M. N. Baryshnikov. Business world of Russia (17). Discussions - Baku Armenians - groups my world While arresting individual arsonists, the authorities were unable or unwilling to find those who ordered the destruction of the industries

G. SALAEV

Who among the Baku residents and residents of Azerbaijan did not admire the Baku Palace of Happiness? How many destinies of young people were sealed within the walls of this magnificent building, standing on the street named after its creator - Murtuza Mukhtar oglu Mukhtarov (1855-1920). IN Soviet times this name was almost forgotten for the simple reason that he was a capitalist.

And this was not only a major Baku oil industrialist, one of those who created the oil industry of our Baku at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, but also a philanthropist. Thanks to his hard work, he went all the way from a simple resident of the village of Amirajan to a well-known Russian Empire millionaire.

Murtuza began his career as a humble kerosene seller. As a 15-year-old boy in 1870, he sold his cart and got a job as a worker in a field in the vicinity of the villages of Balakhany-Zabrat, where he manually scooped oil from small wells together with his younger brother Bala Akhmed, performing the hardest and dirtiest work in the field. The capable, hardworking young man was noticed by the owner of the fishery, Martov.

Soon Mukhtarov becomes a foreman, and mechanical workshops in the field are transferred to his jurisdiction. Murtuza made some improvements in the semi-mechanized “Hammer” machine, as a result of which the machine became much more durable, and owners began vying to invite Mukhtarov to the fields - as an indispensable master for repairing and troubleshooting wells. Having saved up some money, he managed to buy a plot of land. And then a lucky fate struck - oil was found on the site. Natural ingenuity helped to double and triple capital.

Soon he becomes one of the most influential capitalists in Baku. In 1890, he already opened a private drilling office, which he expanded year by year. For example, he took a contract and successfully drilled a well tens of meters deep. In 1891, the Mukhtarov mechanical plant was opened in Sabunchi (by 1913, 950 workers worked here, the annual turnover was 1,100 thousand rubles). Four years later (1895) he created a modernized percussion rod drilling machine, for which he received a state patent. He called this invention the “Baku drilling system.”

Mukhtarov's machine was much more advanced than anything previously known. He is the author of a number of other inventions that increase the speed of oil production. At the end of the 19th century, Mukhtarov commissioned an entire drilling equipment plant on Bibi-Heybat. This was the first industrial enterprise in Russia for the production of oil equipment. Not far from the plant, he built a three-story building for workers and employees. This attracted the best labor to him and brought additional profits.

Machine tools and equipment produced at the Mukhtarov plant were sold at Russian market, were exported abroad. He himself often purchased machines and tools abroad, especially in America. Even after the revolution, containers with equipment were sent in the name of Murtuza Mukhtarov. During the Baku December strike of 1904, Mukhtarov was elected to a commission formed on general meeting oil industrialists to develop conditions that could be offered to the strikers and to negotiate with them.

In 1910, according to the design of Joseph Ploshko, an apartment building owned by Mukhtarov was built in Baku in the Italian Renaissance style. There were shops and offices on the ground floor of the house, and residential apartments on the second floor. He was a shareholder of the Moscow-Volga Oil Partnership and an administrator for the affairs of the Baku Russian Oil Society.

Mukhtarov was not only an industrialist and inventor, but also a public figure and philanthropist. He was a trustee of the Baku Real School and the Temir-Khan-Shurinsky Women's Gymnasium (Dagestan); an honorary member of the Society for the Propagation of Literacy and Technical Information among the Highlanders of the Terek Region, the St. Petersburg Muslim Charitable Society, as well as an honorary chairman of the Neshr Maarif (Society for the Propagation of Education), financed the Terekki newspaper, published daily in Baku. He built schools and mosques, was the founder of 40 scholarships for higher and secondary specialized educational institutions.

Mukhtarov took on the costs of studying at the Moscow State University medical institute Maryam Khanym Bayramalibekova, who later became a famous teacher, one of the first women educators in Azerbaijan. He paid for the studies at the Saratov Conservatory of the future People's Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR Fatma Khanim Mukhtarova, whose fame thundered throughout Russia, and then throughout the USSR.

Mukhtarov was also a great esthete and connoisseur of beauty. Possessing excellent natural taste, he wanted everything he did or acquired to be the best, the most beautiful. He built a magnificent drama theater in Kislovodsk. In St. Petersburg, together with G.Z. Tagiyev, he built a mosque.

In the early 1890s. he built a villa in Mardakan. This architectural structure on an area of ​​about 8 hectares has absorbed traditions landscape architecture Middle East and marked the beginning of the construction of many country villas. In 1908, at the expense of Mukhtarov, a mosque of unusual architecture and beauty was built in Vladikavkaz in honor of his wife (Mukhtarov Mosque). The mosque building is a smaller copy of the Cairo Mosque.

According to the Azov Region newspaper, 80 thousand rubles were spent on the construction of the mosque, of which more than 50 thousand were contributed by Murtuza Mukhtarov. The leadership and clergy of Vladikavkaz decided to name the mosque “Juma Mosque of Mukhtarov” and immortalize his memory with an inscription on a marble plaque in the mosque. At the main entrance at one time there was a board with an inscription in Arabic and Russian that read: “Juma Mosque named after Mukhtarov 1906-1908.” Later it was transferred to the local history museum.

In addition, Mukhtarov’s money was also used to build a lighthouse on Absheron in 1913 (now not operational), buildings in Kislovodsk and Florence. Mukhtarov is also actively involved in charitable societies and does not skimp on providing material assistance. In 1908, Murtuza Mukhtarov organized a treat for 800 prisoners in the Vladikavkaz prison.

In 1910, at the burial site of his fellow Amirajian, the famous theologian and champion of enlightenment Akhund Abuturab, Mukhtarov erected a beautiful mausoleum. (By the way, Akhund Abuturab was so revered by the millionaire Haji Zeynalabdin Tagiyev that he bequeathed to bury himself at the feet of Abuturab, which was fulfilled in September 1924).

In 1911-1912 According to the design of the architect I.K. Ploshko, Murtaza Mukhtarov built a house in Baku, better known as the Mukhtarov Palace (now the Palace of Happiness). This building was built in the French Gothic style, which determined its essence. But this is not only a beautiful palace, it is a monument to the love of Murtuza Mukhtarov for his beautiful wife, Ossetian Elizaveta Tuganova, daughter of Tuganov Aslambek Mikhailovich, the first Ossetian general, who during his lifetime was considered the patriarch of the Ossetian military intelligentsia.

After returning from a honeymoon trip to Italy, Mukhtarov decided to build a palace for his beloved wife, exactly the same as the one she admired in Venice. Without thinking twice, he decides to build it opposite Orthodox church(the temple stood on the site of the current school named after Bulbul). The contractors were the Kasumov brothers, natives of Nakhchivan, who founded a construction partnership in Baku and became famous as good builders.

The grandson of Haji's elder brother, Imran Ashum oglu Kasumov, is a playwright, screenwriter, Honored Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR, People's Writer of the Azerbaijan SSR. The love and harmony of the Mukhtarov couple was not overshadowed even by childlessness. They gave all the strength of their generous souls to each other and gave to other people's children. In this palace they organized a boarding school for girls. And they themselves adopted the children of Murtuza Mukhtarov’s brother, Bala Akhmed. The boy, however, died young. Survived by daughter Umiya.

