26
Bull. Hist. Chem., VOLUME 27, Number 1 (2002)
During the nineteenth century and up to 1917, Russian
chemists produced a significant number of “cutting-
edge” advances in all branches of chemistry. Indeed,
one could plausibly argue that–considering the size of
the chemical community–Russian chemists were among
the most productive chemists at that time. Some of these
advances in chemical theory and practice produced by
Russian chemists were quickly acknowledged by the
international community of chemists, while others were
not. In still other cases, the Russian chemists them-
selves did not follow up their discoveries with addi-
tional investigations. Many different factors–such as
being on the scientific periphery–influenced these de-
cisions and the reception of these discoveries.
In this paper, I will examine the scientific and cul-
tural contexts of one of the earliest and most important
discoveries by a Russian chemist during the nineteenth
century: Nikolai Zinin’s reduction of nitrobenzene to
produce aniline in 1842. This work done by Zinin is
particularly interesting because it later became the key
step in the synthesis of many coal tar dyes and was the
basis for the explosion of the German chemical indus-
try during the second half of the nineteenth century.
Zinin was well positioned to take the lead in the
development of coal tar dyes. He was trained in Liebig’s
laboratory and closely allied himself with Liebig’s vi-
sion of chemistry. His research interests centered on
reactions of various aromatic compounds, which became
important building blocks in the production of synthetic
dyes. Yet Zinin did not follow up his initial discovery
of 1842 with additional investigations of this reaction
and he seemed oblivious to the rapid development of
the synthetic dye industry during the late 1850s and
NIKOLAI ZININ AND SYNTHETIC DYES:
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Nathan M. Brooks, New Mexico State University
1860s. In 1867 at the Paris International Exhibition,
D.I. Mendeleev reported that Zinin was astonished by
the exhibitions of synthetic dyes. Why did Zinin not
see the potential usefulness of his reaction and why did
he not participate in the development of synthetic dyes?
Instead of Zinin, it was August Wilhelm von
Hofmann, who took the lead in developing the theoreti-
cal and practical basis for the coal tar dye industry.
Hofmann had also studied with Liebig during the same
years that Zinin was in Giessen. Immediately after Zinin
published his work, Hofmann realized the value of
Zinin’s reaction and devoted much attention to under-
standing and developing it as a practical tool. Other
chemists also studied aniline, as well as Zinin’s reac-
tion. What was it in Zinin’s environment or background
that conditioned his actions?
Nikolai Nikolaevich Zinin was born in 1812 in
Shusha, a small town in the Caucasus region, where his
father was serving as an officer in the Russian army (1).
Shortly after Zinin’s birth, however, both of his parents
died in some sort of epidemic, and he went to live with
his uncle in Saratov, on the Volga River. Zinin received
a good education at the local gymnasium and excelled
at ancient languages, as well as mathematics and phys-
ics. Although he initially planned to attend a technical
institute in St. Petersburg after graduation from the gym-
nasium, the death of his uncle induced him to attend
Kazan’ University, which was considerably less expen-
sive than an institution in the northern capital. Kazan’
is located on the Volga River, about 500 miles east of
Moscow, and for years it was the easternmost univer-
sity in Europe.
Bull. Hist. Chem.,
VOLUME 27, Number 1 (2002)
27
Zinin enrolled at Kazan’ University in 1830, when
it was slowly recovering from the deleterious effects of
M.L. Magnitskii’s seven-
year rule as curator of the
Kazan’ Educational District
during 1819-1826 (2). In
the years before he went to
Kazan’, Magnitskii served
as a provincial governor
and had gained recognition
for his attempts to cleanse
the province of “atheistic
influences.” Upon appoint-
ment as curator, Magnitskii
at first attempted to close
down Kazan’ University
because of its atheism and
immorality but grudgingly
settled for dismissing those
professors whose teaching
Magnitskii found to be in-
sufficiently Christian, as
well as many of the foreign-
ers who taught at the uni-
versity. In 1820,
Magnitskii drew up instruc-
tions that specified how
professors should teach
their subjects from a reli-
gious point of view. For example, professors of as-
tronomy were to demonstrate “how the omniscience of
the Creator is written in fiery letters in the heavenly bod-
ies, and how the beautiful laws of the celestial universe
were revealed to mankind in the most distant past” (3).
Magnitskii’s instructions were copied by other universi-
ties and led to mass dismissals at these institutions as
well. However, Magnitskii and the other officials in both
the central and provincial administrations who held simi-
lar values became increasingly mystical in their pro-
nouncements of this new conservatism and finally drew
opposition from the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1826,
Magnitskii was dismissed and replaced as curator by M.
N. Musin-Pushkin, a wealthy nobleman, whose family
lived near Kazan’.
Although the traditional view claims that it took 25
years for Kazan’ University to recover fully from the
effects of Magnitskii, in reality, Curator Musin-Pushkin
quickly acted to improve the teaching and research at
the university (4). With the assistance of the mathema-
tician Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevskii, who was the
University Rector–essentially, the university president–
the new curator secured funds to build new classrooms,
laboratories, and other facilities and worked to build up
the faculty ranks, which had
been decimated by Magnitskii’s
actions (5). Zinin was a direct
beneficiary of Musin-Pushkin’s
actions.
Zinin entered the physics-
mathematics faculty as a “state
student,” who would receive a
free education in return for
agreeing to work for the Russian
government for a specified pe-
riod of time following gradua-
tion. This type of arrangement
was vital for the state at this time
because relatively few nobles,
who could afford to pay tuition,
entered the universities, and few
of them remained until gradua-
tion. Thus when the state
wanted to reduce its reliance on
foreign-born professors, as it did
in the 1810s and 1820s, it
needed to provide support for
students such as Zinin, who was
not a member of the nobility.
Kazan’ University was in par-
ticular need of Russian profes-
sors as many of the foreign-born professors at the uni-
versity had been purged during the Magnitskii years (6).
In his studies, Zinin primarily concentrated on as-
tronomy, taught by Professor Ivan Matveevich Simonov,
and mathematics, taught by Lobachevskii. As part of
the requirements for students in the physics-mathemat-
ics faculty, he also took courses in chemistry from Pro-
fessor Ivan Ivanovich Dunaev, who had been teaching
chemistry at Kazan’ University since 1811 (7). The
available evidence indicates that Dunaev conducted little
or no laboratory work himself and that he likely had an
outdated knowledge of chemical theory. Dunaev’s lec-
tures in chemistry were presented without lecture dem-
onstrations until 1832 when he was compelled by the
university administration to introduce some demonstra-
tions, as well as some minimal laboratory training for
the students. While the premises of the chemistry labo-
ratory were quite substandard, Professor Adol’f
Iakovlevich Kupfer (who had taught at Kazan’ Univer-
sity during the 1820s) had managed to supply it with
adequate supplies and equipment (8).