Other than the Tsar, Emanuel Nobel was likely the wealthiest man in early 20th-century Russia. He and his father, Ludwig, rose from bankruptcy to become the owners of an oil company that rivaled John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil. They imported the best practices from America, and then used their own innovative ideas to improve on them, transforming everything from refining technology to transportation methods. They even invented the oil tanker. And all the while, in an industry famous for exploitation of its workers, they built homes and parks and schools for their employees, earning their enduring affection.

When young Emanuel Nobel took the reins of the company in 1888, he was only 29 years old. Among his first duties was to host Tsar Alexander III and the imperial family, who wanted to see the famous Nobel oil operations firsthand. Emanuel acquitted himself with grace and aplomb, and, as a result, the Tsar offered him Russian citizenship on the spot. With the Tsar's seal of approval, the Nobel fortunes grew exponentially.

Working in a nearby oil field around the same time was a troubled young man from a peasant family in Georgia. Educated to be a priest, his life took a different path when he was exposed to the revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx. In and out of prison in Siberia, charismatic and committed, always at the center of a fight, this young man would become known to the world in just a few years as Joseph Stalin, one of the leaders of the Russian Revolution. After the Tsar, the man Stalin most wanted to destroy was Emanuel Nobel, who represented everything he loathed about capitalism and its imbalance of power. As the world turned upside down, Emanuel found himself in the Bolsheviks' crosshairs and began to plan a life-or-death escape from Russia. But would he make it out in time? And what would happen to the empire his family had built over three generations?

Sweeping across more than a hundred years of history, from the Crimean War to World War I and the Russian Revolution, this utterly compelling book chronicles one of the most influential men in history, whose name has been stricken from memory, and returns him thrillingly to life.

Details

ISBN13: 9781668270820
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 368
Edition: Local Edition
Publication Date: 11 Aug 2026
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication City, Country: New York, United States
Dimensions (cm): 594.4(H)x388.6(L)x2.3(W)358
Weight (gm): 358

Author Biography

Douglas Brunt is the New York Times bestselling author of The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel and The Lost Empire of Emanuel Nobel, and host of the top-rated SiriusXM author podcast Dedicated with Doug Brunt. A Philadelphia native, he lives in Connecticut with his wife and three children. Visit DouglasBrunt.com for more information.

Reviews

“Douglas Brunt tells the extraordinary story of the Nobels—not Alfred of the Nobel Prize but his brother Ludvig and nephew Emanuel, who built one of the world's greatest industrial enterprises of the nineteenth century and a giant oil company that rivaled Rockefeller’s—only to see it all shattered in their fatal collision with Joseph Stalin and the Russian Revolution. A haunting elegy for a very different Russia that might have been.” 
—Daniel Yergin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power and The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations

“Brunt brings Nobel back to life in this excellent story. There is a sense in Brunt's writing that he is having so much fun putting this narrative together. It is infectious.” —Brendan Dowd, History Ners United

“A brilliant epic about Edwardian industry and infamy. Brunt paints a thrilling picture of another overlooked titan. In his hands, Emanuel Nobel’s life at the heart of the Romanov empire reads like a political thriller. I could not put this book down.” —Gareth Russell, author of The Six Loves of James I

“Before Alfred Nobel created his prize, his father was siring the richest family in Czarist Russia. Well-deserved attention to a little-known slice of history.” —Kirkus