The Nobel brothers built Russia's largest oil company in Baku; Ludvig's son fled the Bolsheviks disguised as a peasant and sold half the shares to Standard Oil

In 1879 Ludvig, Robert and Alfred Nobel and partners formed Branobel with 3 million roubles of capital. Ludvig died in Cannes in 1888, and his son Emanuel took charge. Emanuel was a Russian citizen. In 1898 he bought Alfred's shares, equal to 12 percent of the Nobel Foundation's capital. In 1902 Branobel produced 10 percent of the world's oil. By 1916 it produced a third of Russia's crude, paid a 40 percent dividend and supplied two thirds of Russian demand. In June 1918 the Soviet government nationalised private industry. Emanuel was at a spa in the North Caucasus. He and his family travelled by horse and cart for seven weeks disguised as peasants and reached Berlin on 26 November 1918. The company was run from Paris and then Stockholm. On 28 April 1920 the Red Army took Baku. On 30 July 1920, in New York, Standard Oil signed the final contract to buy half of Branobel's shares, in a company whose Russian assets the Bolsheviks held. A Swedish commission tried in vain in 1922 and 1923 to get compensation from the Soviet government. Emanuel died in 1932. French bondholders sued in 1934, and liquidation began in 1936. The last shareholders' meeting was held on 24 March 1970, 50 years after the nationalisation.