June 19—What a day!

Yesterday, we visited the fortress of Ivan IV ("the Terrible") at the confluence of the Volga and Sviyaga Rivers. Our guide was a woman who had lived at Sviyazhsk as a child during the Soviet era, and who had also taught high school English there during and after the Soviet era. She had a number of fascinating insights that you seldom get from the standard tour guides. Of course, my sieve-like memory did not retain nearly enough to give you any real idea of all the really good stuff she gave us. One important thing we found is that the fortress itself was not completely destroyed during the Soviet era, but was used as a Gulag for political prisoners, and as a mental hospital. Three cathedrals were destroyed by the Soviets, who blew them up. Oddly enough, the third was destroyed less than an hour before the telegram arrived from Moscow telling the local Soviet to save them as examples of Russian national architecture. I did take some pictures; I have loaded the first batch here (the download from my iPhone is very slow, and 24 photos right now is apparently beyond its capabilities):

 The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The top is being restored to its pre-soviet appearance. There is a lot of restoration going on at Sviyazhsk. Dylan and Sergei are in the foreground.

 Basically the same view, with Dylan and Sergei again in the foreground.

The  bell tower of the cathedral of the Assumption. Our guide is in front of Dylan.

Same bell tower, same guide.

It's now a couple of hours later, Germany has defeated (but not humiliated) Australia 3-2, and now the rest of the photos from yesterday have loaded, so here they are:

The monastery where the Blessed Germon was Abbott. There are numerous miracles attributed to him, and he became a powerful churchman—the only one who would say "no" to Tsar Ivan—and a Russian orthodox Saint.

Another view of the monastery, which was a school and a hospital during the Soviet era.

 Another view of the monastery.

 And another

 The Bell tower of the cathedral of the Assumption, looking along the lower raised sidewalk

 Again

The grotto where St. Christopher is said to have been. Photoshop has revealed details not easily visible in the original photograph.

 Same grotto, with flash, but no photoshop

 Walking towards the cathedral of the Mother of God, Joy of all Sorrows. The students are in front of me.

 Same walk, but now showing the lands of the Nunnery within their wall. Our guide is to the right of Carly and Anna here.

 Further along the same walk. All four students and our guide are in the foreground.

 On the bench inside the Church of the Holy Trinity. Ivan built this wooden church outside Moscow, and like the rest of the fortress it was disassembled, the logs were coded, and floated down the Volga to Sviyazhsk. Reassembling the church was the work of just one week. The last time I was in Sviyazhsk, we could take photographs inside the sanctuary because this was not a functioning church.  Apparently that has changed, because the girls had to wear shawls and skirts, and no photographs were allowed. We do make a handsome group!

 Again

Again

 Again

 Again (our guide wanted to make sure she got a good one)...

 In front of the 16th-century door to the church The lighting has made this photograph pretty creepy—look at the girls' eyes! Note also, how low the door is. This was deliberate, so that all people entering the church would have to bow towards the altar and the Sanctuary as they entered.

 Looking at the next church from the verandah of the Cathedral of the Trinity. I forget what this one was—sorry! I think it is also associated with the nuns, but I won't put money on it,

Same view, almost

And now, June 19.

Today I returned to Val ery Shtyrlin's office with my students, and we once again had tea. After tea, Valery released the students, and he and I went to the library for some extremely serious research. One of the big questions about the period 1858-1864 is, exactly when did Butlerov begin to formulate his version of the Theory of Chemical Structure.

On Friday, we looked at the notes from his lecture course of 1859-1860, and in these notes he allows for the possibility that the atomic weights may be C=12, O=16, and S=32, but he dismisses them in favor of Kolbe's equivalent weights, C=6, O=8, and S=16. Using these values, the formulas of molecules must have doubled atoms of carbon, oxygen and sulfur. The monovalent elements, on the other hand, did not have this restriction. Using the more modern values, the doubled atoms could be done away with, and this, I believe, provides a real window into how he developed his structural theory—without the nuisance of the doubled atoms, he could move forward.

As I said, in Markovnikov's notes, Butlerov used the values C=6 and O=8 throughout the entire year, although towards the end of that academic year he appeared to be softening his stance towards the modern values. In 1861, he published a paper in the Zeitschrift für Chemie und Pharmacie based on his talk at the Meeting of Naturalists and Physicians in Speyer, Germany. In this paper, he uses the "barred" symbols for the elements, along with the modern values for the atomic weights: C=12 and O=16. This put him in the minority at the time, although that minority grew with time, just as the majority view faded. In the notes taken by his student, Ivan Bukhvostov, the year begins the same way, but now the Kolbe equivalent weights being rapidly discarded after a brief demonstration of the superiority of the atomic weights. By 1862, Butlerov was teaching from a much more mature theory of organic structure, much closer to its form in his Vvedenie k polnomu izucheniyu organicheskoi khimii (Introduction to the complete study of organic chemistry). There is now a huge amount of translating to do! What a joy!

The fact that I have spent so much time discussing this does convey, I hope, the real sense of excitement I have based on these two manuscripts. Here is the answer to one of the critical questions about the rise of structural theory, and Butlerov's pivotal role in it.

I am not sure what I am going to do for supper tonight. I have a new loaf of Borodinskii bread (good black Russian bread that fills you up), and some cherry jam, as well as a large bottle (5 liters!) of water. Still, I probably ought to get some protein in me, I suppose.

More tomorrow after watching a disappointing match between Germany and Australia. Still, 2-3 isn't bad against the reigning World Champions...