Kazan

Kazan, capital of the Russian government of Kazan, and anciently capital of the Mongol kingdom of the Golden Horde, stands 3 miles from the north bank of the Volga, and 200 miles E. by S. from Nijni-Novgorod. The Mongol kingdom was founded in the middle of the 15th century on the ruins of the still more ancient Bulgarian empire (see KIPCHAKS). At the same time the modern city of Kazan was built 28 miles SW. of the former city. In 1552 the Russians, under Ivan the Terrible, carried the town after a bloody siege, and put an end to the Mongol kingdom. The kremlin or fortress embraces within its walls the cathedral (1552), which has a wonder-working icon of the Virgin, a magnificent monastery (1555), an arsenal, &c. The houses are in general one-storied, and stand in the midst of gardens. The town has nearly fifty churches, a dozen mosques, and the Sunibek Tower, an object of veneration to the Tartars. Kazan is the chief intellectual centre of eastern Russia, and a home of oriental study. The university, founded by Alexander I. in 1804, has four faculties and nearly 1000 students; the institutions connected with it include a library of 80,000 vols., an observatory, a botanical garden, an antiquarian museum, &c. Kazan is the seat of a Greek archbishop. The principal objects of industry are leather, soap (made from mare's milk), candles, gunpowder, books, hempen goods, cotton, sacred pictures, &c. Close to the town are the shipbuilding-yards in which Peter the Great built his Caspian sea fleet. The Tartar merchants of Kazan trade as far as Bokhara and Persia on the one side and to Asia Minor on the other. The central parts of the town are occupied by Russians; the Tartars dwell for the most part in the suburbs. Pop. (1871) 86,262; (1895) 140,726. The town was destroyed by fire during Pugatcheff's rebellion (1774), and has suffered severely from the same cause more than a dozen times, especially in 1815 and 1825.—The government, lying west of that of Nijni-Novgorod, is traversed by the navigable Volga and Kama, with their tributaries. The 'black earth' soil produces rye and oats, with other crops, agriculture being the main occupation of the people. One-third of the total area (24,594 sq. m.) is under forest. Pop. (1871) 1,739,909; (1887) 2,113,954; (1895) 2,234,957.