While most of the advances in early organic chemistry were taking place in Germany and France, the Russians were also making considerable progress in both theoretical and experimental organic chemistry.  The science, as practiced in Germany and France, was brought to Russia by the extremely influential Russian chemist Aleksandr Butlerov, who returned to the University of Kazan in Russia with dreams of establishing a competitive and modern system of chemical education and research.  Among Butlerov’s more famous students was the highly capable Vladimir Markovnikov (1838-1904). Markovnikov made a major contribution to the science through his work on electrophilic addition reactions.  He observed that the major product of such reactions was most often the one in which the hydrogen atom added to the carbon atom already bearing the most hydrogens.  Today, this is known as “Markovnikov’s Rule” and it is routinely included in all undergraduate organic chemistry classes. 

 

Justly famous for this and other chemical breakthroughs, Markovnikov had hoped to succeed the aging Butlerov as head of the department at Kazan, but his revolutionary politics and irascible nature alienated him from the fairly conservative rectors of the university.  Instead, they chose his hated rival, Aleksandr Zaitsev (1841-1910), for the position.  The younger Zaitsev shared a conservative outlook with the rectors and was also responsible for a useful rule of his own for predicting the outcome of certain reactions.  “Zaitsev’s Rule” helps to predict the major products of so-called elimination reactions.  His observation that the more substituted alkene product tends to be the major product of such reactions is also learned by most sophomore organic chemistry students.