The life of Murtuza Mukhtar oglu Mukhtarov, an oil industrialist and philanthropist, ended tragically. April 1920, the first days of the revolution. Mounted Red Army soldiers rode into the palace courtyard with a decree for the arrest of the owner and his family. Hearing the noise, he went out onto the balcony. Outraged by such impudence, he asked the uninvited guests how they dared to ride horses into the courtyard, covered with expensive Italian marble. The answer was Russian obscenities, to which Murtuza, without losing his composure, took out a revolver and shot the envoys, leaving the last bullet for himself.

He was buried in the courtyard of the mosque, which he built 10 years before his death in 1910 in his homeland in Amirajan. More than half a century later, the daughter of another Baku millionaire, Shamsi Asadullayeva, having already arrived in independent Azerbaijan, in Baku from America, once said in one of her interviews that of all the former Baku millionaires, only Mukhtarov is worthy of respect.

After the death of her husband, his wife Lisa Khanim was settled in the basement of her own house, but it became dangerous to stay in Baku, and having fictitiously married one of the Turkish diplomats, she left for Istanbul. However, her companion, the “true man,” having taken possession of her last chest of jewelry by deception, disappeared. Little is known about her further fate in emigration.

In order not to endanger her relatives who remained here, she did not write letters. As the late Faiza Khanim Tuganova, a famous gynecologist and relative of Elizaveta Mukhtarova, said, she lived in France until the mid-50s. One gets the impression that fate, having bestowed gifts beyond measure at first, was now dealing with the Mukhtarovs with particularly sophisticated mercilessness. She did not spare their beloved daughter, Umiya.

Having buried her husband in Turkey, who suddenly died of scarlet fever, Umiya Khanim with two young children - Murtuza and Mukhtar - returns to Baku, where soon, according to the Muslim laws of that time, she marries her husband's brother - Asadulla Akhmedov, who was much younger than her. Soon younger son Umiy Khanim, Mukhtar, also dies.

Umiya Khanim received a good musical education and had a beautiful voice. Since the 30s she worked at the Opera and Ballet Theater. And she even participated in the first Decade of Azerbaijani Art in Moscow. But all her life she had to hide her origins. In the questionnaires, in the “parents” chapter, she wrote: father is a drilling foreman. Her only son Mukhtar (she had no children from her second marriage) participated in the Great Patriotic War, was wounded, after the war he entered Moscow State University at the Faculty of Law. Then he worked for a long time in the CPSU Central Committee.

During Afghan war was a military adviser. Died as a major general. And his son, Mukhtarov’s only direct heir, a career Russian diplomat, worked in one of the eastern countries.

Based on materials from Nargiz Suleymanova

Stepan Georgievich
Lianozov (1872-1951)
A major Russian entrepreneur and oil industrialist of Armenian origin. Stepan Lianozov was called the “Russian Rockefeller.” One of the leaders of the Russian General Oil Company (Oil). Member of the Torgprom organization. Managing director and board member of over 20 oil industry and other companies, one of the organizers of the Russian General Oil Corporation (Oil), created by the Russian-Asian, International and other banks to compete with the Nobel Brothers Partnership and Russian enterprises of the Anglo-Dutch Shell monopoly.
After the October Revolution of 1917, he was in exile, actively fought against Soviet power, and headed the “North-Western Government” created in 1919 under General N. Yudenich in Estonia.
In 1920, in Paris, together with G. L. Nobel, P. P. Ryabushinsky, N. Kh. Denisov, P. O. and A. O. Gukasov, he participated in the creation of the counter-revolutionary organization “Trade, Financial and Industrial Committee” (“ Torgprom") to protect the interests of Russian capitalists.

Mailov brothers
The Caucasian Messenger of 1917 recounts episodes from the life of the Baku Armenians - the Mailov brothers.
The younger brother Ilya Lazarevich was a doctor, the elder brother Daniil Lazarevich was a businessman, a member of the accounting and loan trade and industrial committee.
In 1910, the brothers decided to build a large modern building for a new theater in Baku.
The construction of this building was preceded by an intriguing history. A year earlier, a then popular opera singer had built a grandiose building on the embankment for his young wife. Nowadays, this building houses the Azerbaijan State Oil Company and is located on AzNeft Square. Architects from Rome and Venice were invited to design this building. On the day the newlyweds moved into their new home, a ball was given on the embankment. All the nobility of the city were present at the ball. Only the Mailov brothers were not invited.
The reason for this neglect is unknown. But the fact remains a fact. The brothers decided to take revenge. Without thinking twice, they decided to build a theater. But for whom? However, the opportunity presented itself quite quickly...
The Mailov brothers had their own workshops and were famous as the “kings of caviar.”
Why did they decide to build a theater? It was all the woman's fault.
In 1910, a famous singer appeared in Baku, her beauty and wonderful voice turned the head of the eldest of the millionaire brothers Mailov. The beautiful singer gave concerts either on Birzha Street (currently U. Gadzhibekov Street), then in the building of a wooden circus, or in winter clubs. Since her Baku tour was ending, a farewell party was organized in her honor at the “casino”.
At the evening she was asked when she would come to Baku again. She said that probably never! Because I’m not used to singing in circuses and casinos. “Don’t such rich people in your wonderful city have the means to build an opera house where a musician could show his skills?” asked the singer.
The offended Mailov invited her to come to Baku exactly a year later, for the opening of the theater, which he would build especially in her honor.
The design of the theater in the Renaissance style was drawn up by civil engineer N.G. Baev.
In the history of the construction of theater buildings in the era of capitalism, the Mailovsky Theater occupies a special place, as it was ready in record time, given the level of construction technology of that time. The building, with a capacity of approximately 1,800 people, was completed in less than 10 months.
On February 28, 1911, the opening of the new Baku Opera and Ballet Theater took place. The elder Mailov sent a telegram to that same singer with an invitation to Baku.
She arrived. Almost all the rich people of the city, musicians and actors took part in the opening.
In honor of the opening of the theater, the singer, thanks to whom this luxurious theater appeared in Baku, gave a concert. As soon as she finished singing her aria, money fell on her like rain. Mailov gave her wreaths of flowers, which were collected from 25, 50 and 100 manat banknotes.

Illarion Ivanovich
Vorontsov-Dashkov
(1837-1916)
Fate has given him a long life. His life took place against the backdrop of four tsars: Nicholas I baptized him, Alexander II welcomed a capable military leader, making him a secular general, under Alexandra III he was appointed minister of the imperial court and appanages, chief manager of state stud farms, etc., Nicholas II was called to serve as the Caucasian governor.
Having married Countess Elizaveta Andreevna Shuvalova, granddaughter and heiress of His Serene Highness Prince Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov, in 1867, Illarion Ivanovich concentrated in his hands the lion's share of all Vorontsov's wealth and by the beginning of the 20th century he became second in the list of the largest landowners in Russia (the Orlov counts were richer). Davydovs and even then not by much).
Illarion Ivanovich was a thick-set, above average height, dark brunette, with lightly curly hair and charming black eyes. He was a true gentleman, a passionate athlete, a noble commander, who boldly took responsibility for everything that happened in his regiment, did not blame his subordinates, was not petty, not picky, stood up for his own, always ready to respond and help with his intercession , his influence in high circles and, finally, his credit.
He experienced both monastic mercy and disgrace. His aristocratic origin, proximity to the throne, positions held, and extraordinary personality made him equally the recipient of panegyrics and the target of merciless criticism. They gossiped about him in the capital's salons.
Vorontsov-Dashkov was a friend of Tsar Alexander III and until the end was at the bedside of the dying Tsar. He did not accept Nicholas II either as a person or as an emperor.

Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov (1831-1898).
One of the most famous Russian wine merchants and wine producers, lived in Moscow and St. Petersburg (since 1892).
A century ago, the most popular product in Russia and the most popular Russian product in the world was Smirnovskaya vodka.
Merchant Smirnov first founded his wine shop in Moscow in 1860, and soon built a vodka factory, which by the beginning of the 20th century had turned into one of the largest enterprises in the industry - Smirnov sold up to 100 million bottles annually. Smirnov vodkas and wines (more than 400 items) were drunk in Russia by everyone, starting from royal family and ending with the common people.
When a state “drinking” monopoly was introduced at the end of the 19th century, Smirnov’s affairs began to deteriorate, and the “vodka king” soon died, nevertheless leaving a million-dollar inheritance to his five sons and three daughters. His shares in the partnership passed in equal shares to his sons. In 1902, a conflict arose between the heirs and the joint-stock form of ownership in the case was liquidated. After 1917, one of the sons sold (illegally, according to the current descendants of Peter Smirnov) the right to use the surname to the Americans, who turned Smirnov into a global brand with sales of more than $1 billion.
Merchant of the 1st guild, commerce-adviser, founder (1893) and director of the Partnership of a vodka factory, warehouses of wine, spirits and Russian and foreign grape wines, was actively involved in charitable activities. He was a member of the Moscow Committee for the Care of the Poor, an honorary member of the Moscow Council of Orphanages of the Department of Empress Maria Feodorovna, a trustee of the Alexander-Mariinsky Women's School, an honorary member of the board of trustees of the Moscow Eye Hospital, a trustee of the Iveron Community of Sisters of Mercy, and the headman of the Annunciation and Verkhospassky Cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin in 1870 -e years
These traditions were continued by his heirs, in particular his son Pyotr Petrovich Smirnov (1868-1910).

“Only foreign capital can promote the development of industry in the region. They can mainly join the ranks of people knowledgeable in various industries,” the governor of Kuban writes to St. Petersburg. This letter is dated... 1896.

The first oil fountains in the Kuban, in the valley of the Kudako River, began to flow in 1866–1867. This aroused considerable interest in the West. Soon, individual foreign entrepreneurs and firms began to rent oil wells in Taman and the Maykop region. The penetration of foreign entrepreneurs into the oil industry occurred in two ways: they either sought the assignment of contracts for oil-bearing areas leased by Russian entrepreneurs, or became partners of Russian tenants, and then their legal successors.

It was necessary to take a roundabout route due to the imperfection of the legislation of that time. Thus, the French joint-stock company "Russian Standard - Oil Partnership", created in 1881 with a solid capital of 4.5 million francs, strengthened its position in the Kuban and became a monopolist in oil production and refining. However, until 1892 it was forced to act through front men. The Russian Standard monopoly lasted 30 years.

After Russian Standard curtailed its activities, Kuban oil production stagnated. Some revival began in 1906–1907. Then the Russian engineers Bunge and Shurov, in company with the industrialist Selitrennikov, began systematic scientific research.

The results were encouraging. For the industrial implementation of plans, the “Baku-Black Sea Partnership” was created in 1908. On August 30 of the following year, a powerful fountain erupted from a well 34 fathoms (about 72 meters) deep. In two weeks, it released at least 3 million pounds of oil. But they did not stock up on oil storage facilities in advance. And then there was a fire, which turned almost all of the “black gold” into smoke.
This event became the No. 1 sensation for oil producers around the world. The so-called Maykop boom began. Both Russian and foreign capital poured into Kuban, predominantly English. The boom developed in an extremely favorable environment. The depression in the Western economy was over, and Russia was emerging from the stagnation caused by the consequences Russo-Japanese War and the first revolution. World oil prices remained high, and Baku's oil fields were in decline. The new Klondike promised huge profits.

The British forked out money for exploration, and Kuban oil remained the main object of British investment in the pre-war years.
In London, one after another, joint-stock companies began to be created to extract Maikop oil. Soon the British already owned 90% of the oil fields in the region. The remaining 10% belonged to Russian companies, but their enterprises were not free from English influence. Only in 1910, 20 companies were registered in London for oil production in Maikop with a total capital of 54.58 thousand rubles. Most of the shares of these companies began to be listed on the London Stock Exchange. In the same year, shares of 13 Russian oil companies based in the Maykop region appeared on the London Stock Exchange.

The total capital of all British enterprises that opened their activities in Russia in 1910–1914 was 209.3 million rubles. 110 million of them were directed to the production of Kuban oil, including 90 million to enterprises in the Maykop region.
Firms that appeared in England almost immediately found themselves drawn into a process of concentration and monopolization. Thus, in 1911, the Anglo-Maikop Corporation was formed, uniting about one and a half dozen Maikop societies. In 1915, the Anglo-Maikop Corporation had a capital of 10 million rubles. Its share accounted for about 94% of the total Kuban oil production. During the First World War, as a result of the merger of English firms operating in the region, the “Maikop Union”, the “Society of the Black Sea United Oil Fields”, as well as the mixed Russian-English “Maikop Oil Industrial and Trading Society” were formed.

The success of the British was greatly facilitated by the favorable attitude of the central and local authorities. When in June 1910 it became known about the measures being prepared by the government to limit activities foreign companies in Kuban, local authorities issued a strong protest. In a single impulse, the Ekaterinodar Exchange Committee, the Maikop City Duma, the Temryuk City Council, the administration of the military ataman of the Cossack troops and the Council of Congresses of Representatives of Exchange Trade and Agriculture In Petersburg. The initiative of the “federals” quickly died out, especially taking into account the fact that it was by no means in the interests of the Russian government to spoil relations with a potential ally on the eve of a world war.

At the same time, cooperation between British and Russian oil producers developed. In October 1911, the First Congress of Kuban entrepreneurs was held, dedicated to the problems of the oil industry. Representatives of British companies participated in its work in an advisory capacity. The decisions of the congress in practice led to the cooperation of the efforts of the Russians and the British.

In total, 66 companies were created in England to work in the Kuban. As often happens, in the areas of most of them “the horse was not lying down.” Drilling work was carried out by 23 companies, oil production was carried out by nine, and only six companies were able to create a full-fledged industrial infrastructure.

In 1911–1912, the British commissioned two oil pipelines: Shirvan - Ekaterinodar and Shirvan - Tuapse. The first - 104 versts (about 111 kilometers) long with a pipe diameter of 8 inches - was considered the main one and belonged to the Maikop Oil Pipeline and Transport Company. The second - 97 miles long (about 103.5 kilometers) - was the property of the Maikop Anonymous Oil Transportation Society. Subsequently, both companies merged into one. In 1914, they acquired the right to build another oil pipeline in the area of ​​the Krymskaya village with the construction of a reservoir and oil pumping station. Thus, all transportation of Maikop oil was concentrated in the hands of one Maikop oil pipeline and transport company, which was part of the Anglo-Maikop Corporation.

