Emanuel: Bargain with Giants Then Flee Disguised as a Peasant

“Ludwig’s father before him pioneered development of underwater mines, designed some of the first steam engines to power Russian ships, and installed the first central heating systems to warm Russian homes. Ludwig’s son after him launched the world’s first diesel-driven tugs and tankers while bargaining with the Rothschilds, struggling against Royal Dutch-Shell, and bartering with Standard Oil in Europe’s second Thirty Years War, a petroleum war for control of world markets.”

“Two years later Emanuel was fleeing the country disguised as a peasant, his two brothers were in a Cheka prison, the Nobel empire was a shambles, the ships halted, the refinery fires banked, the hundreds of wells filling with water, the factories in St. Petersburg closed down.”