Introduction
Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) – scientist, author and pacifist, but above all the inventor of dynamite and holder of 355 patents – shaped as a human being in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Russian capital where different nationalities and cultures mixed and where science and literature developed in a dynamic interaction between Western European tradition and the aspirations of the Russian intelligentsia. Here are the roots of his international prizes – the Nobel Prizes – which made him world-famous after his death in 1896.