Topchiev, Aleksandr

Born July 27 (Aug. 9), 1907, in the village of Mikhailovka, Volgograd Oblast; died Dec. 27, 1962, in Moscow. Soviet organic chemist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1949). Member of the CPSU from 1932.

Topchiev began working at the Moscow Institute of Chemical Engineering upon his graduation from the institute in 1930. In the years 1938–41, he was a professor at the Moscow Technological Institute of the Food Industry, and beginning in 1940, he also worked at the Moscow Petroleum Institute, serving as director there during the years 1943–47. From 1947 to 1949, Topchiev was deputy minister of higher education, and from 1949 to 1958 he was head scientific secretary of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1958 he became vice-president of the academy and director of the academy’s Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis.

Topchiev’s research dealt mainly with the nitration, halogenation, polymerization, and alkylation of various classes of hydrocarbons. He also worked on synthesizing organosilicon compounds and studied the physical and chemical properties of these compounds.

Topchiev was a deputy to the fourth and fifth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. He was a recipient of the State Prize of the USSR (1949), two Orders of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals. In 1958 he became a member of the permanent Pugwash committee.