Kazan
Kazan (Russian :Каза́нь; Tatar :Казан, Qazan) is the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, and one of Russia's largest cities. It is a major industrial, commercial and cultural center, and remains the most important center of Tatar culture. Since April 2009 Kazan has the legal right to brand itself as the "Third Capital" of Russia, approved by the Russian Patent Office. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka rivers in central European Russia. The famous Kazan Kremlin is a World Heritage Site.
Name
The origin of the name is unclear. The literal translation of the Tatar word qazan is a boiler or cauldron. Alternately, it may have been derived from qazğan, Tatar for dug [ditch].
"Qazan" is originally a name for a special cooking pan, a variant of a wok, but more solid and heavier. It was believed that the city of Kazan is named after this object because of its geographical similarity with a "qazan"-pan; namely the city is situated in a U-shaped lowland.
Another, more romantic legend tells a story of a Tatar princess Söyembikä, who dropped a golden dish (golden qazan) in to the river on which the city is located while washing it.
Additionally, Chuvash legends refer to the Bulgarian Prince Khusan (Хусан) (Chuvash rendering of the Muslim name Hasan) and Chuvashes call this city Хусан after the name of this prince, Hussein.
History
Main dates
End of the Xth — beginning of the XIth century - the city was founded
End of the XIVth — beginning of the XVth century Kazan becomes a capital of Kazan khanate
1408 - starts to mint own coins
1552 Kazan was seized by Ivan IV Grozny and Kazan khanate became a part of Russian state
1556 - construction of modern Kremlin
Since 1708 - centre of Kazan province
1759 - the first provincial classical school was opened
1771 - two madrasahs were opened (Akhun and Apanay)
1791 - first theatre was opened
1804 - Kazan State University was opened
1874 - gas lighting in Kazan
1896 - was built railroad to Moscow
1899 - electrical tram and urban water supply started to work
1920 - Kazan is a capital of Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialistic Republic (and then Tatarstan)
1979 - population is over 1 million inhabitants
2005 - Kazan Metro was opened
Descriptive
There is a long-running dispute as to whether Kazan was founded by the Volga Bulgars in the early Middle Ages or by the Tatars of the Golden Horde in the mid-fifteenth century, as written records before the latter period are sparse. If there were a Bulgar City on the site, estimates of its foundation range from the early 11th century to the late 13th century (see Iske Qazan). It was a block-post on the border between Volga Bulgaria and Finnic tribes (Mari, Udmurt). Another vexed question is where the citadel was built originally. Archaeological explorations have produced evidence of an urban settlement in three parts of the modern city: in the Kremlin, in Bişbalta in the place of modern Zilantaw monastery and near the Qaban lake. The oldest was the Kremlin which could be dated back to the 11th century.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, Kazan could have shielded a Volga trade route from Scandinavia to Iran. It was a trade center, and possibly a major city for Bulgar settlers in the Kazan region, although their capital was at the city of Bolğar further South.
In the 13th century, re-settlers came to Kazan from Bolğar and Bilär area, which had been ruined by the Mongols. Kazan became a center of a duchy, which was a dependency of the Golden Horde. In 1430s Hordian Tatars (such as Ghiasetdin) usurped power in the duchy, which was ruled by Bolghar dynasty before.
Some Tatars also went to Lithuania, brought back by Vytautas the Great. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania's influence spread as far east as here.
After the destruction of the Golden Horde, Kazan became the capital of the powerful Khanate of Kazan (1438). The city bazaar Taş Ayaq (Stone Leg)' became the most important trade center in the region, especially for furniture. The citadel and Bolaq channel were reconstructed, giving the city a strong defensive capacity. The Russians managed to occupy the city briefly several times, but before 1552 they withdrew.
In 1552, the city was conquered by Russia under Ivan the Terrible and the majority of the population was massacred. During the governorship of Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky, most of the khanates's Tatar residents were killed, repressed, or forcibly Christianized. Mosques and palaces were ruined. The surviving Tatar population was moved to a place 50 km away from the city and this place was forcibly settled by Russian farmers and soldiers. Tatars in the Russian service were settled in the Tatar Bistäse settlement near the city's wall. Later Tatar merchants and handicraft masters also settled there.
Kazan was largely destroyed as a result of several great fires. After one of them in 1579, the icon Our Lady of Kazan was discovered in the city. During the Time of Troubles in Russia the independence of the Kazan Khanate was restored with the help of the Russian population, but this independence was suppressed by Kuzma Minin in 1612. The history of that period requires further research.
