The Nobel Family : Swedish Geniuses in Tsarist Russia

This absorbing collective biography of the genius Nobel family reveals how the Nobels' business and personal lives were fundamentally intertwined with the histories of Sweden and Russia, as well as the economic and entrepreneurial development of Europe in the long 19th century. The name Nobel is mainly associated with the Nobel prize. However, Alfred Nobel was only one of a family of conspicuously gifted individuals. The Nobels, who moved from Sweden to Russia in the 1830s, ran one of Russia's biggest machine factories and founded the Russian oil industry.Using thousands of Nobel family letters and other documents shared here for the first time, Bengt Jangfeldt provides a fascinating and authoritative multi-generational chronicle charting the family exploits. The author describes how the father, Immanuel Nobel, a polymath architect, inventor, and engineer set the family on a path to financial success amidst a backdrop of imperial Russian industrial growth. He tells the story of how Immanuel's sons, Robert and Ludvig, and his grandson, Emanuel, developed the family business into a powerful industrial empire with a progressive agenda in the fields of worker's welfare, profit-sharing and charity. When the Revolution struck in 1917, the family's industrial empire as well as their huge personal wealth were swept away in one go. As a result they had to flee the country where they had been active for 80 years and return to Sweden. During a time of immense change in Russia and right across Europe, the story of the Nobels stands out as one of both brilliance and resilience, with family firmly at its heart. Cover Halftitle page Title page Copyright page CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOREWORD PART ONE 1 IMMANUEL At sea Carl XIV Johan’s triumphal arch The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts The inventor Gummi elasticum Lars Gabriel von Haartman 2 IMMANUEL NOBEL & SONS The city on the Neva Explosive experiments Colonel Ogaryov’s and Mr Nobel’s licensed mechanical wheel factory and foundry Nobel & Sons Daily life in St Petersburg Roof trusses and window frames The Crimean War Catastrophe 3 IMMANUEL AND ANDRIETTE ‘The lawsuit against the Crown’ Blasting oil Robert becomes a brewer Underwater mines in Swedish waters The initial ignition principle The second lawsuit against the Crown ‘The Nobel bang’ Venus and Mercury The Nitroglycerine Company Ltd Shared honour Shavings for the benefit of the homeland ‘One of the men representative of their century’ PART TWO 4 LUDVIG The Ludvig Nobel Machine Factory From muzzle-loaders to breech-loaders Vladimir Baranovsky The Russian Technological Society Robert returns to St Petersburg Ludvig’s honeymoon trip The Berdanka Profi t-sharing and reform of working conditions 5 ROBERT The Caucasus The de Boer Brothers Logistical challenges A St Petersburg interlude Bad Kube – City of the Winds 6 ROBERT AND LUDVIG Excise duty ‘Brilliant results’ ‘Views on the oil industry in Baku and its future’ Ludvig’s programme The Nobel brothers’ Naphtha Production Company The men around Robert Robert’s last days in Baku 7 THE NOBEL BROTHERS ‘Our works are large and magnificent’ Villa Petrolea The pessimist and the optimist The Transcaucasian Railway and the house of Rothschild The year 1886 8 THE END OF AN EPOCH The Swedish parish and societies Social life Nordenskiöld Summer retreats An epoch is buried ‘A shining example’ The first Nobel prize The inheritance PART THREE 9 THE THIRD GENERATION The Emperor’s visit Leadership problems Ivar Lagerwall Carl Nobel and the machine factory Brother Hjalmar Cousin Hjalmar 10 EMANUEL The Syndicate The Rothschild’s and Standard Oil The problems seen from Robert’s vantage point Not ‘what’ but ‘who’ The fateful year of 1896 11 THE AGE OF GREATNESS Karl Vassilievitch Cream separators and internal combustion engines Political unrest ‘Bloody Sunday’ Emanuel the politician 12 WELFARE AND CHARITY The Nobel towns The People’s House Marta ‘A little Sweden on Russian soil’ Selma Lagerlöf’s visit Kirjola 13 POLITICAL UNREST, ECONOMIC GROWTH AND WAR The king and his princes Olsen and Hagelin depart Economic growth New deposits World war Consumer societies and hospitals 14 ANNO 1917 The Bolshevik coup Civil war Exile in Kislovodsk Flight Gösta and Emil PART FOUR 15 POST FESTUM The Battle of Baku The final nationalization The Nobel companies’ losses The family’s private losses ‘The American inheritance’ A united front? The trial of Branobel’s employees 1921: liberalization and tightening-up Nobel’s ‘engineer saboteurs’ 16 POSTSCRIPT The 1920s Bunin’s Nobel Prize Emanuel’s death An assessment of Emanuel’s achievements After Emanuel 17 P.P.S. FAMILY TREE ILLUSTRATION CREDITS NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX PLATES THE FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOKS OF THE YEARThis absorbing collective biography of the genius Nobel family reveals how the Nobels'business and personal lives were fundamentally intertwined with the histories of Sweden and Russia, as well as the economic and entrepreneurial development of Europe in the long 19th century.The name Nobel is mainly associated with the Nobel prize. However, Alfred Nobel was only one of a family of conspicuously gifted individuals. The Nobels, who moved from Sweden to Russia in the 1830s, ran one of Russia's biggest machine factories and founded the Russian oil industry. Using thousands of Nobel family letters and other documents shared here for the first time, Bengt Jangfeldt provides a fascinating and authoritative multi-generational chronicle charting the family exploits. The author describes how the father, Immanuel Nobel, a polymath architect, inventor, and engineer set the family on a path to financial success amidst a backdrop of imperial Russian industrial growth. He tells the story of how Immanuel's sons, Robert and Ludvig, and his grandson, Emanuel, developed the family business into a powerful industrial empire with a progressive agenda in the fields of worker's welfare, profit-sharing and charity. When the Revolution struck in 1917, the family's industrial empire as well as their huge personal wealth were swept away in one go. As a result they had to flee the country where they had been active for 80 years and return to Sweden. During a time of immense change in Russia and right across Europe, the story of the Nobels stands out as one of both brilliance and resilience, with family firmly at its heart.