Density functional calculations of energy barriers to degenerate rearrangements of long lived carbocations that occur by 1,2 shifts of various atoms and groups were performed. The results obtained were compared with the available experimental data. Good agreement was found for hydrocarbon migrants. Possible reasons of discrepancies in the case of hydrogen migrant and migrants containing heteroatoms are discussed.Rearrangements of carbocations generated in super acids (so called long lived carbocations) have a high syn thetic potential. A number of relevant examples are shown in Scheme 1. Such rearrangements result in cations with other cyclic systems, occur at room temperature, and pro vide a nearly quantitative yield of the products obtained upon neutralization of acid solutions. 1-4 However, at present these reactions are not used for synthetic purposes because of low predictability of their results owing to mul tistage character and very large number of possible path ways. Each pathway includes a sequence of one step pro cesses, among which the 1,2 shifts of migrants or σ bonds to a neighboring carbocationic center play the key role.The possibility for the rearrangements of initial and inter mediate carbocations to follow several pathways leads to branched reaction schemes (graphs) containing tens of structures. 5 An ICAR program 6 permits automated con struction of such graphs. 7 In order to predict the results of a rearrangement, one should estimate the relative stability of each structure and the activation barriers to corre sponding reaction paths. Evaluation based on the avail able experimental data is only reliable for close analogs. The molecular mechanics and semiempirical quantum chemical methods are almost inapplicable for the activa tion barrier calculations, while the ab initio methods are time consuming. In this situation good results can be obtained from density functional quantum chemical cal culations using recently developed, fast and efficient pro grams, e.g., the PRIRODA program. 8 * Dedicated to the memory of Academician V. A. Koptyug on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of his birth.