Vorozhtsov, Nikolai Nikolaevich

Born Apr. 16 (28), 1881, in Irkutsk; died Aug. 9, 1941, in Moscow. Soviet organic chemist; one of the organizers of the aniline-dye industry.

Vorozhtsov graduated from the Kharkov Technological Institute in 1904 and taught in a number of institutions of higher education beginning in that year. In 1916 he became the head of the first industrial dye laboratory, Russko-kraska (later the Institute of Organic Semifinished Articles and Dyes). In 1924 he became the head of a subdepartment at the D. I. Mendeleev Moscow Chemical-Engineering Institute. Vorozhtsov was the founder of a large school of chemists working on dye substances. He was for a number of years the organizer and editor of the journal Khimicheskaia promyshlennost’ (Chemical Industry). He began his scientific work while still a student in the laboratory of Professor A. P. Lidov. In 1912 he synthesized the first thioindigo dyes of the naphthalene series; he did research on the structure of hydrogen sulfite compounds of naphthols, their derivatives, and azo dyes and established the applicability of the hydrogen sulfite reaction to quinoline derivatives. A number of his works were devoted to the chemistry of naphthalene derivatives—in particular the dependence on structure of the ability of azo dyes of the naphthalene series to dye cotton-textile fibers—and to chlorination and alkaline fusion reactions. He was the author of the monograph Foundations of the Synthesis of Intermediate Products and Dyes (published posthumously in 1950 and 1955; prepared for publication by his son, N. N. Vorozhtsov), which has been translated into German (1966) and other languages. He was awarded the State Prize of the USSR posthumously in 1952.

Born May 24 (June 6), 1907, in Tomsk. Soviet organic chemist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1966; corresponding member, 1958). Member of the CPSU since 1942. Son of N. N. Vorozhtsov.

Vorozhtsov graduated from A. E. Chichibabin’s sub-department in the department of chemistry of the Moscow Higher Technical School in 1929. From 1930 he taught in different institutes, becoming a professor in 1939. In 1945 he became head of a subdepartment at the D. I. Mendeleev Chemical Technological Institute in Moscow. Since 1958 he has headed the Novosibirsk Institute of Organic Chemistry (organized under his leadership) of the Siberian Division of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. The basic direction of his work and that of his school is the development of the theoretical, synthetic, and applied branches of the chemistry of aromatic compounds: the mechanisms of isomerization in a series of naphthalene and benzene derivatives, nucleophilic substitutions of atoms of the halogen and sulfonic groups, and the methods of synthesizing as well as the reactions of aromatic and chlorine and fluorine derivatives. Industry produces a number of chemical products using methods developed by Vorozhtsov. A recipient of the State Prize of the USSR (1952), he has been awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and various medals.