The Kuban oil refining industry then consisted of the Ekaterinodar and Shirvan oil refineries. Shirvansky, built by Russian businesswoman Selitrennikova, went into operation in 1909. Soon, Selitrennikova’s plant was bought by the English “Society of the Black Sea United Oil Fields”. The second plant belonged to the Russian partnership "Gukasov and Co.", 60% of the capital of which was English.

On the eve of the First World War, the entire oil refining industry of Kuban was concentrated in the “Society of Maikop Oil Refineries” with a capital of 50 thousand pounds sterling, which was part of the same Anglo-Maikop Corporation. The production of equipment for oil fields was also established by the British. The Russian-Kuban Industrial Oil Company, which received a license to operate in Russia in 1911, quickly built the Kubanol machine-building plant.

Oil pipelines and factories stimulated oil production. In four years, from 1908 to 1912, it increased almost a hundred times - from 1.6 to 152.2 thousand tons! However, in 1913 there was a sharp two-fold decline in production - to 78 thousand tons.

One of the main reasons for this decline, as geologists found out, was incorrect drilling, which did not take into account the characteristics of the deposits in the Maikop region, which had the shape of a “arm-shaped deposit”, previously unknown to geological science. The great Russian geologist Ivan Gubkin found this out in 1912–1913. The British did not believe him and continued to drill using old technologies. The results were disastrous.

The British were also undermined by competition from Baku oil developers. The local oil owners developed an effective strategy to suppress English competitors. For this purpose, large Baku oil industrialists established the joint-stock company “Kolkhida”. "Kolkhida" bought 90 acres of oil-bearing land in the Maikop region, but did not intend to expand the production of "black gold". The goal of Colchis was to undermine the position of the British. For this purpose, drilling in obviously unpromising places, flooding of oil-bearing areas with groundwater, and dumping purchase of promising areas from small entrepreneurs were used... All this taken together discredited Kuban oil production so much that the appointed ataman even allowed the Cossacks to plant gardens and vegetable gardens on oil-bearing lands.

The British held out in the Maykop region until 1919. By that time, they were extracting oil in only two areas - it was not possible to develop others due to the raging Civil War. And the following year, the Kuban oil industry was nationalized by the Soviet government. It inherited oil pipelines, oil storage facilities and refineries built by the British.

The beginning of industrial oil refining dates back to the middle of the 19th century, when Baku became the largest oil region in Russia. With the abolition of oil sales in 1872, there was an accelerated development of the oil business, which has significantly intensified since September 1877.

The beginning of industrial oil refining dates back to the middle of the 19th century, when Baku became the largest oil region in Russia. With the abolition of oil sales in 1872, there was an accelerated development of the oil business, which increased significantly from September 1877, when the excise tax on oil products was abolished (until 1888). The abolition of the excise tax contributed to the rapid growth of oil production in Azerbaijan. Over the next forty years (until 1917), more than 3 thousand wells were drilled on Absheron, of which about 2 thousand produced oil. However, even before the abolition of farming, serious attempts were made to develop the oil business. Thus, the first oil refineries were built in Mozdok by the Dubinin brothers (serfs of Countess Panina) and in 1837 by mining engineer N.I. Voskoboynikov in the Baku village of Balakhany, but the work was not completed.

In 1858 – 1859 Baron N.E. Tornau, V.A. Kokorev and P.I. Gubonin are building in the Baku village of Surakhani, not far from the temple of fire worshipers, the first oil refinery according to the German model for processing kir (asphalt). The goal was to obtain lighting oils from resinous shales, but the results were unsatisfactory, and the kir was replaced with oil, which gave a good lighting oil. The outstanding German chemist Justus Liebig took an active part in the project of this plant, who sent his assistant K. Engler to Baku especially for this purpose.

In December 1863, already in Baku itself, Javad Melikov built a kerosene plant and, for the first time in the world history of oil refining, used refrigerators in the distillation process. The famous Russian oil industrialist V.I. Ragozin described D. Melikov as follows: “Like all people who were possessed by an idea, in every undertaking he saw only a means to realize the idea and to the Bakuvians he seemed an eccentric and strange man. It would not seem strange when a person did not seek profit, giving up to the last penny everything he had, without thinking about yesterday, just to achieve his goal. In the history of the development of technical production, we often encounter such eccentrics who give impetus to production, move it forward, but themselves remain out of work and die in poverty and obscurity, and the crowd, who did not trust them and laughed at them, takes possession of what was created on their basis property."

The founder of kerosene and paraffin production in Baku and Grozny, D. Melikov, unable to withstand competition with large oil refining industrialists, died in poverty, forgotten by everyone.

The first borehole on Absheron was drilled in 1844 by mining engineer F. Semenov in the village of Bibi-Heybat and gave a good flow rate. However, Semenov’s report on this addressed to General A. Neidgart dated December 22, 1844 did not receive due attention. However, the beginning of drilling deep oil wells was made right here, on the shores of the Caspian Sea in the villages of Bibi-Heybat and Balakhany, and only a few years (in 1859) after the first initiative of the Baku people, deep wells began to be drilled in the state of Pennsylvania (USA) .

It was in 1859 that commercial oil production began after the discovery of a large artesian spring in Vennanno in Pennsylvania. Until the end of 1860, up to 2 thousand wells with a depth of 20 to 200 m were drilled in Pennsylvania. The success of the oil industry in the USA forced attention to European (Galician) and then to Absheron oil fields.

In 1864, public and statesman Russia N.A. Novoselsky (1823 - 1901) gave the first impetus to the oil business in the Caucasus; he laid the first borehole in the Kuban region.

After receiving official permission to drill oil wells on Absheron in Balakhany in 1868, a second oil well with a depth of 64 m was mechanically drilled in 1871. From this moment, intensive drilling began, which led to a drop in oil prices: if in 1873 the price per pood was 45 kopecks, then after the opening of the famous Vermishev fountain in Balakhany on June 13, 1873, which flooded the surrounding area in a short time and formed several oil lakes, it dropped to 2 kopecks. The well of oil industrialist I.A. Vermishev erupted an oil fountain 611 m high for 13 days and released more than 90 million pounds of oil within 3 months. This was many times greater than many of the oil flows received in Pennsylvania.

The abolition of farming and the granting of the right to private individuals to lease oil-bearing lands contributed to the rapid growth of the oil industry in Russia and the emergence of many oil-industrial firms and trading societies: “G.Z. Tagiyev” (1872), “Baku Oil Society” (1874). ), “The Nobel Brothers” (1879), “Caspian-Black Sea Society” by Rothschild (1883), etc.

In 1879, the Baku branch of the Imperial Russian Technical Society (BO IRTS) was created, which contributed to the enhanced development of the oil industry in Azerbaijan. D.I.Mendeleev, V.V.Markovnikov, L.G.Gurvich, G.Z.Tagiev, L.E.Nobel, V.I.Ragozin, M.Nagiev and others spoke at the meetings of the society. English traveler and writer Charles Marvin, visiting in 1882 - 1883. Russia (Caucasus, Baku, Caspian coast) was surprised by the scale of the oil business in these regions and described it in his books “The Russian advance towards India” (1882), “The Russians at Merv and Herat” (1883) and etc.

