The book "Russian Extraction" has been presented in Moscow. It is the first attempt to show readers a big picture of the development of the national oil industry and its contribution to state development. For 150 years oil has been an essential factor for development of the Russian Empire-USSR-Russia. It was binding big money, political interests and the fates of different people. Modernization of the country was based on oil, it pushed science forward, it was an invisible spring of fundamental changes. Maria Slavkina, the author of the book, has been working in the oil industry for over 10 years. She is considered to be one of the leading historians in the oil and gas sector.
"The project started in 2011, but the idea itself had been discussed long before that. In the early 2000s there was Daniel Yergin's book "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power." There were two republications after that, but unfortunately Russian topics have not found reflection there. The oil public was somewhat offended because the USSR, the Russian Empire was one of the leading oil states, why is there nothing or almost nothing about its history? That is when the idea of writing such book appeared, Slavkina said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza.
"The book is also very personal for me because I am from an oil family myself, I mean from oil and gas. My grandfather Semen Isaakovich Ginzburg, who was a source of inspiration, worked in the gas and oil industry with legendary ministers Alexey Kirillovich Kortunov and Valentin Dmitriyevich Shashin. The heroic stories about that time have followed me since childhood. When I entered the history faculty, I saw that there were very few books on the topic, especially historical. That is how the idea of working on the problem appeared," she explained.
In Slavkina's words, "the book covers the period from the early 19th century until today. Conditionally, we tied it to the 150th anniversary of the Russian oil industry. It was a bit hard to write because the problems are not quite historical, it is our modern actual life, but we tried to reflect some common view on the problem."
Oil workers and historians consider the book topical.
"When the book of Yergin appeared, we naturally thought about writing our own book. We thought, consulted and decided to write such a book. I think that the experience was quite a success. The Russian oil industry marks its 150th anniversary this year. It is thought so, although it is wrong, because drilling of the first oil well started in 1964, oil was extracted from it in two years, in 1866," Gennady Shmal, the president of the Union of Oil & Gas Producers, said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza.
"There are a lot of talks about politology today but very few about history. And finally, another work about the history of our country and such glorious pages we can be proud of has been released, not dedicated to politics. Moreover, the book describes Baku oil. During the Second World War, Baku oil, as said by [Hitler's Minister of Armaments and War Production Albert] Speer, became one of the main reasons for the victory of the USSR. The Germans did not have as much oil as the Soviet Union had. Most of it was Baku oil, although we cannot deny the value of Grozny oil. We, Baku natives, can say that Baku oil played a major part in the Victory (it is a Great Victory for me, and the biggest holiday, May 9)," says Ismail Agakishiyev, the head of the MSU Center for Caucasus Studies.
