Дмитриев Игорь Сергеевич

Although the story of Mendeleev’s failure at the 1880 elections to the Imperial Academy of Sciences was widely discussed by his contemporaries as well as historians of science in the later years, its circumstances still require a more detailed analysis and re-examination of popular versions. This article reconstructs the detailed course of the 1880 election process and provides a conceptual framework that helps appreciate the main reasons of Mendeleev’s failure.