Kazan (English) Казань (Russian) Казан, Qazan (Tatar)
—  Inhabited locality  —
Kazan.
Location of the Republic of Tatarstan on the map of Russia
Location of Kazan on the map of the Republic of Tatarstan
Coordinates: 55°47′N 49°10′E / 55.783°N 49.167°E / 55.783; 49.167Coordinates: 55°47′N 49°10′E / 55.783°N 49.167°E / 55.783; 49.167
Coat of arms	Flag
Holiday	August 30[1]
Administrative status
Country	Russia
Federal subject	Republic of Tatarstan[2]
Capital of	Republic of Tatarstan[2]
Municipal status
Municipal Status	Urban okrug
Mayor[3]	Ilsur Metshin[3]
Representative body	City Duma[3]
Statistics
Area	425.3 km2 (164.2 sq mi)[4]
Population (2002 Census)	1,105,289 inhabitants[5]
- Rank	8th
- Density	2,599 /km2 (6,700/sq mi)[6]
Time zone	MSK/MSD (UTC+3/+4)
Founded	~1005[4]
Postal code(s)	420xxx[7]
Dialing code(s)	+7 843[8]
Official website	http://www.kzn.ru/

Kazan (Russian: Каза́нь; Tatar: Казан, Qazan) is the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. The eighth largest city of Russia, it lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. The Kazan Kremlin is a World Heritage Site. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the right to brand itself as the "Third Capital" of Russia.

Contents 1 Name 2 History 2.1 Main dates 2.2 Descriptive 2.3 Historical naming 3 Demographics 3.1 Ethnicity and religion 3.2 Languages 3.3 Population 4 Climate 5 Central Kazan 5.1 Kremlin 5.2 Bistä or Posad 5.3 Wooden Kazan 5.4 Other major buildings 6 Cityscape 7 Education and science 7.1 Primary and secondary education 7.2 Higher education 7.3 Science 8 Government and administration 8.1 Administrative division 8.2 Mayor 8.3 City Duma 8.4 Executive committee 8.5 Tatarstan government 9 Economy 9.1 Macroeconomics 9.2 Plant facilities 9.3 Banks 9.4 Tourism 9.5 Construction 10 Transport 10.1 Kazan International Airport 10.2 Railways 10.3 Riverside station 10.4 Bus station 10.5 Highways 10.6 Public transit 11 Sports 11.1 Famous athletes 11.2 Infrastructure 11.3 Important events 12 International relations 12.1 Consulates 12.2 Twin towns — Sister cities 12.3 International organisations membership 13 See also 14 References 15 Further reading 16 External links

[edit] Name

The origin of the name is uncertain. The Tatar word qazan means 'boiler' or 'cauldron'. Alternately, it may have been derived from the Tatar qazğan, 'dug' (with reference to ditches). Qazan is originally a name for a special cooking pan, similar to the wok, but heavier. The belief that the city of Kazan is named after this object comes from the terrain's similarity to a qazan: 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) into the river while washing it, and that the city was founded at that site. Additionally, legends of the Chuvash people refer to the Bulgarian Prince Khusan (Хусан) (this being the Chuvash rendering of the Muslim name Hasan) and that is the Chuvash name for the city.

[edit] History

[edit] 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

[edit] 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 the date of its foundation range from the early 11th century to the late 13th century (see Iske Qazan). It was a border post between Volga Bulgaria and two Finnic tribes, the (Mari and the Udmurt). Another vexatious question is where the citadel was built originally. Archaeological explorations have produced evidence of urban settlement in three parts of the modern city: in the Kremlin; in Bişbalta at the site of the modern Zilantaw monastery; and near the Qaban lake. The oldest of these seems to be the Kremlin.

If Kazan existed in the 11th and 12th centuries, it could have been a stop on 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 further south at the city of Bolğar.

After the Mongols devastated the Bolğar and Bilär areas in the 13th century, migrants resettled Kazan. Kazan became a center of a duchy which was a dependency of the Golden Horde. Two centuries later, in the 1430s, Hordian Tatars (such as Ghiasetdin) usurped power from its Bolghar dynasty.

Some Tatars also went to Lithuania, brought by Vytautas the Great.

In 1438, after the destruction of the Golden Horde, Kazan became the capital of the powerful Khanate of Kazan. 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.

As a result of the Siege of Kazan (1552) Russia under Ivan the Terrible conquered the city for good and the majority of the population was massacred. During the governorship of Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky, most of the khanates's Tatar residents were killed or forcibly Christianized. Mosques and palaces were ruined. The surviving Tatar population was moved to a place 50 kilometres (31 mi) 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. During this period, 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.

In the early 1600's, at the beginning of the Time of Troubles in Russia, the Kazan Khanate declared independence with the help of the Russian population, but this independence was suppressed by Kuzma Minin in 1612.

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 center of shipbuilding 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 ancestry though himself having a thoroughly Russian identity.

