For example, you can see, how the V.V.Markovnikov described the atmosphere of Butlerov's laboratory of that time:
"He is not only kind and good teacher here, who is always ready to listen to your question and give an answer to every of his students, but also a friend of all of them. He didn't mind listening or telling an anecdote, his resounding and sincere laughter was clearly than of the others.
When he heard a student singing quietly a romance while watching the fractional distillation, his a bit husky tenor began joining in singing from the other end of the room.
In short, we worked at the laboratory as if at home, feeling absolutely free. But Alexander Mikhailovich's inborn politeness was inherited by all of us, and the feeling of freedom and ease never exceeded the bounds. There was no familiarity and vulgar behavior in the laboratory.
Nevertheless, everyone was doing his work in spite of merry atmosphere".

One of the hoods remained its initial sight. There is a real fire-chamber with cast-iron tile door and ash-pit. A flue with two end-caps is in the wall. That was the usual way for natural ventilation of the laboratory in the past as there was no electric inflow ventilating.
At night a servant put firewood to the furnace and stoked it. By the morning there was a lot of smouldering coals, the surface of the hood remained warm all day long and warm air, going up, took smells to the flue.
The photograph of the students, working near the hood, is exhibited in the museum.

Scientists and students have been doing the researches in this laboratory.

During the Great Patriotic war the old chemical laboratory made its contribution to the victory. At that time the Research Chemistry Institute (named after Butlerov) was not working, and its staff worked at the Institute of organic Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, which was evacuated there from Moscow.
Markovnikov's "grandchildren by Chemistry" created in the laboratory a universal carbinol cement, which was widely used in military equipment repairing both at the plants and out-of-doors.

The formula of "Shostakovsky's balsam" for curing burns was also obtained there. The remedy was sucessfully tested on soldiers, wounded in the battles.

The laboratory of high molecular compounds, headed by B.A.Arbuzov, was set at the institute of organic chemistry during the war. The researches were devoted to the anti-icing additives of synthetic rubber, being used in military equipment tires production. B.A.Arbuzov's and his colleagues' reports, dedicated to this work, are kept in the museum.