Soviet Regime Erased Nobel Family History Inspiring Orwell's 1984
"What Stalin did to the Russian Nobel side of the family was the inspiration for George Orwell's 1984. There's a line that I quote in the book where Orwell talks about how they changed the street names and they rewrote the history and tore down the statues. And that's exactly what happened. So the Nobel Brothers Petroleum Company that was in present-day Azerbaijan was renamed the Soviet Petroleum Company and its machine factory and munitions factory up by Saint Petersburg was renamed Russky Diesel, and they completely changed the history."
About this episode
Host Jack Carr interviews author Douglas Brunt about his new book The Lost Empire of Emmanuel Nobel, which resurrects the forgotten history of Alfred Nobel's nephew who built the world's largest oil empire in Russia before being erased by Stalin's regime. Brunt reveals that Emmanuel Nobel controlled more petroleum than Standard Oil by 1914 and pioneered the first ocean-going oil tankers, but his industrial achievements were systematically deleted from history after the Bolshevik Revolution. The conversation uncovers explosive historical connections, including that Joseph Stalin worked in Nobel's oil fields as a youth, giving him the knowledge to later target those reserves, and that Emmanuel enforced his uncle Alfred's will creating the Nobel Prize despite pressure from Sweden's king and his own family who wanted the fortune. Brunt argues Stalin's rewriting of the Nobel family out of Russian history directly inspired George Orwell's 1984, and that the Russian Revolution may be the most important event of the last five centuries given its cascading consequences including Communist China, the Cold War, and producing history's two worst mass murderers in Stalin and Mao. The discussion also explores World War I as the first oil war, the role of Rasputin in destabilizing the Tsarist regime, and how Standard Oil's relationship with the U.S. State Department gave it advantages over Nobel during the revolutionary period. Brunt details his research process including archives in Stockholm and announces this book completes a turn-of-the-century trilogy with The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel, with a third volume coming on another figure connected to both men.
Key takeaways
- Stalin worked in Nobel and Rothschild oil fields as a youth, giving him strategic knowledge he later used to seize Russia's petroleum reserves during the Bolshevik Revolution.
- Emmanuel Nobel enforced Alfred Nobel's will creating the Nobel Prize despite opposition from Sweden's king and family members who wanted the 31 million kronor inheritance.
- Stalin's erasure of the Nobel family from Russian history, renaming their companies and rewriting records, directly inspired George Orwell's concept of historical revisionism in 1984.
- The Russian Revolution may be the most important event of the last five centuries, producing Communist China, the Cold War, and history's two worst mass murderers in Stalin and Mao.
- Emmanuel Nobel controlled more oil than Standard Oil by 1914 and pioneered the first ocean-going oil tankers with steel cisterns replacing wooden barrels.
- World War I was the first mechanized war creating massive demand for petroleum, transforming oil from primarily an illumination product to fuel for submarines, planes, and navies.
- Brunt spent five years researching in Swedish archives and announces this book completes a turn-of-the-century trilogy with a third volume coming on a German figure connected to both Diesel and Nobel.