Bestselling Historian: The Revolution That Shouldn't Have Happened - Douglas Brunt
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What were the early political reforms in Russia before the revolution?
Russia was slowly moving along more toward a constitutional monarchy. They were implementing liberalizing reforms around free speech, freedom of assembly. They were coming along toward more of a Western form of government. And it all kind of implodes. And so Lenin and the Bolsheviks are nominally in charge of Russia, which has vast natural resources that everybody wants. The war is still on. The Bolshevik revolution still happened during World War I. And so Germany and the Allies are both treating him with kid gloves because they don't want to throw him into the arms of the other. Because of the war and these external events, even though he is barely hanging on to control even domestically, he threads this crazy needle and survives despite everyone
around the world thinking, oh, these Bolsheviks, they're going to hang on for like three weeks. Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, they've never run any kind of organization, let alone this crazy empire. And yet they do it. We almost had a 20th century in which communism doesn't appear in Russia and therefore in China or Korea, Cuba, Vietnam. I mean, there was almost a 20th century with no communism at all.
Welcome to Open Book. I am your host, Anthony Scaramucci. Joining us today, best-selling New York Times author, host of Dedicated, Douglas Brunt. But what a great book. The Lost Empire of Emmanuel Nobel, Romanoff's Revolutionaries, and the Forgotten Titan Who Fueled the World. I learned so much in this book, but it reads, it's just an awesome book because I feel like you have figured out a way to create page turning in history.
How did World War I influence the Bolshevik Revolution?
So we want to talk a little bit about your writing style at some point too. But let's go, I want to go, if you don't mind, I want to go to Rudolph Diesel, who's another towering figure, underappreciated industrial figure. You wrote about him in the last book, which I love, which caused me to buy this book. And so talk about these two figures together, if you don't mind, to get this started. And then we'll get into the book, The Lost Empire of Emmanuel Nobel.
That's a great way to get into it because I only know about Emmanuel Nobel through Rudolph Diesel. So Diesel invented the diesel engine. in 1897, and as you say, a grossly underappreciated figure in the 20th century, and the diesel engine powers everything to this day. And when he introduced the diesel engine in the late 1890s, he would license it out by national territory for the exclusive rights to market and manufacture. The person who took the license for Russia was Emmanuel Nobel. who was the leading industrialist of the Russian Empire under the Tsars. He had a factory in northern Russia by St. Petersburg that was building boilers and steam engines, diesel engines, and munitions for the Tsar's army and navy.
He also, along with his father, had established the Russian petroleum industry in southern Russia by the Caspian Sea in Baku, modern-day Azerbaijan, but then part of the Russian Empire. And it will get, I guess, more into this, but it becomes the largest oil concern in the world, surpassing even standard oil by 1900. So it's funny, my editor and I would joke that one writer's footnote can be another writer's book. And so in this case, one of my own footnotes, which was a sort of tangent piece about Emmanuel Nobel in the Diesel book, then Nobel became my own whole next book.
Well, I mean, the reason I'm bringing him up is I had no idea who he was. And I have to confess to you, I guess I'm a little ignorant because I didn't realize that Diesel was actually named after somebody, you know, like someday I hope we have a Brunt engine or a Scaramucci engine. I mean, think about the impact that this guy had on our lives, but, uh, For many people, though, when they hear the word Nobel, they think of Alfred Nobel and they think of the Nobel Prize. But Emmanuel Nobel was bigger and he had larger scope as a human being. So tell us who he was. But also, why did history, I feel like history has erased him. You've brought him back to life, but he should be a way bigger, in my opinion, after reading your book, he should be a way bigger industrialist and a way bigger part of the Industrial Revolution story.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What were the early political reforms in Russia before the revolution?
0:00–1:28
2
How did World War I influence the Bolshevik Revolution?
1:28–7:31
3
Who was Emmanuel Nobel and why is he significant?
7:31–9:05
4
How did the Bolshevik nationalization affect industry in Russia?
9:05–10:39
5
What innovations did Emmanuel Nobel bring to the oil industry?
10:39–14:29
6
What was the impact of the Russian Revolution on Emmanuel Nobel?
14:29–20:31
7
How does the story of Emmanuel Nobel connect to modern political themes?
20:31–26:17
8
Why is Emmanuel Nobel often overlooked in history?
26:17–29:21
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