Sunday, and I thought I would sleep in a bit -- especially after the kickboxers or whatever they were last night partying next door. Apparently, Gene did not get the memo.

We spent a good 4 hours this morning walking around the Kazan Kremlin, buying nothing, but taking lots of pictures. The first major building we went into was the Kul Sharif mosque. The booties that we had to wear over our shoes cost us 3 rubles (6 cents) each, and Gene had to wear a skirt to cover his legs.

The mosque is very new, and was erected on the grounds of the lost mosque of the Kazan khanate. The Saudi royal family helped to pay for the new structure to be built built, and donated the precious model of the mosque inside the building. As you can see from the pictures, the place is stunningly beautiful. It has been a functioning a place of worship for Moslems in Kazan since its opening in 2000.

The Kul Sharif mosque from the side opposite the Kazanka River

The Kul Sharif mosque from the watchtower of the walls

The ceiling of the dome of the Kul Sharif mosque

One of the worship halls in the Kul Sharif mosque

The staircase in this hall is central to all mosques, and it symbolizes the staircase by which the Prophet ascended into heaven. The top step and the landing are always left unoccupied except, perhaps, for a copy of the Koran. 

Decorations in a mosque are never permitted to show a human being, so much of the decoration is the most beautiful calligraphy of Koran verses in archaic Arabic

Stained glass windows in the Kul Sharif mosque

A model of the mosque illuminated from inside. The model consists of  precious metals (gold, silver and platinum) and precious stones (including lapis lazuli)

The model now illuminated from the outside

The front (east) entrance to the Kul Sharif mosque. Sasha is in the foreground.

The Cathedral of the Annunciation, the oldest cathedral in Kazan, is about 1 block (or less) from the mosque. Zaitsev's grandfather or great-grandfather was a member of the building committee charged with finding funds for renovations and upkeep of the cathedral. Unlike in the mosque, taking photographs inside the cathedral is prohibited (although this didn't dissuade some insensitive tourists from doing so). Of course, this means that we can only describe the interior, and have no photographs to show. Every square inch of the interior walls and ceilings are covered with beautiful paintings and icons of saints and previous bishops. The outside of the church is beautiful, especially the side that faces the Kazanka River. The Cathedral holds one of the holiest relics of the church in Kazan: the icon of Our Lady of Kazan, which tradition says was found in a field just before a major battle. The Kazan forces followed the Icon into battle, and soundly defeated the opposing forces. Every year, the Icon is carried in procession from this cathedral to the second major cathedral, about a mile away. Two years ago, my wife and I were able to witness and participate in this procession.

The eastern aspect of the Cathedral of the Annunciation

I have pulled up some pictures from that last visit to give you an idea of the pomp and circumstance of the voyage of the Icon from one church to the other. The whole thing was accompanied by the most magnificent chanting by the priests and monks.

Photographs of the pilgrimage of the Icon between the Cathedrals in November, 2013

Looking downhill from the east side of the cathedral, you see some of the older, pre-Soviet parts of the city, including a mosque just downhill. The architecture has a beautiful baroque feel to it.

The view directly behind the cathedral, looking downhill to the east

The view looking downhill from the cathedral and to the south, showing another part of  the city

The monastery down the hill from the cathedral to the southeast

The Kazanka River, and parts of Kazan across the river, taken looking northeast from behind the cathedral.

There are walls around the whole Kremlin, and we were able to climb the battlements, and even get all the way up into an observation tower. The view from up there was breathtaking, and the cool breeze was incredibly refreshing.

The main gate and the tower that guards the entrance to the Kazan Kremlin, looking southwest from the battlements

The view looking south from the watchtower on the eastern wall of the Kremlin

The wiew looking southeast from the watchtower towards the Volga River in the distance

Looking to the east of the Kul Sharif mosque from the watchtower on the east wall of the Kremlin

The other main building in the Kremlin is now the official palace of the President of Tatarstan. The building is impressive, and there is a repurposed mosque tower (the Söyembikä tower, named for the last queen of Tatarstan, and believed to be the oldest structure in the Kremlin) in front of it.

The official palace of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, on the grounds of the Kazan Kremlin, with the Söyembikä tower in front of it

In a small park adjacent to the cathedral, and between the cathedral and the mosque, there is a statue dedicated to the architects of the Kremlin, Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shirjay, who rebuilt the Kazan Kremlin in stone at the urging of the Tsar.