Kazan was largely destroyed in 1774 as a result of the Pugachev revolt, 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. It became an important center for Oriental Studies in Russia. The Qur'an was first printed in Kazan in 1801. Kazan became an industrial center and peasants migrated there to join its industrial workforce. 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 the Kazan Operation of August 1918, it was briefly 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 to the west were relocated in Kazan, making the city 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 center, including its Kremlin, has been rebuilt. A single-line metro opened on 27 August 2005. The Kazan Metro has six stations and there are plans to extend it.

Kazan celebrated its millennium in 2005, although the date of the "millennium", was fixed rather arbitrarily. During the millennium celebrations, the largest mosque in Russia, Qolsharif, was inaugurated in the Kazan Kremlin, the holiest copy of Our Lady of Kazan was returned to the city, and the "Millennium Bridge" was also inaugurated that year.^[9]

[edit] 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

[edit] Demographics

[edit] Ethnicity and religion

The city's population consists almost entirely composed of either Tatars (about 52 percent) and Russians (about 43 percent). The remainder consists of 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.

[edit] 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 derogatory term Mankurt (Mañqort) is used for Tatars who are ashamed of their own culture and language.

[edit] Population

Population of Kazan city (01.01.2009)^[10]:

• 1,130,717 resident population (7th in Russia)
• 1,180,238 registred population
• 1,432,000 greater Kazan

Year	Population
1550	50,000
1557	7,000
1800	40,000
1830	43,900
1839	51,600
1859	60,600
1862	63,100
1883	140,000
1897	130,000
1917	206,600
1926	179,000
1939	398,000
1959	667,000
1979	989,000
1989	1,094,400
1997	1,076,000
2000	1,089,500
2002	1,105,289 (census)
2008	1,120,200
2009	1,130,717

[edit] 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 (10.4 °F).

Weather data for Kazan (1971 - 2000)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	3.8 (39)	5.2 (41)	11.0 (52)	29.5 (85)	33.8 (93)	37.5 (100)	37.9 (100)	37.7 (100)	32.3 (90)	23.4 (74)	15.0 (59)	6.1 (43)	37.9 (100)
Average high °C (°F)	-8.2 (17)	-7.2 (19)	-0.6 (31)	9.8 (50)	18.9 (66)	23.5 (74)	25.0 (77)	22.4 (72)	15.8 (60)	7.2 (45)	-1.5 (29)	-5.7 (22)	8.3 (47)
Average low °C (°F)	-14.9 (5)	-14.0 (7)	-7.9 (18)	1.4 (35)	7.9 (46)	13.1 (56)	15.0 (59)	12.8 (55)	7.6 (46)	1.4 (35)	-6.3 (21)	-11.6 (11)	0.4 (33)
Record low °C (°F)	-46.8 (-52)	-39.9 (-40)	-31.7 (-25)	-25.6 (-14)	-6.5 (20)	-1.4 (29)	2.6 (37)	1.6 (35)	-5.4 (22)	-23.4 (-10)	-36.6 (-34)	-43.9 (-47)	-46.8 (-52)
Precipitation mm (inches)	35 (1.38)	30 (1.18)	25 (0.98)	34 (1.34)	38 (1.5)	70 (2.76)	66 (2.6)	59 (2.32)	55 (2.17)	54 (2.13)	44 (1.73)	38 (1.5)	548 (21.57)
Source: [11] 22/03/2009

[edit] Central Kazan

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.^[12] 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.^[13] 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.

[edit] Cityscape

[edit] Education and science

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 University 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.
• Kazan State Conservatory.

[edit] 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^[14].

[edit] Government and administration

[edit] Administrative division

Kazan is divided into seven districts:

No.	District	Population[15]	Area (km²)
1	Aviastroitelny	109,582	38.91
2	Vakhitovsky	93,083	25.82
3	Kirovsky	110,465	108.79
4	Moskovsky	132,400	38.81
5	Novo-Savinovsky	196,783	20.66
6	Privolzhsky	222,602	115.77
7	Sovetsky	240,374	76.87

[edit] Mayor

Mayor is the head of the city. İlsur Metşin has been the mayor of Kazan since November 17, 2005

[edit] City Duma

Kazan City Duma is a representative body of the city, elected every four years.

[edit] Executive committee

Executive committee is a municipal body of the executive organs. Committee's head is Rafis Burganov, since January 17, 2008.

[edit] Tatarstan government

Kazan hosts Tatarstan President's residence and administration (in Kremlin), Tatarstan's Cabinet of Ministers and Council of State (on Freedom square).

