Since the discovery of oil deposits, Baku became a special place where various economic and political interests of international coalitions, industrial clans and leaders of countries concentrated and clashed. VK begins the publication of chapters of the book by Ismail Agakishiyev, “A History of the Baku Oil Industry and the Second Oil Boom (second half of the XIXth – the early XXIst century).” The book presents an historical analysis of the appearance and modern conditions of the Azerbaijani oil industry.
A special place in the history of the research of oil industry is reserved for the works of A. Matveychuk. An historian and engineer himself, he wrote a book ‘The First Oil Industry Engineers in Russia”. In this work the author describes all the achievements of Russian specialists and demonstrates the ingenious discoveries of Russian engineer-members of the Baku department of the Imperial Russian Technical Society. Matveychuk carefully studied the main source on the Society’s activities – the organization’s bulletin – and his research led him to conclude that there was a direct line of continuity between several generations of oil industry engineers. These specialists managed to create a public organization that served as a workshop for exchange of ideas and introduction of new technologies to the oil industry. Matveychuk approaches the industrial revolution in Russian oil industry from a completely fresh angle. This revolution granted Baku’s oil industry first place in the world at the end of the 19th century.
Among recent works (from 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century) special attention should be granted to those of A. Igolkin. His book ‘The Russian Oil Industry in 1917-1920’ that was published in 1999 focuses on the problems that the Russian oil industry was facing by the time of the February Revolution. The author also analyses political and economic factors that influenced the industry in the years of the Civil War and in the period of ‘military communism’. In my opinion the most original statement of Igolkin’s work is that about the arson of Baku oil tankers by Persian workers at the request of British oil entrepreneurs. Despite all the interest this original conclusion naturally draws, there is actually no solid evidence to back this theory.
Soviet scholars, who based their research on solid archive data, had already come to the conclusion that all the workers who came from Iran were called ‘Persians’, even though the majority of them were of Turkish-Azeri origin and came from Southern Azerbaijan (which is still a part of Iran). Local residents in Baku perceived them as ‘brothers’ and ‘fellow-countrymen’, so it is hard to believe that these workers could be the incendiaries, as by setting the oil tankers on fire they would have deprived themselves of their only source of income.
Another interesting study is ‘For the Glory of Russian Oil’, published in 2006. It is a publication of ‘The role of private enterprise in the development of Russian oil industry in the second half of the 19th century’ conference materials. Another noteworthy work is a book written by various authors under the general editorship of V. Alekperov, published in 2005. The preface to this edition states the fact that all works that treat the issue of the oil industry in the Soviet Union have experienced a considerable ideological influence. So this publication is positioned as an attempt to shed light on some aspects of the Soviet oil industry without any ideological implication. Certain issues treated in this publication are very controversial and demand further study – and the authors themselves admit that.
The Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas has rightfully earned a special position among Russian establishments of higher education treating oil industry-related issues. There is a tradition of regular conferences ‘Urgent problems of the Russian oil industry's development’ under the aegis of this University. The conference has a section of history of Russian oil industry. The conference regularly publishes its materials. Among these publications I would like to attribute special attention to the paper by A. Matveychuk and I. Fux ‘Illustrated essays on the history of the Russian oil industry’ published in 2002. The first part of this paper is dedicated to the the origins of the oil industry on Absheron, in the North Caucasus and in the Pechersk district. The second part treats the development of oil processing in the Volga-Kamsk region, Siberia and in the Far East till 1917. The original value of the paper is due to the extensive use of illustrative materials – archival documents, old postcards, papers, photos, etc.
All these works point to a single fact – before 1917 the only major oil-processing site in Russia was the Absheron peninsula. All other enterprises were only in the early stages of their development, and the population used products based mainly on Baku oil.
To be continued
