Kazan

Title

Kazan

Description

View of the city of Kazan

ca. 1840

Artist

Anonymus

Historical Description

The city of Kazan was founded by the Volga Bulgars around the year 1005. With the invasion of the Golden Horde, the Volga Bulgars lost their independence in the 13th century. The decline of Mongol rule led to the formation of the Khanate of Kazan in 1393. The Moscow-Kazan Wars, which lasted for decades, ended in 1552 with the capture of the city by the Russian troops of Ivan IV. Kazan and became the first non-Russian city to be incorporated into the Russian Tsardom. Thus, Kazan is considered the starting point of the Russian multiethnic state. Ivan IV had the Kazan Kremlin built and developed the city into a fortress against attacks from the east. In the 1770s Kazan became a center of the Pugachev Uprising (1773-75). The reconstruction of Kazan followed a general plan authorized by Catherine II. In a mixture of Eastern and Western architecture, the city center was rebuilt in stone and the streets straightened. Kazan quickly reemerged as a trade center for porcelain, ceramics, spices, fabrics, leather goods, wine, and fruits. By the first half of the 19th century, Kazan had become the industrial, commercial and cultural center of the Volga region. The University of Kazan is one of the oldest in Russia. It is worth mentioning that between 1807 and 1854 Kazan was a center of Oriental studies. Here one could study Turkish, Persian and Arabic, and Mongolian since 1844. There were German lecturers who did not speak Russian and taught in Latin. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazan has been the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Tatarstan within Russia.