In 1708, the Khanate of Kazan was abolished, and Kazan became the center of a guberniya. After Peter the Great's visit, the city became a shipbuilding base for the Caspian fleet.
The major Russian poet Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin was born in Kazan in 1743, the son of a poor country squire of Tatar origin though himself having a thorough Russian identity and making a substantial contribution to Russian culture.
Kazan was largely destroyed in 1774 as a result of a revolt by border troops and peasants led by the Don Cossack ataman (captain) Yemelyan Pugachev, but was rebuilt soon afterwards, during the reign of Catherine the Great. Catherine also decreed that mosques could again be built in Kazan, the first being Marjani Mosque. But discrimination against the Tatars continued.
In the beginning of the 19th century Kazan State University and Printing Press were founded by Alexander I. The Qur'an was first printed in Kazan in 1801, and it became an important centre for Oriental Studies in Russia. By the end of the 19th century, Kazan had become an industrial center of the Middle Volga. People from neighboring villages came to the city looking for work. In 1875, a horse tramway appeared; 1899 saw the installation of a tramway.
After the Russian Revolution of 1905, Tatars were allowed to revive Kazan as a Tatar cultural center. The first Tatar theater and the first Tatar newspaper appeared.
In 1917 1917 Kazan Gunpowder Plant fire occurred in Kazan. In 1918, Kazan was a capital of the Idel-Ural State, which was suppressed by the Bolshevist government. In August 1918 it was shortly occupied by White Czechs. In 1920 (after the October Revolution), Kazan became the center of Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In the 1920s and 1930s, most of the city's mosques and churches were destroyed (as occurred elsewhere in the USSR).
During World War II, many industrial plants and factories were evacuated to Kazan, and the city subsequently became a center of the military industry, producing tanks and planes.
In the late 1980s and in the 1990s, after the dissolution of the USSR, Kazan again became the center of Tatar culture, and separatist tendencies intensified. Since 2000, the city has been undergoing a total renovation. The historical centre, including its Kremlin, has been rebuilt. A single-line metro opened on 27 August 2005. The Kazan Metro has six stations. But there are plans to extend the line in both directions. Kazan celebrated its millennium in 2005, when the largest mosque in Russia, Qolsharif, was inaugurated in the Kremlin, and the holiest copy of Our Lady of Kazan was returned to the city. Major objects like Millennium Bridge also were inaugurated that year. The date of the "millennium", however, was fixed rather arbitrarily.
Historical naming
See also: Iske Qazan Tatar (now, 1928–1939): Qazan;
(1939–2000): Казан;
(1918–1928): قازان ;
(1918–1922), Arab: قزان ;
Russian: Каза́нь [Kazan];
Arab (hist.): Bulgar al-Jadid (in Tatar transliteration:Bolğar âl-Cädid) - New Bolğar;
German: Kasan, Latin: Casan, French: Kazan, Polish: Kazań, Latvian: Kazaņa,
Finnish: (Old) Kasaani (New) Kasani
Demographics
Ethnicity and religion
The city's population is mainly composed of Tatars (about 52 percent) and Russians (about 43 percent). Minority groups are Chuvash, Ukranians, Azeri and Jews. Major religions in Kazan city are Sunni Islam and Eastern Orthodoxy. Atheism is also popular. Minor religions are Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Krishnaism, and Bahá'í.
Languages
Russian and Tatar languages are widely spoken in the city. Russian is understood by practically all the population, apart from some older Tatars. Tatar is widely spoken mainly by Tatars. The offensive term Mankurt (Mañqort) is used for Tatars who are ashamed of their own culture and language.
Population
Population of Kazan city (01.01.2009): 1,130,717 inh. in urban borders (7th in Russia)
1,180,238 inh. in Minicipal district
1.46 mln inh. in aglomeration
Climate
Kazan has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb) with long cold winters and warm, often hot dry summers. The warmest month is July with daily mean temperature near 20 °C (68 °F), coldest - January -12 °C (10 °F).
Central Kazan
Kremlin
The city has a beautiful citadel (Russian: kreml, or, sometimes, Tatar: kirman), which was declared the World Heritage Site in 2000. Major monuments in the kremlin are the 5-domed 6-columned Annunciation Cathedral (1561-62) and the mysterious leaning Soyembika Tower, named after the last queen of Kazan and regarded as the city's most conspicuous landmark.
Also of interest are the towers and walls, erected in the 16th and 17th centuries but later reconstructed; the Qol-Şarif mosque, which is already rebuilt inside the citadel; remains of the Saviour Monastery (its splendid 16th-century cathedral having been demolished by the Bolsheviks) with the Spasskaya Tower; and the Governor's House (1843-53), designed by Konstantin Thon, now the Palace of the President of Tatarstan.
