Oil of Russia

Notes

CHAPTER ONE: The Russian Empire’s “Black Gold”

1. Genesis 11:3 (New International Version). For a comparison of English translations of this verse, see http://bible.cc/genesis/11–3.htm.—Trans.

2. Knowledge. January 18, 1884, p. 35.

3. White petroleum is created by natural filtration and refinement of crude oil as it seeps to the surface through a unique combination of rock and soil.—Ed.

4. Unless otherwise specified, all measurements throughout the text given in tons have been converted from metric tons to US short tons (1 ton=2,000 pounds).—Ed.

5. Azerbaijan International. Autumn 1998, 6.3, pp. 81–84.

6. Olearius, Adam. The Voyages and Travels of the Ambassadors Sent by Frederick Duke of Holstein, to the Great Duke of Muscovy, and the King of Persia... Containing a Complete History of Muscovy, Tartary, Persia. And other adjacent Countries... Whereto are added the Travels of John Albert de Mandelslo (a Gentleman belonging to the Embassy) from Persia, into the East-Indies... Translated from Dutch into English by John Davies. London: Thomas Dring and John Starkey, 1662.

7. Amoenitatum Exoticarum. Lemgo, 1712.

8. Today this word means “leukoma,” but at the time of the quotation it probably meant “cataracts.”—Trans.

9. Nikolaev, I. Irkutsk. Materials on the History of the 17th–18th Centuries [Irkutsk. Materialy po istorii goroda XVII-XVIII stoletiy]. Moscow, 1983.

10. At this stage in history, the verst equaled 0.93 miles; later in Peter the Great’s time, it took on the more familiar value of 0.66 miles.—Trans.

11. The vedro was properly a measure of volume, equaling approximately 3.254 gallons. The author’s conversion to kilograms implies a specific gravity of 0.82.—Trans.

12. The German term Berg Collegium was retained in Russian.—Trans.

13. Matveychuk, Alexander. “Peter the Great’s Plans for Russian Oil.” Oil of Russia, No. 3, 2010.

14. Ibid.

15. Under the tax-farming system, the government paid a private individual or entity a flat fee in exchange for granting it the right to collect taxes within an area.—Trans.

16. This campaign is known in the West as the Russo-Persian War.—Trans.

17. Matveychuk, Alexander. “Peter the Great’s Plans for Russian Oil.” Oil of Russia, No. 3, 2010.

18. The Baku Oil and Local Communities, ed. Leila Alieva. Baku, Qanun, 2009; see also Documents on the History of Baku: 1810–1917 [Dokumenty po istorii Baku. 1810–1917]. Azerbaijan State Publishing House, Baku, 1978. pp. 11–12.

19. Russian State Historical Archives. Fund 271, File 1801.

20. Ibid.

21. Reports of the Caucasian Archeographic Commission. Vol. II. Tiflis, 1868.

22. Galagan, A. A. “From the History of the Taxation of the Russian Oil Industry in the Second Half of the 19th Century and Early [in] the 20th Century” The Eve of the Petroleum Era: Topics in the History of the Oil Industry in Russia and the US from the Second Half of the 19th Century to the Early 20th Century [Predvestiye ery nefti: problemy istorii neftyanoy promyshlennosti Rossii i SShA vo vtoroy polovine XIX – nachale XX vv.]. Moscow, 2003, p. 83; see also Historical Sketch of the Development of the Mining Business in the Caucasus [Istoricheskiy ocherk razvitiya gornogo dela v Kavkaze]. p. 112.

23. Acts Collected by the Caucasus Archaeographic Commission [Akty, sobrannyye Kavkazskoy Arkheograficheskoy Kommissii]. Tiflis, 1887. Vol. IX, Doc. 548.

24. Mendeleyev, Dmitry. Works [Sochineniya]. Moscow, 1949. Vol. X, p. 63.

25. Mendeleyev, op. cit., pp. 253 and 803.

26. Ibid.

27. Mendeleyev, op. cit., p. 830.

28. On the Exhibit of Manufactured Articles in Moscow in 1865 [O vystavke manufakturnykh prozvedeniy v Moskve v 1865 g.]. St. Petersburg, 1867. p. 151.

