In the second half of the XVI century Kazan became a Russian city. It was forbidden for Tatars to live within the town. A small Tatar settlement appeared on the swamped place from the other side of the Bulak River, on the bank of Lake Kaban. It was called Staro-Tatarskaya sloboda, i. e. Old Tatar settlement.

In 1556 the construction of white stone Kremlin started on the place of the former wooden one. Artel of masons from Pskov and Novgorod, directed by masters Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shiryai, was specially invited for that purpose. Strong Kremlin walls of 5-6 meters width were fortified by small brick towers. The voevode’s (army’s commander) yard, archbishop palace, Annunciation cathedral and other churches as well as houses for senior ecclesiastics, service class and military men, were built on the territory of Kremlin. There were trading quarters and settlements around the Kremlin. In the 1560th there were about 300 houses, where tradesmen and artisans lived.

In the XVII century the city economy began improving. The first manufactories appeared. Trading suburbs, such as Yamskaya, Tatarskaya, Gorshechnaya, Kirpichnaya, and Krasnaya, had been expanding. The Kazan Kremlin was partially reconstructed: the walls were renewed and two octahedral tiers with hipped roofs were built. A multi-tired tower, which was called the Syuyumbike tower later, might have been built at the same time.

Kazan became the centre of gubernia (province) in 1708, when, according to the reform of Peter the First, Russia was divided into several provinces. In the XVIII century the city changed greatly and consisted of three parts: the Kremlin, trading quarter and settlements. By the middle of the century stone constructions prevailed in the city. There were the Governor’s Office, Governor’s House, cathedral, ten churches and two monasteries (Spassky and Troitsky), bishop’s house, and chief-commandant’s yard with two guard-houses, guard-room and arsenal.

A trading quarter with wooden wall adjoined the Kremlin. In 1729 the ramshackle walls of the quarter were demolished by the order of governor Volynsky. Streets with rows of stalls branched off the Kremlin all over the quarter. Houses of rich merchants were located around the Gostiny Dvor (rows of shops) near the Kremlin. Since the 1760th the city constructions had been built according to a scheme, which provided planning for a few streets in the center of the city, such as Arskaya (now K. Marksa), Voskresenskaya (Kremlyovskaya), Prolomnaya (Bauman st.), Mokraya (Chernyshevsky st.) and others. Wooden road-ways appeared there. Bridges over the Bulak River and a big bridge over the Kazanka River were built. In whole about 22 thousand people lived in Kazan by the end of the XVIII century, and 40 thousands including suburbs. Only ten percents of them were Tatars.

Kazan was the centre of culture and education in the region.

In 1758 by the Senate decree the first Russian provincial gymnasia was opened in Kazan for children of nobility and intellectuals not belonging to gentry. Moslem system of education had been developing in spite of authorities’ resistance.

In 1771 two large medreses (Moslem religious schools), Akhunovskoye and Apanayevskoye, were opened. In 1780 medrese “Usmaniya” was founded there. Enlightener M. I. Veryovkin (1732-1795), poets G. P. Kamenev (1772-1803) and G. R. Derzhavin (1743-1816) lived and created in Kazan. The first theatre with residential company was opened in Kazan in 1791.

Industrial development of the region led to intensive growth of cities. The population of Kazan was more than 61 thousand people in 1858. By 1890 there were 84 enterprises of factory-and-plant type: tanning, soap-boiling, candle-works, red calico and other ones. Among the biggest private enterprises in Kazan was the Soap-boiling Factory of merchants Kalashnikovs (1855) and tanning-and-weaving production of Alafuzovs brothers (1860). Gunpowder works was a big state plant. Kazan was still a big trading center both in the east of the European Russia and on the way to the Central and Middle Asia. In 1900 Kazan was among the five biggest cities of Russia by the industrial and trading growth. The population of the city numbered 130 thousand people in 1897, including 22% Tatars.

