Kazan

I’ve been studying here for over two months and I’ve said very little about Kazan. Silly me. Obviously, Kazan is in Russia. Actually, Kazan is both in Russia and not in Russia – it is the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, an autonomous region in European Russia where the predominant ethnic group used to be Tatars. The Tatars are the Volga Bulgars, not to be confused with vulgar Bolgers or vulgar bulges. Tatar is a Turkic language, and theoretically, the locals speak it, but it is fighting a losing battle with Russian.
Kazan is about the same size as Auckland, about 1.2 million people; spread out over God knows how much land. There’s a small river, the Kazanka, which flows through the middle of the city and sort of divides it in half. As I haven’t been far beyond the city centre, I have no idea how far Kazan actually extends. The Volga forms a natural boundary to the west – all of Kazan is on the left bank of the Volga. Understandable when said river is over one kilometre wide. It is probably wider; there is a dam about 100km downstream and a rather sizeable lake extends upstream well past Kazan. This part of Russia is quite flat, and I’m not sure how big any bridge would have to be to cross the Volga here.
In 2005 Kazan celebrated its millennium, which makes it older than Moscow (on paper, anyway). A large number of buildings got a thorough clean and tidy-up, apparently, and the centre of town is quite pretty. There are several old churches and stately buildings that would be a jewel in any town. The mosques are all quite new – the majority of them are only 150 years old at most. I think they used to be built of wood and not stone, so anything ancient hasn’t survived. I’m not sure how much stone there is available locally, and traditional Russian architecture features a lot of wood.
Speaking of which, there are still quite a few old style wooden houses to be seen near the centre of town. Most of them are in need of a bit of maintenance, as the climate is kind of harsh. Naturally, most of them also need re-piling and a lick of paint, but for all that they look pretty. At some point in the 19th century, some of them were rebuilt in brick. The result is a brick structure that resembles the old wooden house in shape and decoration, but with the obviously brick surface texture. Not unpleasant on the eye, and quite a few of these have survived. But most have been demolished to make room for Kazan’s expanding population.
Tenement housing takes two main forms: that built during the Khrushchev era and the modern stuff. The Khrushchev buildings are generally quite small, functional, and opulence is not a by-word associated with them. I live in one and the banisters on the stairs are reinforcing rods; lovely. Again, the main fabric is red brick, and like the wooden houses, most of them are starting to show their age. Maintenance is an ongoing problem for the city, which owns most of them. Out in the suburbs they can reach seven storeys, but mine is only three. Luckily, I live on the ground floor and only have to negotiate the stairs if I’m being the good neighbour.
The modern buildings are a minimum of five storeys and feature that wonderful innovation, an elevator. Gosh! From what I’ve heard, the apartments are bigger. Ours is a one bedroom, with lounge, kitchen, small storeroom and conveniences. You would not want a big family in this house. Some of the new two bedroom units are advertised as being at least 100m2, which would dwarf this place. There was a building boom which is grinding to a halt due to the current financial crisis, and there are a number of half completed buildings littered around town. On the whole, the new buildings are reasonably pretty, with that Central/Eastern European roofline and bricks of two shades, red and yellow, used quite decoratively. Mind you, it takes them ages to finish anything. They were working on the steps of one building on my usual route for two months. Finally, they’ve finished.
Dotted around the older part of town are churches, both Russian Orthodox and other denominations. As a rule, the churches are pretty, but getting decent photos is sometimes problematic – tram and trolleybus wires lurk everywhere. The eye may filter them out, but cameras don’t. I’ve found a few monasteries too. One particularly pretty one is right in the middle of an industrial zone, and must be a welcome island of calm.
All the “important” buildings are illuminated at night, as were the fountains. I say were because they’ve been drained and covered for winter. No point illuminating the inside of a wooden box. At night the Kremlin is particularly impressive, and rightly deserves its UNESCO World Heritage award. KGU sports a couple of awards from Soviet times, both to do with Lenin. But he is not the only famous student of KGU. Leo Tolstoy studied here too.
Littered around the town are plaques commemorating various famous artists and scientists. The Russians and Tatars are rightly proud of the creative talent of their citizens. Naturally, the plaques are in the two official languages. Sometimes it’s hard to find a building without a plaque on it. To escape them, you can stroll in the parks. There are several small parks close to home.
And then there are the stadia. Kazanski Rubin (rubies) won the Russian football championship with three games to go, and the local ice hockey team, Ak Bars (snow leopard), is currently second. Both have their own stadia, with associated shops and what have you. The basketball and volleyball teams are doing well, and they share the Basket Hall. I’m not sure where they’re placed in the various championships, but I get the impression they close to first. The water polo team is pretty good too.
If culture (I’ve mentioned the theatres and museums before) and sport aren’t your thing, then there is shopping and going to the movies. There are a number of malls within easy walk, as well as the main market, with clothes and shoes and God knows what else on offer. The clothes are cheap, but fitting rooms are a bit scarce. Haggling over the price seems to be acceptable practice. Most of the students have been there at least once.
Next: Living with a foreign language.