Image courtesy Tim Ereneta
The Nobel’s were an impoverished Swedish family living in Stockholm, of the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway. Immanuel, the father, made a living as an engineer helping to make weapons. He brought his inventions to Russia to sell to the government and the family ended up staying there for around 20 years. Immanuel and his wife had 8 children, but only 3 boys survived past childhood. Robert, Ludvig, and Alfred each developed their own interest in engineering.
Robert and Ludvig helped run their father’s factories, which produced armaments for the Russians in the Crimean War, a war in which the French, British, Ottomans, and Sardinians sought to limit Russian expansion in the Ottoman region. The war was also a religious one between those supporting rights of French Catholic or Russian Orthodox groups in the Holy Land. Needless to say, the Nobel’s were war profiteers from unjustified fighting with many million casualties. Their hands were dirtied, but no longer from the dust of an impoverished life.
When the war ended, profits decreased. Immanuel and his wife and Alfred returned to Sweden, where Alfred studied and became particularly interested in explosives. Robert and Ludvig, who Immanuel had left the armaments company to, stayed in Russia.
They converted the factory into a distillery, and then later founded a petroleum company – Branobel. It operated primarily in Baku, Azerbaijan and with a minor presence in Turkmenistan. Oil country. It became not only one of the largest oil companies in the world, but one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies. At one point, Branobel produced 50% of the world’s oil. The family became titans of industry in the 1800’s, and Ludvig was one of the era’s richest men.
While his brothers were making a fortune in Azerbaijan and driving the industrial revolution, Alfred became a world-renowned scientist. He had 355 international patents, including one for dynamite. He invested in his brothers venture and so became extraordinarily wealthy.
Unfortunately, the Nobel’s were about to experience the dirtiness of oil. Ludvig is credited with creating the Russian oil industry, which provided great wealth to one of history’s worst regimes. While the Russian people were sick of the Tsar and their current form of government, the ensuing Bolshevik Revolution, or Red October, was more of a ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’ type of transition. The idealist communist rule was anything but ideal. Lenin and the Bolshevik’s seized the assets of the elites and took absolute power with their ideology. In an instant, Ludvig’s empire and influence were engulfed by the Bolsheviks. It helped them execute their agenda for years. Lenin is responsible for the death of millions, while his successor, Stalin, is responsible for killing over 20 million of his own people alone. Furthermore, many of the uglier aspects of today’s Russia originate from this period.
In the Crimean war, many were killed with armaments from a Nobel-built factory. During and after the Bolshevik Revolution, many were killed with money and power provided from a Nobel-built oil empire. And, uncountable numbers more have died from weapons engineered from Alfred’s 90+ armaments factories and hundreds of inventions. Most people would have thought the Nobel’s success was wrapped up in dirty money.
Ironically, Alfred was actually a pacifist who just happened to have a scientific passion for explosives. When his brother died, a French newspaper confused Ludvig’s death with it being Alfred’s own death and they titled the story “The Merchant of Death is Dead”. It shook Alfred to his core. He was appalled at his reputation. It is the likely reason he wrote a will that would rewrite his and much of his family’s legacy. He left his fortune to create an award with 5 categories (a 6th was later added) with the objective of promoting global peace. Today, we know the award and Alfred’s family by the world’s most highly-esteemed recognition, the Nobel Prize.