29. Krasnodar Territory State Archive. F. 318, D. 780, L. 48.

30. Russia did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until February 14, 1918, so dates in the late 19th and early 20th century are often cited as “Old Style” (following the Julian calendar) or “New Style” (Gregorian) or both. Where two dates are given without mention of style, the later (parenthesized) one is the modern (Gregorian) date.—Trans.

31. The State Archives of the Krasnodar Territory. Fund 350, File 264.

32. Gorny Zhurnal [“Mining Journal”]. No. 12, 1870, p. 132.

33. The Russian State Historical Archives. Fund 37, File 67.

34. The Russian State Military Historical Archives. Fund 45, File 212.

35. Russians normally use a so-called “patronymic,” a middle name based on the father’s name.—Trans.

36. In memory of Aleksey Semënovich Doroshenko. Baku, 1894.

37. The Russian State Historical Archives. Fund 1458, File 1725.

38. Burlaks were men who hauled riverboats upstream by pulling them with a rope.—Trans.

39. Zapiski Imperatorskogo russkogo tekhnicheskogo obshchestva [“Notes of the Imperial Russian Technical Society”]. No. 4, 1876, p. 148.

40. Yefimov, Alexander. “Russian Oil in the Eyes of a Briton.” Oil of Russia, No. 3, 2005.

41. Ibid.

42. Ibid.

43. Ibid.

44. Ibid.

45. Ibid.

46. Ibid.

47. Ibid.

48. Indisova, Ksenia. “The First Oil Exhibition.” Oil of Russia, No. 1, 2008.

49. Ibid.

50. Alexeyev, Vadim. “Prologue to the Gasoline Era.” Oil of Russia, No. 2, 2006.

51. Ibid.

52. Matveychuk, Alexander. “Paris Oil Gambit.” Oil of Russia, No. 3, 2005.

53. The Russian State Historical Archives. Fund 1458, File 1725.

54. In the early 20th century, softa-mullah was the term used for dropout students of Islamic religious schools from southern Persia, which was under strong British influence.—Ed.

55. Perschke, Stanislav and Ludwig. The Russian Oil Industry: Its Development and Current Status in Statistical Data [Russkaya neftyana promyshlennost, yeyo razvitiye i sovremennoye polozheniye v statisticheskikh dannykh]. Tiflis, 1913.

56. This expression refers to Nikolay Gogol’s famous novel by the same name, in which landowners inflated the value of their wealth by listing on their property registers the names of serfs who were actually deceased.—Ed.

CHAPTER TWO: Oil in the Land of the Soviets

1. Novaya zhizn [“New Life”], No. 6 (220), January 9, 1918; see also Maxim Gorky: Untimely Thoughts. Essays on Revolution, Culture and the Bolsheviks, ed. Ermolaev. Yale University Press, 1995, p. 125.

2. Lenin, V. I. Complete Collected Works [Polnoye sobraniye sochineniy]. Moscow, 1969. Vol. 31, p. 357.

3. Lenin, op. cit., 1961, Vol. 34, p. 169.

4. Kondratyev, N. D. The Grain Market [Rynok khlebov]. Moscow, 1922, p. 124.

5. Lenin, op. cit., 1965, Vol. 50, p. 291.

6. Lenin, op. cit., 1962, Vol. 39, p. 306.

7. Stalin, I. V. Works [Sochineniya]. Moscow, 1951. Vol. 4, p. 408.

8. See Pravda [“Truth”], No. 3, January 12–17, 1918. p. 1; and Stalin, op. cit., Vol. 4, p. 87.

9. Lenin, op. cit., 1962, Vol. 35, p. 268.

10. Izvestia Bakinskogo Soveta rabochikh, soldatskikh i matrosskikh deputatov [“News of the Baku Soviet of Workers’, Soldiers’, and Sailors’ Deputies]. No. 100, May 28, 1918, p. 1.

11. Lenin, op. cit., 1965, Vol. 50, p. 90.

12. Krasny arkhiv [“Red Archives”]. No. 4–5, 1938, p. 20.

13. History of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan [Istoriya Kommunistickeskoy partii Azerbaidzhana]. Baku, 1958, p. 295.

