The first monument in Russia dedicated to the industrialist, public figure, and philanthropist Ludwig Nobel was unveiled in Rybinsk on July 26. The monument was created by the Moscow sculptor Yaroslav Borodin. The sculptural composition installed in Rybinsk features a bronze bust of Ludwig Nobel on a column and two granite steles resembling the leaves of opening gates, adorned with bronze bas-reliefs of Ludwig Nobel’s main inventions — diesel engines, tankers, and oil rigs.
Ludwig Nobel never visited Rybinsk. But the monument’s appearance here is no coincidence. Most of the Nobel empire’s activities took place in Rybinsk. The Nobel brothers’ oil refinery and the largest oil base on the Upper Volga were located in Rybinsk.
He was, as we would call him today, an advanced manager. He sought to increase labor productivity at his factory by enhancing workers’ personal interest, creating improved material and living conditions for them. He educated himself and taught others, nurturing his own working aristocracy.
Striving to embody his motto “High quality, greater quantity, low price” and strictly following his economic strategy, Ludwig did not always find understanding among competitors. Distrust and routine too often surrounded him when he tried to introduce new social and economic measures into production. Everything the Nobels tried to bring into Russian entrepreneurship could be described by the modern term “social partnership.”
Linking the interests of workers with those of the enterprise, making rewards for labor directly dependent on the success of the common cause, and introducing traditions of mutual assistance within the framework of joint production — these were the main theses of a new business culture that the Nobel family consistently implemented and practiced in their business life.
This was an attempt to realize a certain ideal — to create an association of capital with labor, social peace, and partnership between the employer on one side and the worker represented by public organizations on the other.
Putting capital first, Ludwig Nobel acknowledged that its owner should not enjoy all the benefits of the enterprise; part of the dividends should be given to the workers, since the final success depends on their energy and honesty. Only then does the enterprise become an association of people united by the pursuit of a single goal.
Speaking about production development, Ludwig Nobel warned: “...do not think that an industrial enterprise can be regarded as a stone house, after the construction of which it remains only to populate it with carefree tenants and collect rent from them. An industrial enterprise is connected with struggle, in which success depends on foresight, persistence, diligence, and thrift...”
He was fluent in five languages: Swedish, Russian, English, French, and German. In 1886, Ludwig Nobel became the initiator and founder of the Russian Technical Society, the initiator of introducing the metric system of measures in Russia, for which he allocated the necessary funds. He donated money for research to the Academy of Sciences and the Russian Technical Society, financed a school for railway masters and a school for workers.
Ludwig Nobel died in March 1888. At his funeral in St. Petersburg, not only members of this great family gathered but also world-famous politicians, industrialists, cultural figures, as well as workers and employees who had worked with him for many years.
Among the farewell words, the most frequent were: “culture, nobility, high morality”...
Everyone knows about the prestigious international Nobel Prize established by Alfred Nobel according to his will. But few know that seven years earlier, a Nobel Prize was also established in Russia — the Ludwig Nobel Prize, named after Alfred’s older brother.
The Ludwig Nobel Prize was established in St. Petersburg in 1888 after his death by the “Nobel Brothers Partnership.” At a meeting of the Technical Society council in 1889, in the building at 2 Panteleimonovskaya Street, the shareholders of the “Nobel Brothers Partnership” announced for the first time the establishment of the Nobel Prize in Russia in memory of Ludwig Nobel.
The Partnership transferred 15,000 rubles to the Russian Technical Society so that once every three years, from the interest on this sum, the RTS would award a gold medal and prize for the best works on metallurgy, the oil industry, and improvements in the technology of these industries, taking into account their greatest practical application to the development of Russian industry.
Thus, the Nobel Prize, the prize in memory of Ludwig Nobel, was born in St. Petersburg. The commission included the famous Russian chemist and progressive public figure Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev and the future member of the Petrograd Academy of Sciences, organizer of domestic production Nikolay Semyonovich Kurnakov. Later, the prizes were awarded to Vsevolod Baskakov in 1898 and Alexander Nikiforov in 1905.
Since 1917, the prize fell into historical oblivion. But in 2006, it was revived by the Russian Ludwig Nobel Foundation, established in 2005 in St. Petersburg. Since that year, the Russian Ludwig Nobel Prize has been awarded to prominent contemporary figures for outstanding professional achievements and unconditional merits to humanity.
And on the alley in front of the monument, plaques with the names of all the laureates of the Ludwig Nobel Prize are displayed.
Sources:
https://rybinsk-once.ru/lyudvig-nobel-i-rybinsk/
https://ludvignobel.ru/
