Radical polymerization of selected 1-alkenes, (1-hexene, 1-octene and 2-methyl-1-heptene), initiated with classical radical initiators and catalyzed by lithium salts of selected carboranes was studied. In accordance with recently published results it was found that the use of radical initiators under catalysis by "naked'' lithium cation of carboranes promotes the radical polymerization of 1-alkenes, otherwise nonpolymerizable by the radical mechanism. However, although in our experiments relatively high monomers conversions are reached for some of the thermal initiators used, only low-molecular-weight oligomers with M-n < 1000 are formed, regardless of the initiator and carborane anion used. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 49: 2018-2023, 2011