General Information

The capital of Tatarstan republic - city of Kazan is situated in the northwest of Tatarstan. The city is stretched along two banks of Kazanka river - at the place of its conjunction with the Volga river.

The population of Kazan is more than 1.1 million people. The main body of legislature is Kazan State Council. The executive power is carried out by the Administration. The head of the Administration - Iskhakov Kamil Shamilievich.

The capital is a large railway, highway and aviation unit, the largest port on the Volga river.

Economy

The leading branches of the industry in the city are machine-building and metalworking, aircraft and device-making, chemistry and oil chemistry, light and food industries.

The city manufactures: helicopters, planes, compressor and refrigerating equipment, polyethylene, sinthetic rubbers, medical and optical devices, washing powders, medicines. One of the leaders of the Russian food industry is "Krasny Vostok", PLC, brewery concern.

Kazan - large centre of science of Russia and Tatarstan. The third in Russia, after Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, the Kazan state university was founded. In total in the city works 30 higher educational institutions, the Academy of sciences of Republic Tatarstan and the Kazan Centre of Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences, network of scientific research institutes.

Culture

The capital of Tatarstan on historical-cultural value and safety of heritage concerns to class "A" (like Moscow and Saint-Petersburg). The Kazan Kremlin is included in the UNESCO list of monuments of "the World heritage". N.I.Lobachevsky, A.M.Butlerov, L.N.Tolstoy, S.T.Aksakov, G.R.Derzhavin, M.A.Balakirev, M.S.Shepkin, V.V.Khlebnikov, F.I.Shalyapin, N.I.Feshin, V.I.Kachalov, P.Lesgaft, A.Melnikov-Pechersky were born and educated in Kazan and later worked here.

The city is the cradle of the Tatar culture. Kayum Nasyri, Shigabutdin Mardzhani, Gabdulla Tukay, Musa Dzhalil, Salikh Saidashev, Farid Yarullin worked here creating unforgettable masterpieces.

Kazan is a multi-confession city. In the city there are the Catholic chapel, Judaism synagogue and other cult establishments, 20 mosques, Orthodox temples, Lutheran kirha. The orthodox theological seminary and the Russian Islamic university are open.

High cultural traditions are kept by philarmonic society, 4 state orchestras, Ensemble of songs and dance of Tatarstan Republic, second-largest in Russia Bolshoy concert hall, opera, drama and doll theatres. In the city there are 7 higher and secondary educational institutions of culture and art, over 50 musical and art schools.

The attention is paid to development of sports: available and new stadiums and pools are restored and under construction. The new shape has received the Palace of sports with artificial ice with two ice arenas.

August, 30, 2005 in the life of the capital of Tatarstan there will be a significant event - Kazan will mark the 1000-anniversary.

Source: http://kazan.ws

Russian-Tatar Relations

Kazan is a city with a colorful, violent, complicated, rich history. Relations between the city and Russia, its gigantic neighbor to the north, were volatile for centuries, as Tatar troops invaded Russian lands and Russian armies (both temporal and spiritual) tried to take Tatar land and convert its Islamic population to Russian Orthodoxy. The attitude of the Russian rulers to the Tatars was varied: in the 16th century, Ivan the Terrible tried to forcibly convert the Tatars; in the mid-18th century, Empress Elizabeth decreed that all Tatar mosques in the city be destroyed, leading to the razing of more than 400 mosques; and in the late 18th century, Catherine the Great allowed new building of mosques. Some mosques dating from this period still stand in the city.

One of the most famous and venerated Orthodox icons in Russian history is closely tied to the city of Kazan. When volunteer fighters went from Kazan to help liberate Moscow from Polish troops in 1612, they carried with them an icon called Our Lady of Kazan. The subsequent victory in Moscow was widely attributed to the mystical powers of this icon, and two grand churches were built one in Moscow, and one on St. Petersburg’s Nevsky Prospect -- in honor of the icon.

Kazan has also long been known as a center of intellectual and revolutionary activity in Russia. Famous students at the city’s renowned University of Kazan have included Lev Tolstoy, Lenin, and Karakozov, a 19th-century revolutionary who attempted to assisinate Tsar Alexander II. Also, the great opera singer Fyodor Chalyapin was born here.

Present relations between the Tatars and Russians are for the most part stable, although there are segments of Tatar society who agitate strongly for Tatar independence. The long history between the Russian and Tatar peoples has resulted in a large number of mixed marriages, which adds to the general stability. Tatar language is taught in schools in Kazan, and the red, white and green flag of Tatarstan flies over government buildings.

Serguei Maniliouk