Excursion to the Mendeleev Centre

The historic Chemistry Laboratory building stands at the back of the university grounds. I never entered this building during my time at the university. Chemistry lectures and laboratory work took place in other rooms, the new Chemistry Laboratory building was equipped to modern standards. Chemistry was not my major subject and there were not many chemistry lectures in my department, I studied chemistry only one semester. Perhaps, if I had studied at the Chemistry Department, I would have seen the classrooms and laboratories of this historic building earlier, during my studies. But I didn't pay much attention to this building then.

The old chemistry laboratory building was built in the 1890s. For that time the building was considered very modern and well-equipped. Heating, water supply and ventilation systems were arranged; special equipment for chemical experiments was installed, and sophisticated design solutions were used.

Many famous scientists worked in this building, but the first name we remember in connection with this building is, of course, the name of Dmitry Mendeleev. In his honour, the Mendeleev Centre was established, which is now located in this building. Now you can get into this building with a guided tour - or if you become a scientist and come here to prepare scientific publications. I chose the easy way, I signed up for a guided tour.

Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev was an encyclopaedic scientist, and he made significant contributions in various fields of knowledge. Among the most famous discoveries of this scientist is the periodic law of chemical elements. The oldest periodic table of elements is located in one of the classrooms of this building. On the ground floor of the building there is a library, it is one of the departments of the scientific library of the University. Here unique editions are kept, some of these books can be touched only with protective gloves. There is also a room where academic councils are held. The far wall of this room is decorated with a mosaic panel.

After visiting the library and looking at the mosaic, we went upstairs to one of the classrooms. This particular auditorium I had never been in, but my department also had similar historical classrooms with wooden benches arranged in an amphitheatre. It was like going back to my youth.

Here we listened to a short lecture on the history of chemistry. On the wall of this classroom is the oldest Mendeleev's table, it was made in 1876. The table of periodic elements on the wall of this auditorium looks unusual, because many chemical elements were not yet discovered at that time. After a lecture we moved to the historical laboratory.