The Nobels in Russia: How a Family of Swedish Inventors Built an Industrial Empire

The short Swedish surname Nobel is associated in both Sweden and Russia with Alfred Nobel—the Swedish chemist, engineer, and founder of the Nobel Prize. However, the story of his family—long, fascinating, and endlessly connected with Russia—should also be tied to his father, brothers, and other members of the family. All of them were brilliant inventors and talented entrepreneurs: his father Immanuel ran a factory that supplied the Russian Navy with steam engines and underwater mines; Ludwig turned his father’s business into one of Russia’s most successful engineering plants, which also supplied diesel engines to the Russian market; and Robert laid the foundation for the oil company “Branobel.” Bengt Jangfeldt, a well-known Swedish Russist, writer, scholar, and translator, describes the exceptional success story of the Nobel family in Russia using archival materials previously not used. “Nobels in Russia” is the first scholarly work about the Nobel family—small, but a real masterpiece—that reveals the very nature of this remarkable family’s genius, their ingenuity, and incredible business drive.