The Russian government is going to siphon currency from the population

Russian Finance Ministry said this week: gold should replace dollars lying with Russians in the "vegetable garden banks" Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev said that the volume of gold sales to the population in 2022 has increased tenfold. According to the minister, it is still not enough to replace the hundreds of billions of dollars lying with the Russians "in the banks in the gardens. "The measures that have been taken, still had an impact: our sales of gold to the population have increased tenfold... But this is not enough all the same. Gold should substitute for dollars, which exactly the population has hundreds of billions in the banks in the gardens and so on. It is clear that all this has to be exchanged for gold, which we manufacture ourselves," said the deputy minister at a meeting with Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko (quoted by RIA Novosti). The "vatniks" immediately started screaming that the currency should be given up, and gold is better than all assets. But no one asks the question, why the hell did the government become so kind that it decided to get rid of this harmful currency? When has it ever been the case that the Russian state (and often not only it) has rid its subjects of an asset, and it would be beneficial to the population. Because in the history of Russia only one such case comes to mind, the 30s of the 20th century and the Torgsins On November 27, 1922 new money entered into circulation in the Soviet republics: tickets of the State Bank of the RSFSR in denominations of 1, 3, 5, 10 and 25 chervonets. There was a single moment in history, very short, only 6 years, when the Communists promised a guaranteed exchange of their banknotes for gold. The government promised a free exchange of paper ducats for gold denomination after a special decision, which, however, never came. A 10 ruble gold piece was traded at 11.4 to 12.5 rubles. The stability of the paper gold piece was ensured not by the gold backing but by the control of the money supply. The market "thaw" lasted only six years. In 1928 the Soviet ruble became inconvertible again: the purchase and sale of foreign currency by individuals and legal entities, the private import and export of gold and the acceptance of gold coins for cash payments were banned. Moreover, from 1928 the forced withdrawal of currency and gold from the population actually began. Just as Putin's Finance Ministry wants to do now. Gold and currency, which remained in the hands of the population from the pre-revolutionary and neap times (287 million rubles at face value), was pumped out almost entirely in 1931-1936 through a network of Torgsin (trade with foreigners). Foreigners for hard currency and Soviet citizens for gold could buy there food and goods which by that time had disappeared from regular trade. The fact is that the communists created a severe shortage of anything and everything in the country. And in some areas - Ukraine, the Non-Black Soil Belt, the Volga region, Kazakhstan - there was a real famine. You could buy anything you wanted, from food to manufactured goods, only in trading stores. The rare remittances from abroad were also taken away through the trading-houses. This was the only way currency and gold could be withdrawn During the Holodomor of 1932-1933 one of the most profitable and cynical projects of the Soviet trade was a network of stores and department stores "Torgsin": to buy the most basic food people brought there their gold wedding rings, crosses, earrings, bracelets, brooches, chains. In 1933, when the Holodomor reached its climax, the Ukrainian office of the Torgsin took more than nine (!) tons of gold from the population. This is one fifth of the "yellow metal" harvested in the entire Soviet Union that year! We all know how that seizure of gold and currency from the population of the USSR ended. These assets were the only ones which have not lost nearly their value throughout subsequent history, and which have remained a liquid asset right up to the present day. What does Alexey Moiseev mean when he talks about the desire to confiscate currency from the population? And most importantly, how is the government going to achieve this? After all, surely no one will exchange currency for anything voluntarily. So the government will create the conditions to force people to do it? How? By creating a deficit? A new famine? The idea of exchanging currency for gold looks very strange. Not only is the ruble not firmly tied to gold since 1928, but the exchange for gold is not profitable, it's too expensive in Russia. And again the question arises - why does the government want to withdraw this harmful currency? It believes that the population does not need the currency, but why does the state need it?