The famous Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun (Pedersen), winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920, also described his memories of his trip to Russia, especially to the Caucasus and Baku, in his book “In a Fairyland”. In Baku, he met with the city’s public and visited the company “br. Nobel".

It is characteristic that the tsarist government actively supported the formation and development of large firms, since they were more organized in production terms and better represented the interests of industry.

Soon lamps appeared in Russia, adapted for Russian kerosene, which is somewhat different from the American one. Here it is appropriate to note the role of the outstanding chemist D.I. Mendeleev, who first proposed the use of oil residues after the separation of kerosene to obtain lubricating oils. In his article “What to do with Baku oil?” He outlined in detail the method for obtaining illuminating oil, which he called bakuoil. The scientist carefully studied the oil industry in Russia; came to Baku several times (in 1863, 1880 and 1886 (2 times)) in order to study the economy and the state of technical equipment of the oil fields.

D.I. Mendeleev highly appreciated the active work of the Nobel and Rothschild brothers in the Caucasus and Baku, noting their primary role in the formation and development of the oil business in these regions. Despite difficult relationships developed between the scientist and L. Nobel, he wrote: “... a special revival in the course of Baku oil affairs came only when at the end of the 70s the Nobel brothers, especially L. E. Nobel, who had a machine plant in St. Petersburg, formed a large company for the exploitation of Baku oil reserves. Until then, everything was done with small capital, but the Nobel Corporation invested more than 20 million rubles in the business, started production on a large scale, a huge plant for several million pounds of kerosene per year, built an oil pipeline from the fields to the plant and to the pier, acquired many excellent steam tankers on the Caspian Sea and tanker barges on the Volga...”

The name of Mendeleev is associated not only with the history of the development of the Russian oil industry, but also with the beginning of the publication of the first books about oil and its processing. Under the editorship of D.I. Mendeleev in St. Petersburg, in the printing house of the “Public Benefit” partnership, the “Technical Encyclopedia (according to Wagner)” was published, 1862 - 1896.

The most pressing issue in the 80s - 90s was the construction of oil pipeline lines between the fields and factories of the Black City in Baku, the solution of which was closely tackled by the most energetic companies “Br. Nobel”, “G.Z. Tagiyev” and “Baku Oil Society”. In 1877, the construction of the first oil pipeline in Russia was completed between the fields of the village of Sabunchi and the factories of the Black City. By 1890, 25 oil pipeline lines with a length of about 286 km were laid in the Baku oil region, through which up to 1.5 million pounds of oil per day were pumped from fields to factories.

It is necessary to remember the talented engineer, honorary member of the Polytechnic Society V.G. Shukhov (1853 - 1939), who was the main leader in the construction of the Balakhany - Black City oil pipeline, and about the professor of the St. Petersburg Technical Institute N.L. Shchukin (1848 - 1924), the author of the project for the Trans-Caucasian Baku - Batumi oil pipeline.

The construction of the Baku-Batum oil trunk pipeline, the need for which was fiercely debated at that time, took 10 years. Subsequently, this unique oil pipeline provided invaluable assistance in the fight against American oil policy, opening access for Baku oil to the world market.

The creation of tankers for the transportation of oil and petroleum products significantly influenced the development of the Caspian fleet, opening a new era in the oil business. For the first time in the world, the oil tanker “Zoroaster” was built by L. Nobel in 1877 in the Swedish city of Motala; Subsequently, he built an entire oil tanker flotilla, which included the vessels “Magomed”, “Moses”, “Spinoza”, “Darwin” and others. Possessing a powerful oil tanker fleet and more than 2 thousand tank cars, the company “Br. Nobel transported oil and petroleum products to countless tanks it built in Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan, Yaroslavl, etc.

Later, ships belonging to other companies also sailed along Russia's waterways. For example, the trade and transport company “Mazut”, created by A. Rothschild in 1898, owned 13 tankers in the Caspian Sea, as well as several steamships. By 1912, this company was a reputable oil export and trade association.

Since 1880, tankers from the port of Batumi with Baku kerosene were sent to many countries around the world. In the 80s and 90s, Baku oil freely competes with American oil and even displaces it from European and Asian markets. Kerosene exported from Baku fully meets Russia's needs, and since 1883, the import of American kerosene into the empire has ceased.

A comparison of data on oil production in the USA and Russia showed that in 1859 in the USA (Pennsylvania) oil production was 82 thousand barrels; in 1889 - 14 million barrels. In Russia (Baku) in 1889, 16.7 million barrels of oil were produced. In 1901, the Baku oil region provided 95% of the total imperial oil production; in this year, oil production in Russia was distributed as follows: 667.1 million poods from the Baku province and about 34.7 million poods from the Terek region. The number of workers employed in the oil fields of the Russian Empire increased from 7 thousand in 1894 to 27 thousand in 1904, of which 24.5 thousand worked in the Baku oil region. In 1904, there were 150 oil refineries in Russia, of which 72 were located in Baku.

It should be especially noted that the Russian oil industry, until 1917, was represented exclusively by the Azerbaijani (Baku) oil industry. The main deposits of Baku included Balakhani, Sabunchi, Ramany, Bibi-Heybat and Surakhani.

In 1899 – 1901 Baku, having produced more than half of the world's oil production, brought Russia to first place, leaving behind countries such as the USA, Argentina, Peru and others. Baku kerosene completely replaced American kerosene, first from Russian cities, then from foreign ones. For example, in 1885, instead of American kerosene, 37 million gallons of domestic raw materials were delivered to Asian countries from Baku via Batum. The growth of Baku's oil industry at the end of the 19th century placed Russia among the leading capitalist countries of the world: after 1901, it retained second place for a long time (after the United States) until it was supplanted by Mexico.

The congresses of Baku oil industrialists, established in 1884, served to organize and coordinate the activities of Russian entrepreneurs. Their main goal was considered to be “the ability of oil industrialists to express their needs, aspirations and desires to the government.” The congress was an association of capital of oil companies, in which each company had a certain share of votes. Thus, at the 33rd Congress of Oil Industrialists in 1914, the largest firms had 111 votes: “Br. Nobel - 18, Shell - 34 and the Oil General Corporation - 59. Representatives of oil magnates used the Congress Council to interact with various government agencies, establish close ties with the state apparatus, participate in interdepartmental meetings, commissions, i.e. to protect the interests of their companies before the government. Since 1898, the Congress Council published the newspaper-magazine “Oil Business” in Baku, which from May 1920 to this day has been called “Azerbaijan Oil Economy”.

Large oil producers, in search of new global markets, actively participated in the world's largest exhibitions. L.E. Nobel and V.I. Ragozin were especially successful in this. Their exhibits of oil products from Baku factories, shown in Paris (1878), Brussels (1880) and London (1881), received the highest ratings from experts.

After the death of the head of the company “Br. Nobel” Ludwig (March 31, 1888) in Russia the Nobel Prizes will be approved. L. Nobel (1891) and his son Emmanuel Nobel (1909). Archival documents collected in the Biographical International Encyclopedia “Humanistics” about Russian Nobel Prizes, show the striking contribution of the Nobel father and son to the development of industry, science and education in the empire and, in particular, in oil-rich Baku.

