Translation of Markovnikov’s Magistr Khimii Dissertation: A Progress Report

Abstract

During June 2015, we were able to obtain digital copies of the Magistr Khimii and Doktor Khimii dissertations of Vladimir Vasil'evich Markovnikov. The translation of these documents into English consists of two distinct phases. First, the pre-Soviet Russian of the original document needed to be translated (transliterated) into modern Russian—after the Russian revolution, four letters were eliminated from the Cyrillic alphabet, and the spelling of many words was simplified. For example, only one vowel for 'i' now appears in modern Russian, and there are two, not three representations of 'e'; the hard sign, which was widely used in early Russian at the end of words is now used rarely, and then only in the middle of words. The translation into English is now being carried out following the modernization of the Russian Herein, we will report our progress in the translation of the Magistr Khimii dissertation.