He's baaaaack!

I have been catching up on sleep the past couple of nights, so the blog is somewhat neglected. I will try to fix that now.

June 5

After the success of our Thursday visit to the Peter-Paul Cathedral, yesterday morning we visited the Zavoiskii museum at the University.

The bust of Yevgenii Zavoiskii outside the Instute of Physics at Kazan Federal University

A bust of Zavoiski in the Museum of the History of Kazan Federal University

Zavoiskii was a pioneering physicist, who observed the first magnetic resonance signal. It was what we now call electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), and he also measured the first nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signal, but the inhomogeneity of his magnetic field made the measurement difficult to reproduce. As a consequence, Zavoiskii was not chosen when the Nobel Committee awarded the Prizes for magnetic resonance during his lifetime:

Otto Stern, USA, 1943 (Physics): "for his contribution to the development of molecular ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton."

Isidor I. Rabi, USA, 1944 (Physics): "for his resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei."

Felix Bloch, USA and Edward M. Purcell, USA, 1952 (Physics): "for their discovery of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith."

The museum is a small workroom/laboratory where Zavoiskii did his work, building all his own electronics.

The frequency generator of Zavoiskii's first EPR spectrometer. It still functions, but also is as cantankerous as ever. The signal was followed by a pair of oscilloscopes to the right of this picture.

Zavoiskii's first NMR spectrometer has a much larger magnet than the EPR spectrometer.

Another of Zavoiskii's electromagnets, along with small instruments also built by hand by the physicist.

After our visit to the museum, we took a stroll in the afternoon, walking to the bottom of the hill below the Kremlin. This gave us a real perspective on the difficulties that attacking this position by frontal assault would have required.

Walls of the Kazan Kremlin. Note the minarets of the Gul Sharif mosque on the left, and the spires of the Cathedral of the Assumption on the right. Sasha is in the shade in front of the government building on the left.

View of the government office building, the Cathedral of the Assumption, and the Söyembikä tower from below

The ramp up the hill from below shows just how high these ramparts are. Gene is in the foreground.

Further down the street is the small church that I had mistaken for a monastery. The church is part of the Moscow metropolitanate, which appears to make it different from most of the Russian Orthodox churches in Kazan. Again, we realized just how lucky we have been in finding the Peter-Paul Cathedral. No photographs allowed in this little church, which was (as usual) heavily decorated with paintings and icons.

The small church under the direction of the Metropolitan of Moscow. We are not sure what the buildings at the left of the church are, and they may yet be accommodations for monks associated with the church. We just don't know.

This last photograph is of the mall where we buy groceries (in the basement), and one of the major intersections in downtown Kazan. To get over to the mall, you take an underpass (with somewhat irregular step heights on the stairs).

An interesting clock across the street from the Kol'tso (ring) shopping center. This has some of the very few free public bathrooms in the city (the cost is usually 10-15 rubles, 20-30 cents).

Today

Today we took a guided tour to the Raifskii Monastery, which is a beautiful monastery on a lake in the middle of a protected, old-growth forest about 30 km from the city center. Our luck with the weather continued -- although there was a cold wind, and the temperature was only in the high 60s, the rain only fell when we were in the van! Sasha and Jean, being tough Wisconsinites, wore shorts, so they had to wear wrap-around aprons to cover their knees. I did not get around to taking both their photographs in this flattering attire, but I did get one of Gene by accident!

The walk up to the entrance to the monastery

The main gate of the monastery

The wall of the monastery to the left of the main gate.

Like all monasteries in Russia during the Soviet era, this monastery was used for secular purposes instead of religious purposes -- this monastery was used to house violent juvenile criminals (murderers, etc.). It was returned to its original purpose after the break-up of the Soviet Union. There are two major churches on the grounds. The first one is Raifskii Trinity Cathedral, and we found out that we arrived just two weeks after the golden domes had been replaced with new ones.

Raifskii Trinity Cathedral (rear view)

The other church has a rather unique architectural feature: from the correct angle, it looks like a model ship (our guide said Noah's Ark). The photograph does not really do justice to the effect

The "boat church" with Gene (in his stylish red apron) and our guide in the foreground.

The grounds of the monastery also have a graveyard that contained the remains of the monks from 1613 on, but the graveyard was destroyed by the Soviets, who used it as a garbage dump. Now there is a cross in the middle, symbolizing the three centuries of monks before this happened, and new gravestones are now appearing as the monks die following the restoration of the monastery. The monastery is on a lake (Raifa Lake) that is reputed to be filled with frogs that do not croak. There is also a sundial in the square in front of the old cells for the monks (these are settling, so new cells have been built.

The graveyard of the Raifskii monastery, The large cross in the center represents those monks who were buried there before the Soviet takeover. The other gravestones come from the era following the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Raifa Lake

The sundial in the middle of the courtyard of the monastery. The monks do not use watches of their cellphones (yes, cellphones!) to tell the time, but still use this sundial. It's actually accurate to within minutes, but always shows about 1 hour ahead of time because Kazan is on Moscow time, rather than what ought to be one time zone east...

The new cells for the monks.

While we were in the Trinity Cathedral, a group of three monks gave an example of chants from the services. They were pretty good, and I would love to have gotten their photograph but, as we know, photography is... I did buy a CD of religious chants (we could hear the chanting from behind the curtain at the front of the church, also. It is incredible...

Our guide also filled us in on the reason why the orthodox churches are so heavily decorated, especially at the front of the church. It dates from the period when almost all Russians were illiterate (except the priests and monks), so the various paintings and icons were used by the priest to teach the congregation in the absence of written words.