Oil of Russia

Acknowledgments

The book you see before you is yet another result of my six years’ work supervising a creative team of scientists to realize the plan of the Oil and Gas Section at the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RANS), which was preparing to publish a scientific historical trilogy: The Eve of the Petroleum Era [Predvestiye ery nefti] (2003), Soviet Union’s Oil [Neft strany Sovetov] (2005), and New Russia’s Oil [Neft novoy Rossii] (2007), which was to fill in many gaps in the history of the Russian oil industry.

I would like to express once again my gratitude to all the colleagues and collaborators who participated in this project and thereby made a substantial contribution to reconstructing an objective picture of the events of our distant and recent past in this key branch of the Russian economy.

I am especially grateful to Professor Aleksandr Vasilenko, Doctor of Political Science and Academician of the RANS, for his active assistance in the work on this book, which contributed many productive and mature thoughts and ideas.

I am also very thankful to Alexander Matveychuk, Candidate of History and Academician of the RANS, for his valuable advice and recommendations, which proved very constructive in the writing of this book.

I also express my deep gratitude to the following people for their assistance and great help: Professor Gadel Vakhitov, Academician of the RANS and Doctor of Engineering; Professor Aleksey Salomatin, Doctor of History; Boris Shpotov, Doctor of History; Irina Dyakonova, Doctor of History; Yury Zhukov, Doctor of History; Professor Yury Yershov, Doctor of Economics; Professor Vladimir Kostornichenko, Doctor of Economics; Professor Aleksandr Bessolitsyn, Doctor of Economics, Professor Lenfrid Borozinets, Candidate of History; Sergey Dëgtev, Candidate of History; Olga Romanovskaya, Candidate of Engineering; and Mikhail Subbotin, Candidate of Economics.

I would also like to pay due respect in memory of the following project participants, who passed away prematurely in the last three years: Professor Igor Fuks, Academician of the RANS and Doctor of Engineering; Professor Aleksandr Igolkin, Corresponding Member of the RANS and Doctor of History; Professor Vladislav Kashchavtsev, Doctor of Engineering; and historian Valery Osinov.