Zhurnal Russkogo Fiziko-Khimicheskogo Obshchestva

(Journal of the Russian Physical Chemistry Society; ZhRFKhO), one of the oldest Russian scientific periodicals. Began to be published under the title Zhurnal russkogo khimicheskogo obshchestva (Journal of the Russian Chemical Society) in St. Petersburg in 1869. In 1873 (starting with vol. 5) the periodical acquired the title Zhurnal russkogo khimicheskogo obshchestva i Fiiicheskogo obshchestva pri Peterburgskom universitete (Journal of the sian Chemical Society and the Physics Society at the University of St. Petersburg). In 1878, according to the proposal of D. I. Mendeleev, the two societies were combined into the Russian Physical Chemistry Society, and in 1879 (beginning with vol. 11) the journal was renamed Zhurnal Russkogo fiziko-khimicheskogo obshchestva. It consisted of the chemistry part (ZhRKhO) and the physics part (ZhRFO). In 1930, the Russian Physical Chemistry Society was reorganized and the publication of ZhRFKhO ended (with vol. 62). The successor publication of the chemistry part of ZhRFKhO became Zhurnal obshchei khimii (Journal of General Chemistry), and the physics part was succeeded by Zhurnal eksperimental’-noi i teoreticheskoi fiziki (Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics).

ZhRKhO was the central organ reflecting the research and socially oriented scientific activity of Russian chemists. Its pages contained the first publication of the classics of Russian chemistry, particularly papers of D. I. Mendeleev on the formulation and development of the periodic system of elements and the papers of A. M. Butlerov on the development of his structural theory of organic compounds. Also published was the research by N. A. Menshutkin, D. P. Konovalov, V. F. Alekseev, N. S. Kurnakov, A. A. lakovkin, V. A. Kistiakovskii, and L. A. Chugaev on inorganic and physical chemistry and V. V. Markovnikov, E. E. Vagner, A. M. Zaitsev, S. N. Reformatskii, A. E. Favorskii, V. E. Tishchenko, M. I. Konovalov, N. D. Zelinskii, S. V. Lebedev, and A. E. Arbuzov on organic chemistry. From 1869 to 1930, 5,067 original chemical studies were published in ZhRKhO; reviews, survey articles on individual problems, and translations of the most interesting papers of foreign chemists were also published. The editors of ZhRKhO were N. A. Menshutkin from 1869 to 1900 and A. E. Favorskii from 1901 to 1930. There are alphabetical indexes to all of its volumes.

ZhRFO consisted of two sections; the first section contained original papers, and the second contained abstracts. In 1906, the second section began to contain survey articles, and in 1907 it became a separate journal, Voprosy fiziki (Problems of Physics), which was published until 1918. The papers of A. S. Popov on the invention of the radio and P. N. Lebedev on light pressure, as well as the research of D. S. Rozhdestvenskii, P. P. Lazarev, and G. Tamman, were first published in ZhRFO.