 |
Kazan
|
|---|
| Population: | 1,100,000 |
| Ethnic Groups: | Tatar, 49%;Russian 43% |
| Founded: | mid 15th century |
| Industry: | Chemical and Food
processing; aeronautics; fur |
|
| Location |
Climate |
| Longitude |
Latitude |
Altitude |
Time Zone |
Temperature |
Precipitation |
| 49° 08' E |
55° 45'N |
600ft.
200 m |
| GMT |
+4 hours |
| Moscow |
+0 hours |
|
| January |
-16° C |
| July |
+20° C |
|
13 inches
35cm |
|
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.
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