The production and export of crude oil and oil products has been fundamental to the economies of Russia and the Soviet Union since their first development in Baku in the mid-nineteenth century. Oil has provided energy to power the domestic economy, revenues to fund the budget and a source of power and influence for those with the ability to manage the distribution of the abundant cash flows. Equally, the fluctuations in the fortunes of the oil sector have often been the catalysts for increased political and economic turbulence, meaning that management and control of the industry have been vital considerations for the leaders of Russia and the Soviet republics. Never was this more true than during the 1920s when the long-term success of the Bolshevik revolution depended on oil revenues to sustain the emerging Soviet empire through the early years of economic chaos. That these oil revenues were being largely generated not within Russia but in Azerbaijan, an independent state yet to fully commit itself to the Soviet cause, added to the political as well as the economic drama.

It is this world, and this political and economic turmoil, which Sara Brinegar analyzes and brings to life in her fascinating book, which takes the reader through a history of the oil industry in the South Caucasus in the 1920s through the eyes of many of the key players in the region and in Moscow at the time. The actions, debates, and decisions of characters such as Nariman Narimanov, Sergo Orjonikidze, Aleksandr Serebrovskii and many others are described in such detail that the reader can almost imagine being in the rooms where the discussions were taking place. This is all the more remarkable because so many of the characters subsequently became victims of the Stalin purges and attempts were made to erase their activities from history. Nevertheless, the author has managed to vividly describe them using archive material that demonstrates evidence of her many years of rigorous research.

While the book covers the key elements of the politics of the time, and in particular the swirling debate inside Azerbaijan about how to best exploit its mineral wealth and use it as a bargaining tool in the ultimate decision to unify with Russia, it also looks in detail at the specific problems being faced by the country’s oil industry and how they were addressed. Following nationalization of the industry, Soviet oil products were boycotted by the international community, but eventually foreign expertise was brought in via various deals and agreements that allowed production to grow at a rapid rate in the mid-1920s. However, as so often with the oil industry, debates emerged about whether foreigners should be involved, how oil revenues should be distributed and even whether the export market should be prioritized over domestic consumers, and with the rise of Iosif Stalin the Soviet Union took a more isolationist stance via a centralized command economy. As Brinegar describes, this not only led to a deterioration in oil industry fundamentals but also meant that any aspirations that Azerbaijan had for independent control over revenues for local uses were thwarted. The return of Stalin’s allies to senior positions in the South Caucasus marked the end of any thoughts that Azerbaijan’s oil industry might have an independent future as it was subsumed into the giant Soviet machine.

Overall, Brinegar captures the fluctuating fortunes of the oil industry and its main characters in the South Caucasus with an often intimate presentation of individual events and stories. The attempts by the Bolsheviks to establish a presence in northern Iran is a typical example of the somewhat chaotic attempts that were made to expand communist influence in the early years of the revolution, and there are numerous other examples in the book that are related with a similar combination of detail and description which make for a fascinating and enjoyable read. I would thoroughly recommend the book to anyone with an interest in the early history of the oil industry and/or the early years of the Soviet Union and the vital role that the oil industry played in its economic and political development.