14. Stalin, op. cit., Vol. 4, p. 127.

15. Turkish and Azerbaijani are closely related, like English and Dutch, but different enough to be considered separate languages.—Trans.

16. Kommunistichesky internatsional [“The Communist International”]. No. 19, 1921, p. 5009.

17. History of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan [Istoriya Kommunistickeskoy partii Azerbaidzhana]. Baku, 1958, p. 397.

18. History of the Communist Party of the USSR [Istoriya Kommunistickeskoy partii SSSR]. Moscow, 1968, Vol. 3, p. 520.

19. Lenin, op. cit., 1965 Vol. 51, p. 175.

20. Lenin, op. cit., 1963, Vol. 41, p. 106.

21. Lenin, op. cit., 1963, Vol. 41, p. 119.

22. Russian State Economics Archive. Fund 413, File 251.

23. Lenin, op. cit., 1963, Vol. 42, p. 47.

24. Kommunisticheskaya Partiya Sovetskogo Soyuza v rezolyutsiyakh i resheniyakh sezdov, konferentsii i plenumov TsK [The Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Resolutions and Decisions of Congresses, Conferences, and Plenary Sessions of the Central Committee]. Moscow, 1970, Vol. 2, p. 285.

25. Lenin, op. cit., 1963, Vol. 44, p. 255.

26. Russian State Archives of Social and Political History. Fund 17, File 111.

27. Proceedings of the Tenth Congress of the RCP(b). Moscow, 1933, p. 34.

28. Ibid., p. 568.

29. Leninsky Sbornik [Lenin Miscellany]. Moscow, Vol. XL, p. 151–152.

30. Foreign Policy Documents of the USSR [Dokumenty vneshney politiki SSSR]. Moscow, 1960. Vol. 4, p. 433.

31. Russian State Archives of Social and Political History. Fund 17, File 1225.

32. Ibid., File 232.

33. Ibid., File 225.

34. See Izvestia [“News”], May 25, 1922, p. 2.

35. The International Association of Oil Companies in Russia was created in September 1922 at a conference in Paris. Among the participants were 18 oil companies, including: Royal Dutch Shell, Standard Oil Company, Nobel Brothers Petroleum Production Partnership, the Franco-Belgian A. I. Mantashev & Co. Petroleum Industry and Trading Company, and G. M. Lianozov Sons Petroleum Production Partnership. The association was the main proponent of the oil embargo of Soviet Russia.—Ed.

36. Shpotov, B. M. “Problems of the Modernization of the Oil Industry in the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s,” Soviet Union’s Oil: Topics in the History of the USSR’s Oil Industry (1917–1991) [Neft strany Sovetov: problemy istorii neftyanoy promyshlennosti SSSR (1917–1991)]. Moscow, 2005, pp. 223–224; see also Serebrovsky, A. P. The Oil and Gas Industry in America [Neftyanaya i gazovaya promyshlennost v Amerike]. Moscow, 1925, pp. 329–330.

37. Igolkin, A. A. “Early Lessons of Mutually Beneficial Cooperation.” Oil of Russia, No. 3, 2004.

38. Serebrovsky, op. cit., pp. 382–285.

39. Lomov, G. I. In Pursuit of Oil [V pogone za neftyu]. Moscow-Leningrad, 1925, p. 21.

40. From 1905 to 1945, Japan controlled the portion of the island south of 50°N.—Trans.

41. Strizhov, I. N. American Refineries [Amerikanskiye nefteperegonnyye zavody]. Leningrad, 1929.

42. Russian State Economics Archive. Fund 3429, File 5162.

43. Stalin, op. cit., Vol. 12, p. 371.

44. State Industrial Archive of Perm Oblast [GOPAPO]. F. 591, Op. 1, D. 136, L. 71–72.

45. Abaturova, O. A. The First of the Great Ural Oil [Pervenets bolshoy uralskoy nefti]. Krasnokamsk, 2003, p. 9.

46. State Industrial Archive of Perm Oblast [GOPAPO]. F. 4381, Op. 1, D. 1, L. 17.

47. Russian State Economics Archive. F. 4372, Op. 28, D. 196, L. 59.

48. Since this was a war of survival for the Russians, who lost over 20 million people, they customarily refer to their one-on-one conflict with Germany as the “Great Patriotic War.” The term “World War II” would refer more broadly to the conflict among many nations.—Trans.