Next door, the ornate baroque Sts-Peter-and-Paul's Cathedral on Qawi Nacmi Street and Marcani mosque on Qayum Nasiri Street date back to the 18th century.
Bistä or Posad
Central Kazan is divided into two districts by the Bolaq canal and Lake Qaban. The first district (Qazan Bistäse or Kazanskiy Posad), historically Russian, is situated on the hill, the second (İske Tatar Bistäse or Staro-Tatarskaya Sloboda), historically Tatar, is situated between the Bolaq and the Volga. Mosques, such as Nurullah, Soltan, Bornay, Apanay, Äcem, Märcani, İske Taş, Zäñgär are in the Tatar district. Churches, such as Blagoveschenskaya, Varvarinskaya, Nikol'skaya, Tikhvinskaya, are mostly in the Russian part of the city. The main city-centre streets are Bauman, Kreml, Dzerjinski, Tuqay, Puşkin, Butlerov, Gorkiy, Karl Marx and Märcani.
An old legend says that in 1552, before the Russian invasion, wealthy Tatars (baylar) hid gold and silver in Lake Qaban.
Wooden Kazan
In the beginning of 1990s most of Central Kazan was covered by wooden buildings, usually consisting of two floors. There was a historical environment of Kazan citizens, but not the best place to live in. During the Republican programme "The liquidation of ramshackle apartments" most of them (unlike other Russian cities), especially in Central Kazan, where the land isn't cheap, were destroyed and their population was moved to new areas at the suburb of the city (Azino, Azino-2, Quartal 39). Nearly 100,000 citizens resettled by this programme.
Other major buildings
Another significant building in central Kazan is the former "Smolentzev and Shmelev" tea house and hotel, now the Shalyapin Palace Hotel. It is located at 7/80 Universitetskaya Street, at the corner of Universitetskaya and Bauman. A major landmark of late-19th and early-20th century commercial architecture, it consists of two portions. The original portion, built for a merchant named Usmanov in the 1860s, was bought by the inter-related families of Efim Smolentzev and Pavel and Nikolai Shmelev in 1899. They operated a store selling, among other things, tea. In 1910, the Smolentevs and Shmelevs constructed another portion, designed by architect Vasili Trifonov, and operated a hotel there. After the Russian Revolution, the building eventually became the Hotel Soviet and after 2000 it was heavily renovated to reopen as the Shalyapin Palace Hotel.
Education and science
Primary and secondary education
Primary and secondary education system of Kazan includes: 282 kindergartens, most of them are municipal
178 schools, 2 of them are private
28 vocational technical schools
15 colleges
10 special colleges
There are also 49 music schools, 10 fine-arts schools and 43 sports schools.
Higher education
There are 55 institutes of higher education in Kazan, including branches of universities from other cities. Most prominent of them are: Kazan State University was founded in 1804 and has had several prominent students, including Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, Leo Tolstoy and Vladimir Lenin. The Unversity is famous for outstanding scietific discoveries, including Non-Euclidean geometry (Lobachevsky), the element Ruthenium (Karl Klauss), theory of chemical structure (Butlerov), and electron paramagnetic resonance (Zavoisky). KSU includes 14 faculties, four institutes, and two branches (in Naberezhnie Chelny and Zelenodolsk). There are 16,000 students and 615 aspirants in KSU.
Kazan State Technological University (KCTI) is one of the largest educational institutions in Russia. The school began on July 14, 1890 as a joint secondary chemical and technological school and primary technical school with vocational training in mechanics, chemistry and construction. KCTI represents the beginning of technical education in Russia and Tatarstan. There are more than 27,000 students studying in the 11 faculties of KSTU (KCTI).
Kazan State Technical University (KAI) was established in 1932. Today the University is one of the leading institutions in the development of aircraft and rocket engineering, engine- and instrument-production, computer science, and radio engineering. There are more than 16,000 students studying in KTSU's nine faculties (KAI).
Kazan State Medical University is one of leading medical universities of Russia.
Kazan State Finance and Economics Institute trains economists for finance and credit system and industry.
Kazan State Energetics University trains engineers for energetics sector. There are more than 12,000 students in KSEU.
Science
Kazan is one of the biggest scientific centres of Russia. City hosts: scientific centre of Russian Academy of Sciences, since 1945. It includes 5 academical institutions.
Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, since 1991. It includes 7 local departments with 13 academical institutions (also, 21 organisations are under the guidance of TAS) and one branch in Ulyanovsk.
