Periodic table

Menshutkin announced Mendeleev’s periodic system to the Russian Chemical Society

Mendeleev missed the first public announcement of his own periodic system — he was reportedly away inspecting cheese-making cooperatives.

The society meeting of 6/18 March 1869

At the Russian Chemical Society's meeting on 6 March 1869 under Russia's Julian calendar — 18 March Gregorian — the secretary Nikolai Menshutkin communicated Mendeleev's work on the relationship between elemental properties and atomic weights.

The communication introduced an arrangement in which elemental properties recurred periodically when elements were ordered principally by atomic weight.

Mendeleev neither attended nor delivered the address. A detailed historical reconstruction says he had left Saint Petersburg to inspect cheese-making cooperatives and had asked Menshutkin to present on his behalf.

One item out of ten

The periodic system was one of ten reports heard that night, most of them on organic chemistry, in a meeting that usually ran about two hours from 8 p.m.

The minutes recorded that discussion was postponed because Mendeleev was absent. The subject was not resumed at the next meeting or apparently at any later society meeting.

The meeting produced little immediate attention among the chemists present; the paper and table subsequently appeared in the society's journal.

What this meeting was not

Several milestones are easily merged: Mendeleev's dated manuscript of 17 February Old Style / 1 March New Style, the society announcement in March, later printing and circulation, and journal publication in May.

The famous detailed predictions of eka-boron, eka-aluminium and eka-silicon were developed principally in Mendeleev's 1871 paper, not delivered in full at this brief communication.

Many English-language accounts print only "March 6" without identifying the calendar, and at least one Russian institutional timeline instead gives 22 February / 6 March.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 7 sources 2 audit passes Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at 1869-03-18.

What the sources leave uncertain

The best-supported meeting date is March 6, 1869 in Russia’s Julian calendar, equivalent to March 18 Gregorian. Many English-language accounts print only “March 6” without identifying the calendar, and at least one Russian institutional timeline instead gives February 22/March 6.
Sources disagree about why Mendeleev was absent. The Royal Society of Chemistry’s popular account says illness; the detailed documentary reconstruction says he was inspecting cheese-making cooperatives.
The meeting involved a brief communication by Menshutkin, not a formal address personally delivered by Mendeleev.