49. “Akten zur Deutschen Auswärtigen Politik 1918–1945,” Series C, Band V:2. Göttingen, 1977, document No 490, pp. 793–801.

50. Stalin, I. V. Speeches at Voters’ Pre-Election Meetings in the Moscow Stalin Election District [Rechi na predvybornykh sobraniyakh izbirateley Stalinskogo izbiratelnogo okruga g. Moskvy]. Moscow, 1947.

51. See Mark Frankland, Khrushchev. New York, 1967.

52. Oil and Gas of Tyumen in Documents. Sverdlovsk, 1971, Vol. 1, p. 190.

53. Ibid., p. 191.

54. Ibid., p. 192.

55. Ibid., p. 253.

56. Now called the Ivan M. Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas.—Trans.

57. The Stakhanov movement refers to a widespread movement in the prewar period that encouraged workers, farmers, engineers and others to regularly exceed the established norms of production. The movement was inspired by the exploits of Alexey Stakhanov, a miner at the Central-Irmino coal mine in the Donbass, who on August 30–31, 1935 mined 102 tons of coal in a single shift (five hours, 45 minutes)—more than 14 times his quota. Workers from other sectors of the economy soon followed his initiative and on November 14–17, 1935 the first All-Union Stakhanovite Conference was held in Moscow. The Communist Party emphasized the important role of the Stakhanov movement in socialist construction and awarded substantial monetary prizes to those workers who significantly increased productivity.—Ed.

58. Shatalin, S. An Interrupted Dialog [Prervanny dialog]. Tver, 1998.

CHAPTER THREE: The New Russia’s Oil

1. Weekly Report of the German Institute for Economic Research [Deutsche Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung]. No. 49, 2007. p. 746.

2. Ibid, p. 748.

3. Ibid.

4. The Russian system of classification for reserves varies from those used throughout most of the world. Whereas estimates of reserves generally take into account both geological and economic factors, the Russian system is based solely on geological attributes as defined by varying degrees of geophysical and geochemical exploration and analysis.—Ed.

5. In 2007, Dmitry Medvedev was chairman of the board of Gazprom and a nominee to succeed Putin as president—Trans.

6. See Yamanaka, Megumi. “Nippon Oil Buys Crude From Sakhalin-1 Under Long Term Contract.” Bloomberg Online, February 18, 2008.

7. See Halliburton press release, dateline Houston, November 1, 2007. http://www.halliburton.com/public/news/pubsdata/press_release/2007/corpnws_110107.html

8. Nm³: normal cubic meters measured at the Russian standard temperature and pressure of 0°C and 1 atm. One Nm³ = 37.24 SCF at 60°F and 1 atm.—Trans.

9. See “Russia signs deal to bring natural gas pipeline through Bulgaria.” The New York Times, January 18, 2008.

10. Originally ÖMV for Österreichische Mineralölverwaltung [“Austrian Mineral Oil Authority”].—Trans.

11. See “Nabucco trans-Caspian gas pipe project unrealistic - EU official.” RIA Novosti, October 29, 2007.

12. See “Turkish minister vows to implement gas project bypassing Russia.” RIA Novosti, May 29, 2007.

13. See McDonald, Joe. “UN Report: Asia Faces Jump in Food Costs.” AP news feed, March 27, 2008.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid.

16. See also David Pimentel and Tad Patzek “Green Plants, Fossil Fuels, and New Biofuels.” American Institute of Biological Sciences, Online Publications, November 2006. URL: http://www.aibs.org/bioscience-editorials/editorial_2006_11.html

PROFILES OF KEY HISTORICAL FIGURES

1. Now called the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy.—Trans.

2. Now called the Nikolay E. Bauman Moscow State Technical University.—Trans.

3. Now called the Ivan M. Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas.—Trans.

4. Now called the Dmitry I. Mendeleyev Russian University of Chemical Engineering.—Trans.