Particularly noteworthy is V.I. Ragozin, who in 1875 studied lubricating oils for the first time in the history of the world oil industry and built the first factories for this in Balakhna (Nizhny Novgorod province) and Konstantinov (near Yaroslavl). In 1878, the lubricating oils he exported abroad from Baku oil firmly conquered the world market.

Thus, Azerbaijani oil as a raw material for the production of lubricating oils played an important role in the Russian economy. Oil plants of Ragozin on the Volga, Nobel, Tagiyev, Shibaev, Nagiyev, Rothschild, Asadullaev and others in Baku, Frolov, Rolls and Petukhov in St. Petersburg received lubricating oils from Baku oils, which successfully replaced American lubricating oils in England, France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Denmark and other European countries. Already by the beginning of the 90s of the 19th century, the capacity of Russian oil plants made it possible to fully satisfy the empire’s need for high-quality lubricating oils. Petroleum products produced at Baku refineries, as well as the main amount of crude, unrefined oil, were exported from Baku by four routes: the Caspian, Transcaucasian and Vladikavkaz (Baku-Petrovsk) railways and a very small amount - buzzing. Thus, in 1904, the total volume of exported oil and petroleum products was about 492.1 million poods.

Since in the 90s Baku oil became the main cargo for the Volga fleet, its accelerated development took place, big number barges for transporting petroleum products, with the bulk of the fleet made up of wooden barges (about 94% in 1900), which are transported along the Volga using towing steamers. During this period, the company “br. Nobel” raised the issue of mandatory replacement of wooden oil barges with iron ones, which were much more practical (did not leak oil products) and more durable. However, they were very expensive and were available only to large companies, to end of the 19th century centuries they were owned by the companies “br. Nobel”, A. Rothschild, G.Z. Tagiyev, Sh. Asadullaeva, “Caucasus and Mercury”, etc. These companies possessed a significant amount of fuel oil transported to the domestic markets of Russia. For example, only the company “br. Nobel supplied up to 80 million poods to Russia. The formation and development of the Caspian and Volga fleets by the end of the 19th century were of great importance for the delivery of petroleum fuel from Baku to large Russian cities, and also contributed to the growth of the shipbuilding and ship repair industry of the Volga region.

The accelerated development of the Russian (Baku) oil business was determined mainly by the significant influx of foreign capital into it (Nobels, Rothschilds, Wischau, etc.), which from the beginning of the 20th century rapidly penetrated into the oil industry of Russia, and with the simultaneous pushing aside of Russian and Baku entrepreneurs not only from the oil industry, but also from trade in petroleum products. By the end of the 19th century, the company “br. Nobel" and Rothschild's "Caspian-Black Sea Society" concentrated in their hands up to 70% of all oil trade in Russia.

The wealth of oil deposits, cheap labor and naturally the huge profits that the oil business brought to industrialists accelerated the influx of foreign currency into the Russian oil industry. This was facilitated by the resolution of the Special Meeting, dated May 1, 1880, on the issue of the admissibility of foreigners to the oil field within the Baku region. Ardent supporters of attracting foreign capital to the Russian oil business were the commander-in-chief of the civilian part in the Caucasus, Prince M. Golitsyn and the Minister of Finance of Russia S. Witte. Prince Golitsyn wrote: “... Any unconditional restriction on the activities of foreign enterprises in the Caucasus would be tantamount to a serious delay in the industrial prosperity of the country.” Finance Minister Witte always pointed out at special meetings on oil affairs: “...Competition of our oil products on the world market is completely unthinkable without the involvement of foreign and especially English entrepreneurs and their capital.”

Having firmly strengthened their positions in oil Baku, foreign firms tried to control developments in other oil regions of the Russian Empire: in Grozny, the North Caucasus, the Caspian islands (Cheleken), Central Asia(Fergana), Ural-Emben region, etc. By the beginning of the First World War (1914), the Baku oil industry was dominated by four largest associations: the company “br. Nobel”, the Anglo-Dutch trust “Royal Dutch Shell”, the Russian general oil corporation “Oil” and the financial oil partnership “Neft”. The total foreign capital invested in the Baku oil business by 1917 amounted to 111 million rubles.

In conclusion, it is necessary to note the enormous merit of chemists and engineers: D.I. Mendeleev, K.I. Lisenko, V.V. Markovnikov, F.F. Belshtein, N.D. Zelinsky, L.G. Gurvich, K V. Kharichkova, V. G. Shukhova, N. L. Shchukina, S. K. Kvitko, A. A. Letniy, N. I. Voskoboynikova, O. K. Lenz, A. I. Sorokina, P. Semyannikova (the first chairman of the BO IRTS), A.A. Gukhman (member of the Council of the BO IRTS), V.F. Herr (head of the chemical laboratory of the BO IRTS) and others who played an invaluable role in the development of the oil industry in Russia, and in particular Baku.

Azerbaijani scientists (M.M. Khanlarov, M.G. Gadzhinsky, A. Mirzoev, I. Rzaev, F. Rustambekov, S. Ganbarov, I. Amirov and others), who received higher education at universities in Russia and Europe, worked at the BO IRTS, contributing to the accelerated development of chemical and technical sciences in Azerbaijan.

Bibliography:

1. Ragozin V.I. Oil and oil industry. St. Petersburg, 1884. – 150 p.

2. Great Encyclopedia. St. Petersburg. Book publishing partnership “Enlightenment”, ed. S.N. Yuzhakova. – 1896. - Vol. 12, 14, 22.

3. Akhundov B.Yu. Monopoly capital in the pre-revolutionary Baku oil industry. - M., 1959. – 180 p.

4. Monopoly capital in the oil industry of Russia 1914 - 1917. - L.: Nauka, 1973. – 210 p.

5. Nardova V.A. The beginning of the monopolization of the Russian oil industry. L.: “Science”, 1974. – 150 p.

6. Samedov V.A. Oil and the Russian economy (80s - 90s of the 19th century). – Baku: Elm. - 1988. – 200 p.

7. Meshkunov V.S. Scientific publishing house of the biographical international encyclopedia “Humanistics”. - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg. book publishing house, 1998. – 250 p.

8. Mir-Babaev M.F., Fuks I.G. The Nobel brothers and Azerbaijani oil (to the 120th anniversary of the founding of the company) // Chemistry and technology of fuels and oils. – 1999. - No. 4. - P.51 - 53.

9. Fuks I.G., Matishev V.A., Mir-Babaev M.F. Baku period of activity of the “Nobel Brothers Oil Production Partnership” (to the 120th anniversary of its founding) // Science and technology of hydrocarbons. – 1999. - No. 5. - P. 86 - 94.

10. Mir-Babaev M.F., Fuks I.G., Matishev V.A. Foreign capital in the Russian oil industry (Apsheron before 1917) // Science and technology of hydrocarbons. – 2000. - No. 5. - P.75 - 80.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the leading oil industrialists of Baku (Gukasovs, Mantashevs, Nobels, Kokorevs, etc.) actively financed revolutionary parties - the RSDLP, the Socialist Revolutionaries, Armenian and Muslim socialists. The amounts amounted to tens and hundreds of thousands of rubles.