Government and administration
Administrative division
Kazan is divided into seven districts:
Mayor
Mayor is the head of the city. İlsur Metşin has been the mayor of Kazan since November 17, 2005
City Duma
Kazan City Duma is a representative body of the city, elected every four years.
Executive committee
Executive committee is a municipal body of the executive organs. Committee's head is Rafis Burganov, since January 17, 2008.
Tatarstan government
Kazan hosts Tatarstan President's residence and administration (in Kremlin), Tatarstan's Cabinet of Ministers and Council of State (on Freedom square).
Economy
Macroeconomics
Kazan is a large industrial and financial centre of Russia.
Plant facilities
Several Top-500 Russian companies are headquartered within city boundaries: TAIF (192,10 bln rub. annual receipt)
Tatenergo (47,13 bln rub.)
Kazanorgsintez (21,19 bln rub.)
Transtechservice (14,87 bln rub)
Vamin (9,7 bln rub.)
There are 151 large- and middle-scale enterprises in Kazan city, 98 of them are JSCs. Main industries machinery construction, chemicals and petrochemicals, light and food industries. Factory shipments in 2008 year total 94,8 bln rub.
Main enterprises of the city: Kazanorgsintez
"Kazanorgsintez" JSC produces 38 % of Russian polyethylene. Also it produces a large scale of petrochemical and chemical products. Kazan State Powder Mill
Founded in 1788. Kazan helicopters plant
Produces "Mi" helicopters. Kazan Aircraft Production Association
KAPO currently produces Tu-214 passenger planes and Tu-160 strategic bombers. There are also plans to start producing Tu-334 regional airliners and Tu-330 freighters. Kazan optical mechanics plant
Kazan motors building production association
"NEFIS-cosmetics" JSC (Kazan chemical complex)
Produces a large scale of cleansing agents Kazan brewery
Is a proper of EFES group. Kazan medical apparatus plant
Kazan rubber plant ("KVART" JSC)
Kazan heat devices plant
Kazan artificial leather plant
Banks
Largest banks of Kazan city are: Ak Bars Bank — net wealth for 01.10.08 — 190 bln rub.
Tatfondbank — 40 bln rub.
"Kazansky" bank — 10 bln rub.
"Spurt" bank — 9,4 bln rub.
Energobank — 9,0 bln rub.
Intechbank — 5,6 bln rub.
"Ipoteka-invest" — 3,6 bln rub.
"Zarechye"
Tatecobank
Tatinvestbank
Akibank
BTA-Kazan
Tourism
Unique combination of historical city and modern megalopolis makes possible to attract tourists to the Kazan. 345 thousands tourists have visited Kazan in 2004, 550 thousands in 2005 and 800 thousands in 2007. Kazan Kremlin attracts more than 200 thousands tourists per year . There are more than 40 hotels in the city, including:
Transport
Kazan International Airport
Kazan International Airport is located 26 kilometers from the city centre. It is a hub for Tatarstan Airlines and hosts 11 air companies. Airport is connected with city by bus route #97. There is also the Kazan Borisoglebskoye airfield which contains a major aircraft factory.
Railways
Kazan is connected with Moscow, Ulyanovsk, Yoshkar-Ola and Yekaterinburg by railways.
Main railway station "Kazan passazhirsky" is located in the city centre and includes main building (built in 1896), commuter trains terminal, ticket office building and some other technical buildings. Station serves 36 intercity trains and more than 8 million passengers per annum .
There is a second terminal in the northern part of city, it serves only one intercity train. Reconstruction of the Northern terminal is freezed.
Kazan city has also 19 platforms for commuter trains
Riverside station
Station serves intercity ships and commuter boats. Pneumocushion boats are used in winter time. Daily passenger turnover reaches 6 thousands.
Bus station
Bus station is situated in Devyataeva street. Bus routes connect Kazan with all districts of Tatarstan, Ufa, Sterlitamak, Samara, Tolyatti, Ulyanovsk, Baki, Aktobe.
Highways
There are highway connections to Samara, Orenburg, Ufa, Cheboksary, Naberezhnye Chelny (Yar Çallı), Almetyevsk (Älmät), Bugulma (Bögelmä), and Chistopol (Çístay).
There are five bridges across the Kazanka (Qazansu) river in the city, and one bridge connecting Kazan with the opposite bank of the Volga.
Public transit
A single-line Kazan Metro, the north-southeast Central Line, opened on 27 August 2005. The Kazan Metro has six stations, but there are plans to extend the line in both directions and is due to cross the Kazanka river with the station "Kozya Sloboda" in 2010. Single ticket - 12 rub.
