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.