The statue of Postnik Shakovlev and Ivam Shirjayin the park adjacent to the cathedral

On the walk back to our hotel, there was a choir singing "Gaudeamus igitur" across from the main building of Kazan Federal University. They were quite good.

The choir

More tomorrow...

Today being Saturday, I slept in (not!). Today was both hot and sunny -- well over 80°F, although it felt more like 90°F. We bought SP 50 sunblock for our walk down to the Volga River, and right now it feels like it was barely enough! The walk is about 3-4 km, and mainly downhill, which sort of helps.

On the way there, we walked thrOugh a small section of town where we passed a small mosque, then a small orthodox church, and then another, larger mosque or church under major reconstruction (i.e. it was walled off so we couldn't see). The only part that we could see could have been a minaret for a mosque or the belltower of an orthodox church (the church itself and the belltower are separate buildings in Russia).

The view of the entrance to the mosque

A little closer view

The rear of the mosque, where the worshipping actually occurs

The interesting thing about the smaller mosques in the city is the ubiquitous use of this aqua color for the building. The other is the close proximity to each other of the worship centers of the two religions.

The Russian Orthodox church one block from the mosque in a Moslem quarter of the city

The same church up closer.

These two buildings were about half-way through the walk, and were near a small canal that had fountains in it. This canal actually originates at the Kazanka River, which is the river that the Kazan kremlin overlooks.

The canal; this end is furthest from the Kazanka River.

A closer view of the canal.

After about two hours or so, we reached the Volga -- the Mother River of Russia. In the picture taken by Sasha with Gene's camera, you can see that I forgot my hat in Eau Claire, so I am wearing a stylish little number that I bought for about $8.00. It's actually made of paper!

One of the docks along the Volga River at Kazan

Волга-матушка (Mother Volga)

Женя and me in front of a river cruise ship on the Volga. Note the stylish headwear of the elder person in the photograph

More later.

I assume that you have been noticing some minor typos in this blog. I could possibly blame it on jet lag, but I believe that the real cause is a combination of fat fingers and a lack of manual dexterity.

Another eventful day in Kazan. Today we began our work by photographing Markovnikov's entire Master's and Doctoral dissertations (actually the lads did -- my "son" and "grandson as nominated by our host). They also saw the old Professor as giddy as a kid on Christmas Eve.

Our supervisor and help was Ms. Valitova, the Director of the Museum, who not only permitted us to photograph all the material we want (so we can do the bulk of the translation back home), but actually offered us even more books to work with. I declined for now (I figure we have enough work for 3 years in what we have already), but I kept my options open for future years.

The working crew with Ms. Valitova.

Neither of these important documents has ever appeared in English or, to my knowledge, in any western language, so our translations will be the first. We also learned the first rule of handling old documents: wash your hands early and often.

Markovnikov's Doctoral dissertation is an especial gem: in the margins are notes that appear to have been put there by the examiner. Both dissertations have an autographed dedication to Butlerov, so we also have samples of Markovnikov's authentic handwriting.

Gene and Sasha photographing Markovnikov's doctoral dissertation.

Unfortunately the Zaitsev dissertation that we were hoping to translate is no longer available, presumably lost in the half century since it was last seen. On the plus side, however, we have begun the photographic recording of three beautifully handwritten books of lectures: Zinin's treatise on chemistry (the 1855 version, written in St. Petersburg), and Markovnikov's lectures in alcohols and aldehydes and ketones. This work will continue at least until Monday evening.

The weekend is tomorrow, so we will begin our lives as tourists (more than we have already). Weather permitting, we will walk down to the Volga River (the Russian heart), and dip our toes, at least, in the water. The wether has been hot -- close to 90°F every day we have been here -- and tomorrow does not appear to break the pattern, except that there is about a 50% chance of rain. If the rain does come, we will ecplore the Kazan Kremlin instead (we will spend lots more time indoors, out of the rain).

More later -- keep tuned.

Today the work really begins. But yesterday morning was very full for us, with tours of the Butlerov Museum, and of the Butlerov Institute of Organic Chemistry. First, Professor Galkin took us for a tour of the Butlerov Institute, which he heads, and we saw laboratory facilities for both teaching and research. In the past few years, there has been a major push to modernize the instrumentation available to students, with about $10 million spent so far. It was quite something to drop in on an organic chemistry tutorial session for biology students while we were touring. The students and I were then taken in hand by Professor Igor Antipin, who gave us the brief tour of the organic chemistry labs and research facilities. A new building will be opening up in the next two weeks...