Kazan tram system was fouded in 1899. 8 routes use 187 km of lines and 197 tramcars. Single ticket - 12 rub. Rolling stock: LM-99, 71-608, 71-605.
Kazan trolleybus system was founded in 1948. 355 km of lines are used for 14 routes . Single ticket - 12 rub. Vehicles: ZIU-682, Trolza-5275-05 "Optima", VMZ-5298.01-50 "Avangard".
Kazan bus system was totally renovated in 2007. 91 routes have length 1981 km aggregate. All 1444 buses have red color. Single ticket - 15 rub. Used buses are produced by "Golden Dragon", "Higer", "NefAZ", "MAZ", "Yutong", "Hyundai", "Bogdan-Isuzu"
Sports
Men's teams: Ice hockey (KHL) - Aq Bars Kazan (3-time champion; 2007 IIHF European Champions Cup & 2008 IIHF Continental Cup winner)
Soccer (Russian Premier League) - FC Rubin Kazan (2008 champion)
Basketball (Russian Basketball Super League) - UNICS Kazan (4-time runner-up; 2-time Cup holder; 2004 FIBA Europe League winner)
Volleyball (Russian Superleague) - VC Zenit Kazan (2-time champion; 2008 CEV Champions League winner)
Water Polo (Higher League) - Sintez (2007 champion; 2005 Cup holder; 2007 LEN Cup winner)
Bandy (Higher League) - Dinamo (2002 Cup finalist, 2009 bronze medalist), 2009 FIB Champions Cup winner;
Rugby League (Russian League) - Strela (6-time champion)
Field Hockey (Russian League) - Dinamo (5-time champion)
Team Handball - KAI-Zilant (dissolved in 2008);
Futsal - Privolzhanin (dissolved in 2004);
Famous athletes
Viktor Kolotov - football player
Ruslan Nigmatullin - football player
Denis Arkhipov - hockey player
Svetlana Demina - sport shooter
Infrastructure
Central staduim - olympic stadium, capacity 30,133. Home ground for FC Rubin.
TatNeft Arena - indoor sporting arena, capacity 10,000. Home to HSC Aq Bars.
"Basket-hall" - indoor sporting arena, capacity 7,000 (large hall) and 1,500 (small hall). Home to BC UNICS and VC Zenit.
"Rubin" stadium, capacity 10,000. Home to FC Rubin-2.
Field Hockey centre, capacity 2,700.
"Raketa" ice stadium.
Important events
Kazan is the host city for the 2013 Summer Universiade.
2005 Bandy World Championships
2008 ice hockey juniors world championship
2008 boxing students world championship
2007 field hockey Europe championship
Kazan will host 2011 weightlifting Europe championship
Bandy World Championships again in 2011
International relations
Consulates
Two consulates general are found in Kazan. Consulate-General of Iran.
Consulate-General of Turkey.
International organisations membership
Organization of World Heritage Cities
United Cities and Local Governments
Twin Cities International Association
Historic Cities International Association
General Conference of Mayors for Peace
Kazan has an Alliance française centre.
Translation
The word "Kazan" occurs as such in the following languages: English, Afrikaans, Breton, Catalan, Danish, Esperanto, Basque, French, Croatian, Indonesian, Interlingua, Malay, Dutch, Norwegian (Bokmål), Norwegian (Nynorsk), Romanian, Quechua, Simple English, Slovenian, Finnish, Swedish, Tagalog, Volapük, Waray-Waray.
Translation(s) in other languages: Arabic: قازان, Belarusian: Горад Казань, Bulgarian: Казан (Русия), Chuvash: Хусан, Czech: Kazaň, Welsh: Kazan’, German: Kasan, Estonian: Kaasan, Greek: Καζάν, Erzya: Казань ош, Spanish: Kazán, Persian: قازان, Korean: 카잔, Ossetian: Хъазан, Italian: Kazan', Hebrew: קאזאן, Georgian: ყაზანი, Kazakh: Қазан (қала), Komi: Казан, Latin: Casanum, Latvian: Kazaņa, Lithuanian: Kazanė, Hungarian: Kazány, Macedonian: Казањ, Japanese: カザン, Meadow Mari: Озаҥ, Uzbek: Qozon, Polish: Kazań, Portuguese: Cazã, Crimean Tatar: Qazan, Russian: Казань, Sakha: Казан, Albanian: Kazani, Slovak: Kazaň, Old Church Slavonic: Каꙁа́нъ, Serbian: Казањ, Tatar: Qazan, Turkish: Kazan (şehir), Udmurt: Казань, Ukrainian: Казань, Uyghur: قازان, Chinese: 喀山.
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