By the middle of the XIX century Kazan had been a single town-planning unit of clear regular scheme. Strict division of the city into aristocratic, industrial, trading and administrative districts and working-class suburbs predestined their architectural image.

Trading streets, such as Prolomnaya (now Bauman st.), Moskovskaya (Kirov st.), and Voskresenskaya (Kremlyovskaya) still have their trading image. The centre of financial and business life of the city was Bankovskaya Street (M. Jalil). The aristocracy district covered Gruzinskaya (K. Marksa), Lyadskaya (M. Gorky) and other streets. Since 1874 gas-lightning and electricity (since 1897) had been used for the illumination of the city centre. There also were serious changes in the system of public and inter-town transport and communications.

A horse-drawn way was opened in 1875, and in 1899 the first electric tram appeared in the city. In 1891 they began to build a railway. By 1896 after finishing construction of a bridge over the Volga River, there had been railway traffic from Kazan to Moscow. The Moscow-Kazan railway promoted extended commercial connections between Kazan and cities of Russia. The first telegraph station was opened in Kazan in 1859, and in 1876 Kazan was connected up with the international telegraph agency. The construction of the telephone station began in 1881 and in 1886 telephone linked the Kazan city with the world.

In the end of the XX century Kazan was a big religious centre. Six monasteries, many churches, chapels and temples (88 in all) and 13 mosques were functioning there.

The most important event of cultural life of the city was the foundation of university in 1804.

In the end of the XIX century 847 students studied in this site of learning. Among those, who graduated from the university, were outstanding people of Russia – L. N. Tolstoy and S. T. Aksakov. N.I. Lobachevsky (1792-1856), the great mathematician and founder of the non-Euclidian geometry, famous all over the world, had been the rector of the university for almost twenty years. Outstanding scientists lectured and made researches there. Among them were chemists N. N. Zinin (1812-1880), A. M. Butlerov (1828-1886) and V. V. Markovnikov (1837-1904), historians and philologists Kh. D. Fren (1782-1851), I. Khalfin (1778-1828), I. N. Berezin (1818-1896), N. F. Katanov (1862-1922) and I. A. Baudain-de-Courteney (1845-1929), mathematician P. S. Poretsky (1846-1907), geologists N. A. Golovkinsky (1834-1897) and A. A. Stukeberg (1844-1905), astronomers M. A. Kovalsky (1821-1884), physicians P. F. Lesgaft (1837-1909), Ye. V. Adamyuk 91839-1906), V. M. Bekhterev and N. A. Mislavsky (1854-1928), lawyers A. P. Shchapov (1831-1876) and N. P. Zagoskin (1851-1912) and many others.

The great Russian singer F. I. Shalyapin (1873-1938) spent his early years in Kazan. V. I. Kachalov (1875-1948) began his creative activity there. Outstanding Tatar enlighteners and religious reformers Sh. Marjani (1818-1889) and Kh. Faizkhanov (1828-1866) also worked in Kazan.

Poet G. Tukai (1886-1913) and playwright G. Kamal (1879-1933) created there. In 1906 the Tatar professional theatre was organized on the basis of amateur company. The first Russian newspaper in Kazan “Kazanskiye Vedomosti” was issued in 1811, while the traditional newspaper of the province officials was the oldest newspaper “Kazanskiye Gubernskiye Vedomosti” (1838-1917). The first Tatar printed calendar was issued by R. Amirkhanov in 1841, and the first Tatar newspaper in Kazan “Kazan Mekhbire” was published in 1905. Kazan is a city of unusual destiny, which played a great role in history. Thousands of threads are connecting it with neighboring and far-away countries, making Kazan a crossing point of different civilizations and religions and the centre of various cultures: Russian and Tatar, Christian and Moslem. Many characteristic features of this symbiosis have been affected on the city toponymy, its buildings and history. All this makes Kazan not only the meeting point of civilizations, but also their realization and cultural unification, while having varied and original coloring.

I. L. Izmailov,
Candidate of History