

This is how all the “democratic revolutions” were carried out on the national outskirts of the tsarist empire.

How similar are they to modern “democratic revolutions”, the so-called. “Arab Spring”, organized by modern neo-colonialists.

The experience of the Bolsheviks turned out to be in demand in modern conditions.

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