On the eve of the First World War, the Russian oil industry was concentrated in the hands of three companies: Russian General Oil Company, Royal Dutch Shell and the Nobel Brothers Partnership. Moreover, these three groups were connected with each other in various ways. The connection was based on a personal union: the Mantashevs, Gukasovs, Nobels, Putilov, Lianozov and others owned stakes in each of the named groups. In 1913, these three groups produced 290 million poods. oil from 564, i.e. 52%, and concentrated in their hands 75% of all oil trade.

Almost all Baku oil industrialists provided the revolutionary underground with a variety of support, including material support.

“Of the colossal number of conflicts resolved by the Union of Oil Industrial Workers,” recalled Social Democrat A. Rokhlin, “the overwhelming majority were accepted by oil industry firms almost unconditionally; these firms unconditionally contributed fines to the union's coffers for certain offenses. Representatives of the largest companies more than once or twice contributed money for one or another need of the party organization (our Bolshevik organization, it’s no secret, did not disdain this source of income, I’ll point out at least the 10-thousandth jackpot received from oil industrialists at the conclusion of the December (1904) years) of the contract, i.e. under circumstances that gave the payment the character of bribery The same largest companies more than once or twice sought protection from us (I remember the case of Mancho’s appeal to the Bibi-Heybat district committee in 1911) from harassment and raids - various things. kind of "ex")

The fact of receiving money from oil industrialists was later recognized by Vienna-born worker Ivan Prokofievich Vacek, who transferred from Austro-Hungarian to Russian citizenship and for many years was the cashier of the Baku Committee of the RSDLP. Noting that the Bolsheviks used material support from “bourgeois elements,” he wrote: “We took from managers, deputies and managers, and from the liberal public in general.”

Touching on this topic and emphasizing that he meant only the Mensheviks, S.Ya. Alliluyev argued that financial assistance came “from the fireproof steel cash registers of the oil kings: Gukasov, Mantashev, Zubalov, Kokorev, Rothschild, Nobel and many other millionaires.”

Partially echoing the memories of S.Ya. Alliluyev are the memories of the worker I. Bokov, who wrote that when one of the Shendrikov brothers, who left a noticeable mark on the history of the Baku labor movement of 1904-1905, left Baku, he “received a bribe from the oil industrialist Gukasov - 20,000 rub.".

Armenian socialists Gukasovs

Unfortunately, when mentioning Gukasov’s surname, neither S.Ya. Alliluyev nor I. Bokov mentioned his name. Meanwhile, three Gukasov brothers were associated with the oil business: Pavel (b. 1858), Arshak (b. 1864) and Abram (b. 1872) Osipovich.

Pavel and Arshak for a long time stood at the head of the Caspian Oil Industry Partnership in Russia, Abram represented its interests in London. In addition, they were associated with a number of oil-industrial companies, including the joint-stock company A.I. Mantashev and K and the Lianozov-based Moscow-Caucasian Oil-Industrial and Trade Partnership. The influence of the Gukasov brothers is evidenced by the fact that for a long time, first Pavel and then Arshak held the position of chairman of the Council of the Congress of Baku Oil Industrialists.

In the summer of 1908, Pavel Osipovich Gukasov received a denunciation that he and several other entrepreneurs had transferred 100 thousand rubles to the Armenian Archbishop Geregin for the church and for revolutionary purposes.

Pavel Gukasov

On October 19, 1907, a search was carried out in the St. Petersburg apartment of Pavel Gukasov. It is possible that the reason for the search was related to the fact that in 1907 the name of P. Gukasov’s youngest son, Levon, surfaced during the “inquiry about the sons of the state councilor Konstantin and Alexander Dokukin (military organization of the Socialist Revolutionaries).”

Arshak Osipovich Gukasov was seen visiting the editorial office of the central organ of the Dashnaktsutyun party, the newspaper Droshak, during one of his stays abroad. The Okhrana considered him involved in the creation of the Armenian Cultural Union, which was used by the Dashnaks as one of the legal covers for their illegal activities. A. Gukasov also had contact with members of the illegal Muslim social-democratic organization “Gummet” and contributed to the creation of its own legal newspaper.

All this taken together gives reason to think that it was not by chance that Gukasov’s name appeared on the list of creditors of the revolutionary underground, which is contained in the memoirs of S.Ya. Alliluyev.

Arshak Gukasov

Armenian nationalist Mantashev

This applies even more to another oil industrialist - Alexander Ivanovich Mantashev, whose fortune was estimated at more than 20 million rubles.

On February 13, 1904, the Police Department informed the Tiflis Security Department that they had received intelligence information that oil industrialist A. Mantashev “donated a million rubles to the revolutionary movement three months ago.”

In response to this, on April 24, the head of the Tiflis security department, captain F. Zasypkin, said: “Alexander Mantashev, who lives in the city of Tiflis, is a famous Armenian millionaire; before the emergence of the Armenian movement in the last 1903 in an acute form, directed against the Russian government, he had an undoubted connection with the movement , directed primarily against Turkey; V given time he would no longer dare to cut off his connection and in any case, of course, supplies the revolutionaries with money; indications of a million rubles being donated to them are still doubtful.”

Alexander Mantashev

The Department itself had a different opinion on this matter. This is evidenced by the “Historical Essay on the Armenian Federative Party Dashnaktsutyun”, prepared for official use by gendarme lieutenant colonel L. Ivanov. “Oil industrialist Mantashev, for example, paid one million. He founded an Armenian bank in London, where the Armenian church money is now kept, and he is in alliance with Rothschild.”

Armenian socialist Zubalov

As for the participation of the Zubalov family in financing the revolutionary movement, so far only one fact has been discovered, dating back to 1910 and indicating that at that time the leader of the Georgian Mensheviks N. Zhordania received a monthly allowance of 100 rubles. from the “owner of the People’s House” in Tiflis Zubalov.

In the 1920s, a diagram of connections between Caucasian Social Democrats dating back to 1901-1902 was published. It included about 60 people from Baku, Batum and Tiflis. The surname Zubalov also appeared in this scheme. It has not yet been possible to establish which of the Zubalovs was in the field of view of the secret police. But it can be noted that in 1904, the Tiflis security department conducted external surveillance of David Antonovich Zubalov, who was a cousin of the owners of the People's House.

Zubalovs office in Baku

Old Believers Kokorevs

By the beginning of the 20th century, one of the pioneers of the oil business in Russia, Vasily Aleksandrovich Kokorev, had long since died (in 1889). Therefore, S.Ya. Alliluyev could have meant not him personally, but one of the leaders of the Baku Oil Industrial Society created by him. The fact that Kokorev’s entourage could include persons associated with the revolutionary underground is evidenced by information about one of the managers of the Baku Oil Industrial Society, Andrei Vasilyevich Kamensky, who was related to the former Narodnaya Volya member, later a Socialist-Revolutionary, Lev Karlovich Chermak and one of the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party , Boris Viktorovich Savinkov.

The same is apparently the case with Rothschild, who, although he was the owner of the Caspian-Black Sea Oil Industrial Partnership, never lived in Russia. When mentioning his last name, S.Ya. Alliluyev could only mean the leadership of this partnership, among which, as will be shown below, there were also persons who had family ties in the revolutionary underground, and persons who provided him with material support.

