Gold of Polubotok
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The Gold of Polubotok (Ukrainian: Золото Полуботка, Zoloto Polubotka) is the story of a large amount of gold which Ukrainian Hetman Pavlo Polubotok supposedly deposited into an English bank in 1723, and which would have been returned upon the independence of Ukraine with an astronomical amount of interest.
In 1723, Hetman Polubotok was recalled to St. Petersburg by Tsar Peter I of Russia. The story holds that suspecting his imminent arrest, Polubotok secretly deposited 200,000 gold coins (chervonets) at the Bank of England, under 7.5% annual interest. The amount, the bank, and the interest vary in different versions: some sources cite two barrels of gold, or 2.5% annual interest, or the Bank of the British East India Company. In his will, Polubotok allegedly bequeathed eighty percent of the gold to a future independent Ukraine, and the rest to his successors.
The story first became widely known in 1907, when it was published in the Russian journal New Time by Professor Alexander Rubets. In 1908 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia ordered the issue to be investigated by the Russian Consulate in London. Specifically, their unclaimed deposits at the Bank of England over the previous 200 years were investigated, and were found to total less than the alleged amount of Polubotok's fortune.
In the chaotic time of the Soviet Union's collapse, the story again attracted public attention. In May 1990, Ukrainian poet Volodymyr Tsybulko announced that if the gold were returned, it would amount to 38 kilograms for each citizen of independent Ukraine. This astronomical figure, about twenty times the world's gold reserve, was achieved due to compounding of interest over 270 years. The heated interest in the Polubotok treasury coincided with a visit to Kiev in June 1990 of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The Ukrainian parliament ordered the creation of a special committee headed by the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Dr. Petro Tronko, which visited London. The gold, however, has not been found. Recently, poet Tsybulko confessed that his speech in 1990 was propagandistic.
[edit] References
- Hetman gold detective, Ihor Malyshevskyi, Zerkalo Nedeli, #50(374), December 22, 2001. (in Russian, in Ukrainian)
- A fool is enriched by a notion, or why Polubotok's will could not have been written, Oleh Havriushyn, Zerkalo Nedeli, #8(383), March 2, 2002. (in Russian, in Ukrainian)
- Once again on chickens with antlers, and on mentality, Ihor Malyshevskyi, Zerkalo Nedeli, #12(387), March 29, 2002. (in Russian, in Ukrainian)
- Anton Dalskyi. "Dreams of new Ukraine", From-UA.com, February 9, 2006. (in Russian)
- Sofia Sodol. "History of one inheritance", Postup (Lviv newspaper), #113 (771), July 26, 2001. (in Ukrainian)
- Stanislav Tsalik. "Ukrainian "Treasure Island" or Hetman Polubotok’s secret", World of Money, June-July 2002. (in Russian)
