Please cite this article as: Nikitina PA, Peregudov AS, Koldaeva TY, Kuz'mina LG, Adiulin EI, Tkach II, Perevalov VP, Synthesis and study of prototropic tautomerism of 2-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-1-hydroxyimidazoles, Tetrahedron (2015), Novel 2-(2-hydroxyphenyl) substituted imidazoles have been synthesized. A prototropic tautomerism of the 1-hydroxyimidazole derivatives has been studied. X-ray diffraction analysis and IR-spectroscopy have revealed that in the solid state the title compounds exist as the Nhydroxy tautomers. The 1 H and 13 C NMR spectra of the new imidazole derivatives are discussed. It has been shown that in chloroform solutions 5-carbonylsubstituted 2-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-1-hydroxyimidazoles exist in the N-hydroxy tautomeric form. A transition to DMSO results in the existence of the 1-hydroxyimidazoles under study as the N-oxide tautomers.