The Butlerov Institute

The view from the balcony of the Butlerov Institute. The body of water in the background is the Volga River.

(l-r): Dr. Olga Kateeva, DEL, Prof. Vladimir Galkin, and Prof. Igor Antipin

До сегодня вечером (until tonight).

Oops! In the previous post I forgot to have you look carefully at the plaques. The upper half of the plaque in in Russian, but the lower half is in Tatar (Kazan in the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, within the Russian Federation). Most signs in the city are bilingual.

The latest day at Kazan began with the breakfast buffet at the Hayal -- and it was just as good as I had promised the students. We were met at the hotel after breakfast by Mds. Gul'nar Valitova, the Director of the Butlerov Museum. She and Professor Galkin accompanied us to the Butlerov Museum, and  Саша (Sasha) and Женя (Gene) finally got to see what I have been raving about for the past semester. We got the tour of the museum, and were shown our work-places in the Library of the Museum. Tomorrow, the work begins in earnest. In the meantime, here are some more shots by Женя. The statue is that of a young Lenin -- notice how strongly he resembles Leonardo di Caprio in "Titanic." The bottom photographs are the plaques on the outside of the building celebrating two of Kazan's fine graduates: Markovnikov, and Zaitsev, whose rules are among the first things learned in introductory organic chemistry.

Although it looks very much like Leonardo di Caprio, this is actually a statue of a young Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin)

Translation: "In this building, Vladimir Vasil'evich Markovnikov studied and worked from 1856 to 1871." The top half of the plaque is in Russian, and the lower half is in Tatar.

Translation: "In this building, Aleksandr Mikhailpovich Zaitsev studied and worked from 1858 to 1910." The top half of the plaque, also, is in Russian, and the lower half is in Tatar.

This afternoon, I became an unannounced guest at the celebration of the 70th Anniversary Jubilee of the A.E. Arbuzov Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. I was attempting to be my usual unobtrusive self when I was spotted from the stage by Academician Valery Charushin, the Vice-President of the Academy, and got a shout-out. Weird!

In the Museum, we got to see and hold first editions of Butlerov's pioneering textbook in Russian and German. In addition, we saw some beautiful copperplate hand-written lecture notes for the courses in chemistry taught by Zinin (1840s) and Butlerov (1860s). I am hoping that we can also get these photographed while we are here because they also provide a unique window into the history of chemistry at this important nexus in time.

More tomorrow,

Your Russian blogger.

This is Kazan Federal University at sunset last night.

It's now just about 9:00 am here in Kazan, and I am now human again after an excellent breakfast, a shower and a shave. It's funny how it is the little things in life that make all the difference.

Russia does not use daylight savings time, so we are now just 8 hours ahead of Central Standard time in the U.S. Kazan itself is in the same time zone as Moscow, which leads to a very funky time zone map for Russia. It also means that the sun rose here this morning a little before 3:00 am, and will set around 8:00. That's a long day, and I hope that tomorrow I can sleep through most of the first part.

The photograph is of three already weary travelers after our arrival in Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow. If you look to Sasha's right, you can see just one letter in the Cyrillic alphabet to prove we were there. The poster behind us celebrates the 70th anniversary of VE Day (May 8, 1945), which is a huge holiday in Russia (think 4th of July back home).

(l-r): Alexander Davis (Sasha, Саша), Gene Walsh (Zhenya, Женя) and me.

In just under an hour, we will be met by Prof. Galkin, and the adventure really begins.

So it is now Wednesday morning in Russia, and I am sitting with Gene and Alexander (Sasha) in Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. The day is sparkling, with temperatures in the high 70's, and clear blue skies. The flight over was quite comfortable, and the only down side was the very early departure from Eau Claire, which means that two of us (Sasha is the exception) got only a few hours sleep in the last 48.
While sitting here, Gene was interviewed by Channel 24, Moscow, about the smoking room in the airport here. We're all so jet lagged, one wonders just what impression of Americans they got from us.
There will be a better posting tomorrow -- with pictures.

This will be the first time that I have written a blog, so it is appropriate that it starts just 21 hours before we leave for Russia.

We will be driving from here to Minneapolis, then flying to JFK at 7:00 tomorrow morning, followed by the hop to Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport tomorrow afternoon. The final leg is just a short 90-minute hop to Kazan. For those who are unaware, Kazan is 9 hours ahead of Eau Claire, so arriving there at 5:00 p.m. will feel like 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning -- with very little sleep!

More anon.