[edit] Economy

Kazan is one of the largest industrial and financial centres of Russia, and a leading city of the Volga economic region in construction and accumulated investment.^[16] Total banking capital of Kazan banks is third in Russia.^[17] The main industries of the city are: mechanical engineering, chemical, petrochemical, light and food industries. An innovative economy is represented by the largest IT-park in Russia which is one of the largest of its kind amongst Eastern Europe science parks.^[18][19] Kazan ranks 174th (highest in Russia) in Mercer’s Worldwide Quality of Living Survey.^[20]

[edit] Macroeconomics

Main indicators of 2008^[21][22]

Indicator	Value	Gross to 2007
Total output volume, rub	123,6 bln.	107,4 %
Employed, inh.	565 000
GRP, rub	271,3 bln	105 %
Average income, rub	17 300 [23]	134 %
Retailing turnover, rub	211 bln	120,5 %
Investions, rub	102 bln [24]
Expenditure, rub	18,361 bln
Revenue, rub	17,76 bln
Deficit, rub	0,601 bln

[edit] Plant facilities

Several Top-500 Russian companies^[25] 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 are: 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. It also produces a large variety 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 the Tu-214 passenger plane and the Tu-160 strategic bomber. 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 variety of cleaning 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

[edit] Banks

Largest banks of Kazan city are:

• Ak Bars Bank — net wealth for 01.10.08 — 190 bln rub.^[26]
• 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
• Alfabank

[edit] Tourism

A unique combination of historic city and modern megalopolis attracts tourists to Kazan. 345 thousand tourists visited Kazan in 2004, 550 thousand in 2005 and 800 thousand in 2007.^[27] Kazan Kremlin attracts more than 200 thousand tourists per year ^[28]. There are more than 40 hotels in the city, including:

Stars Hotel name * * * * * Mirage * * * * Bon Ami * * * * Grand Hotel * * * * Giuseppe * * * * Korston * * * * Riviera * * * * Suleiman Palace * * * * Shalyapin Palace * * * Ryan Johnson * * * Amax-Safar * * * Bulgar * * * Volga

Stars Hotel name * * * Gulfstream * * * Derbyshky * * * Dusliq * * * Ibis * * * Kolvy * * * Novinka * * * Teatral'naya mansion * * * Premium * * * Prestige House * * * Polyot * * * Regina (network) * * * Hayall

[edit] Construction

Apartment house construction (thousands m²)^[29]

Year	Value
2000	541,8
2003	611,3
2004	874,7
2005	632,0
2006	729,6
2007	742,3
2008	901,5 [30]

[edit] Transport

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 ^[31].

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

[edit] Riverside station

Station serves intercity ships and commuter boats. Pneumocushion boats are used in winter time. Daily passenger turnover reaches 6 thousands.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.
• The Kazan tram system was fouded in 1899. 8 routes use 187 km of lines and 197 tramcars^[32]. Single ticket - 12 rub. Rolling stock: LM-99, 71-608, 71-605.
• The Kazan trolleybus system was founded in 1948. 355 km of lines are used for 14 routes ^[33]. Single ticket - 12 rub. Vehicles: ZIU-682, Trolza-5275-05 "Optima", VMZ-5298.01-50 "Avangard".
• The Kazan bus system was totally renovated in 2007. 91 routes have an aggregate length of 1981 km. All 1444 buses have are colored red. The price of a single ticket is 15 rub. Buses are produced by "Golden Dragon", "Higer", "NefAZ", "MAZ", "Yutong", "Hyundai", "Bogdan-Isuzu"

[edit] 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 and 2009 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 Ctup holder; 2007 LEN Cup winner)
• Bandy (Higher League) - Dynamo (2009 - League bronze medalist, Cup holder, FIB Champions Cup winner), 2009 Russian Cup winner;^[34]
• 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);

[edit] Famous athletes

• Viktor Kolotov - football player
• Ruslan Nigmatullin - football player
• Denis Arkhipov - hockey player
• Svetlana Demina - sport shooter

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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

[edit] International relations

[edit] Consulates

Two consulates general are found in Kazan.^[35]

• Consulate-General of Iran.
• Consulate-General of Turkey.

[edit] Twin towns — Sister cities

Kazan is twinned with:

Braunschweig (Germany), since 1988 [36] College Station, Texas (USA), since 1990 Eskişehir (Turkey), since 1990 Balıkesir (Turkey), since 1990 Monufia Governorate (Egypt), since 1997 Qalyubia Governorate (Egypt), с 2001 Hyderabad, India (India), с 2001 Urbino (Italy), since 2001 Hangzhou (People's Republic of China), since 2002

Istanbul (Turkey), since 2002 Jūrmala (Latvia), since 2002 Antalya (Turkey), since 2003 Kabul (Afghanistan) since 2003 Ulan Ude (Russia) since 2003 Shumen Province (Bulgaria), since 2003 Lijiang, (People's Republic of China) since 2006 Tabriz (Iran), since 2009

[edit] 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.

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kazan

• People from Kazan

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Álvarez Veinguer, Aurora (July 2007). "(Re)Presenting Identities: National Archipelagos in Kazan". Nationalities Papers 35 (3): 457–476. doi:10.1080/00905990701368704. 

[edit] External links

• (English) Kazan city tourist portal
• (English) The City of Kazan
• (English) Kazan millenium
• (English) Universiade Kazan 2013
• Kazan 1000 years old
• The history of Islamic religion in Kazan
• Kazan - Global Stroll
• Images of the Kazan Kremlin and famous Mosque Interactive Google Maps Kazan Kremlin
• http://www.kazan-memory.uni-tuebingen.de/indexee.html - Student project about Kazan's history (central aspects: memory, religion)
• map of Kazan
• The architecture of Kazan (in rus)

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