Vasily Kokorev

Nobel family

The Nobel Brothers company was created by the descendants of the Swedish entrepreneur Immanuel Nobel (1801-1872), who had four sons. Russian Nobels are mainly the descendants of Ludwig Immanuilovich and his son Emanuil Ludvigovich (1852-1932), who headed the family business after the death of his father. He had seven children.

No information was found that E.L. Nobel or any of his descendants personally donated funds to the revolutionary movement. But there is evidence that in December 1904, a large sum of money to finance the strike movement was offered to a representative of the Central Committee of the RSDLP who was in Baku by the leadership of the Nobel Brothers company.

But E. L. Nobel’s cousin Dmitry Klassovich Nyberg was a member of the Free People’s Party, created in Siberia by the former Shlisselburger V. Karaulov, and at the beginning of 1906 he was brought to the inquiry on charges of promoting the revolutionary movement on the Siberian Railway.

Professor of the Institute of Railways Alfred Nyberg (standing on the left), Dmitry Nyberg (standing on the right), Major General Robert Nyberg (sitting)

A cousin of E. L. Nobel was Alexander (Centeri) Nuorteva, whose father, Alfred, was the brother of Klass Nyberg. A. Nourteva was one of the prominent figures of Finnish social democracy; in 1907, he took part in organizing V. Lenin’s move from Finland to Sweden.

E. L. Nobel’s son-in-law, the husband of his daughter Martha, military doctor Georgy Pavlovich Oleinikov, also had revolutionary connections. From 1883 to 1887 he studied at St. Petersburg University. G.P. Oleinikov was not only a classmate of A.I. Ulyanov (Lenin’s executed brother), but was also one of his friends. And although he apparently had nothing to do with the case on March 1, 1887, it is significant that three years later he was noticed in contacts with the circle of Karl Kocharovsky. This circle arose in St. Petersburg by the beginning of 1888. He not only began to gather around himself People's Will-minded elements throughout Russia, but also established (through Y. Yudelevsky) contacts with the People's Will emigration.

ABOUT political positions occupied by G.P. Oleinikov is evidenced by the fact that on December 18, 1904, he signed a petition of doctors demanding the convening of a Constituent Assembly, and in 190 he took part in the creation of the Radical Party.

Alexander (Centeri) Nuorteva

The main provisions of her program boiled down to the following: a) the transition from a monarchy to a republican form of government based on general, direct, equal and secret elections; b) the transformation of Russia into a federation of self-governing regions like the United States of America; c) elimination of national, class and religious restrictions; d) separation of church and state; e) providing the population with political freedoms; f) purchase of all privately owned lands; g) gratuitous alienation of state, appanage, cabinet and church lands; h) allotment of land to peasants according to labor standards; i) transition to urban and rural communities all enterprises serving the needs of the local population: water supply, gas and electricity supply, local communications, food and medical supplies warehouses; j) concentration in the hands of the state of those branches of production and enterprises that actually constitute a monopoly of private individuals or institutions, such as: exploitation of communications and the bowels of the earth, sugar production, insurance operations, etc.; k) the introduction of an 8-hour working day, as well as granting workers the right to strike and join trade unions; l) replacement of direct taxes with progressive income and property taxation; m) reform of the army on a police basis.

In December 1905, G.P. Oleinikov was arrested at a meeting of the St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies. It is possible that it was he (“a certain Oleinikov”), together with N.V. Meshkov, who appeared on December 5, 1911 in the report of the head of the St. Petersburg security department as a person involved in the material support of the Bolshevik newspaper “Zvezda”.

Georgy Oleynikov

Muslim socialist Tagiyev

If the Armenian movement received material support from A.I. Mantashev, then the Muslim movement - from Haji Zeynal Abdin Tagiyev. G. Tagiyev was not only an oil industrialist, he was also a member of the Council of the St. Petersburg International Commercial Bank. “Among the Baku pan-Islamists,” reported Mustafa, a secret employee of the Baku security department, on May 30, 1911, “a prominent role is played by attorney Topchibashev, the former editor of the newspaper “Caspian”; he is in great friendship with Haji Zeynal Abdin Tagiyev, who provides extensive material assistance to the pan-Islamists.” .

Having become a sworn attorney, “in Baku, Topchibashev married the daughter of the Social Democrat Hasan-bek Melikov, with whom he was in great friendship.” In 1906, Topchibashev became a deputy of the First State Duma and took part in drawing up the Vyborg Appeal.

According to secret police data dating back to October 1911, oil industrialist Isa-bek Ashurbekov was “in very close relations with Tagiyev”: “Ashurbekov, according to intelligence information from the head of the Baku security post dating back to 1906, was a member of the Muslim social democratic organization “Gummet” “, in the same 1906, he traveled around the Shusha district under the guise of collecting donations in favor of starving Muslims, but in reality he was conducting criminal anti-government agitation. For some time, I.-B. Ashurbekov was a member of the Financial Commission of the Baku Committee of the RSDLP.

Gadzhi Tagiyev with his family

Old Believer Shibaev

Some oil industrialists not only provided financial assistance to the revolutionary movement, but also participated in it themselves. As an example, we can name Gleb Sidorovich Shibaev.

His father Sidor Martynovich came from a peasant Old Believer family in the Bogorodsky district of the Moscow province. In 1865, S.M. Shibaev became a Moscow merchant of the 1st guild, in which he was a member until his death in 1888. Shortly before this, he founded the oil industry company S.M. Shibaev and Co.

The inheritance passed to the children. Having reached twenty years of age, the youngest son Gleb received a million dollar fortune. In 1902 he entered Moscow University, already in his first year he joined the revolutionary movement, was arrested, and in March 1903 he was sent under special police supervision to the Penza province. After serving his sentence, he returned home, but did not break ties with the revolutionary underground. A thread runs from him to the Caucasian squad that fought on the barricades of Moscow in December 1905.

Narodnik Tishchenko

If G.S. Shibaev was a revolutionary entrepreneur, then some revolutionaries themselves made an entrepreneurial career. An example is the former populist Georgy (Yuri) Makarovich Tishchenko (1856-1922), who in 1879 chaired the last Voronezh congress of Land and Freedom, and then became one of the members of the Black Redistribution. In 1887 he settled in the Caucasus, first in Tiflis, then in Baku.

Georgy Tishchenko

Here Yu.M. Tishchenko received a place in the office of the Council of the Congress of Oil Industrialists, became close friends with P.O. Gukasov, and after some time became secretary of the Congress of Oil Industrialists. In 1900, Tishchenko became the manager of the office of the Caspian Oil Industry Partnership; by the beginning of the First World War, he was a member of the management of 22 joint-stock companies and was a co-owner of the P.O. Gukasov and Co. partnership.

In one of the denunciations against Yu.M. Tishchenko we read: “He spent tens of thousands on maintaining the revolutionary newspaper “Comrade”, generously supported the “Union of Unions” and the Council of Workers’ Deputies, he also supported his party with tens of thousands (meaning the Socialist Revolutionary Party ) through his friends Tyutchev, Nathanson and others, there is even reason to think that a terrible assassination attempt on Aptekarsky Island was organized with his money.”

So, it can be stated that some of the most influential oil industrialists were in extreme opposition to the existing government and were ready to support the most radical, including revolutionary, forces in the fight against it.

(via: Alexander Ostrovsky, “Who stood behind Stalin’s back”, 2004, “Tsentrpoligraf”)