Slava Paperno: You first began working in '70, right?
Gennadiy N. Lepeshkin: In '69.
Paperno: In '69?
Lepeshkin: Yes.
Gary Crocker: Yeah. Right.
Paperno (interpreting): Yeah, in '69, back in '69.
Lepeshkin: There was a laboratory where I worked. I grasped the fundamentals of microbiology research, trained, went to study in Leningrad, what was then Leningrad, at the Kirov Academy, taking special courses on genetic research, special biochemistry research, it was called.
I completed the courses in '70, went back to Kirov and began working and mastering microbiology and pathogen research, anti-pathogen protection.
Crocker: That's where you go, and probably it's where the money, and the contract money was, so I mean I think that's probably pretty important. So you know, you're going to go where that money is, and the jobs are, and it's interesting and I think, at least I think for both countries, you have all these resources to work with. I mean it's sort of, you know, the sky is the limit on all these great things you can do, and you can go test, you can do all these things. So, you know, it's a great research environment. And if you are convinced, I mean if people have convinced you that what you're doing is to help the country because the enemy over there is doing this, and you need to keep on top of this so that you know how to prevent, you know, if they use Botchulinum Toxins, or Anthrax, you know how to protect your forces, and your people. I mean, so, you know, it's probably not hard to buy. And it's really interesting, because you're pushing an envelope into some whole new fields that you know, all over the world, I mean these are some wonderful fields you're getting into. Now, I happened to get heavily involved in the mycotoxin business when I was looking at Southeast Asia, and the use of mycotoxins in Afghanistan. And I later get to meet some Soviet scientists who were working on mycotoxins, so... and it was a fact: they really were working on it. And why? Because it was fascinating, there was very few people in the world that knew anything about these very complex, you know, molecules, you know, they were very complex. And it was... they were interesting.