The nucleophilic substitution of halogen (chlorine, bromine, and iodine) in alkyl and benzyl halides has been effected in aqueous dioxane media with S-and O-anions generated from 4-hydroxy-2-mercapto-6-methylpyrimidine. Under these conditions replacement of halogen proceeds by an S(N)2 mechanism and the reactivity of S-anions is 10 times greater than that of O-anions, which is in agreement with the results of ab initio quantum-chemical calculations of the electronic structure and total energy of transition states, carried out within the framework of the restricted Hartree-Fock method, basis 6-31G**.