A look at Kazan, Russia's 3rd capital and one of its most multicultural cities

(4 Jun 2018) Russia's "third capital" is to host four group games, a Round of 16 match and a quarter-final in this year's football World Cup.
Kazan is one of Russia's oldest cities, and, for over 1,000 years, has also been one of its most multicultural.
More than 100 ethnic groups live in the Tatar capital.
The grand Tatar mosque, Qol Sarif, located in the middle of the Kazan Kremlin, is situated right next to an Orthodox Church.
A Jewish synagogue is also nearby, in a neighbouring district.
There is a long-running dispute as to whether Kazan was founded by the Volga Bulgars in the early Middle Ages or by the Mongols of the Golden Horde in the mid-15th century.
However, Finno-Ugric peoples were assimilated by Kipchaks here, then Russians came, and that created the modern Kazan population.
"This Khanate (a political entity of Kazan ruled by a Khan) seemed to Ivan the Terrible a little dangerous, although it was friendly towards the Russian Empire, and he found it possible to conquer it (the Khanate of Kazan) to make it easier," said Liya Bushkanets, a professor at the Leo Tolstoy Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication at Kazan Federal University.
"Then Russian troops went to the East. Thus Tatar lines and Russian lines were intermixed here. Plus, there are a lot of folks here, in the Volga region: Chuvash, Mari people are not far from here. Later Jews came here. That's why Kazan turned into a city where an enormous number of nationalities live."
Today, almost a half of Kazan citizens are Tatars, who converse fluently in Russian and Tatar, and observe the Muslim faith.
Many Tatar Muslims grew up with traditional Russian values.
Their creed is often referred to as Euro-Islam as the alternative to religious conservatism and extremism.
Many Tatars are not devout believers, and are secular, as religion in Tatarstan was seriously damaged in Soviet times.
In a small neighbourhood in Kazan's outskirts, an orthodox priest came to talk to an imam, his friend, on a first-name basis.
He later joins Iftar, the evening meal with which Muslims end their daily Ramadan fast at sunset.
Both clergies and their parish help each other to solve the problems of their local community.
"There have been no conflicts for the last period of time. Probably, it was in history, let's say. But today we reap the benefits of our ancestors as they managed to create friendly coexistence among religions", Abbyaz Khazrat, the imam of the Tynychlyk mosque, said.
"Not only are we not going to kill each other, but, if one needs help with something, we surely are going to come forward. He has parishioners who could help, and I have parishioners who could come to help as well", said Valeriy, the Orthodox priest.
In the city the principle of parity works when the construction of a new mosque implies the onset of an Orthodox church.
Many Jews, whose community in Kazan is one of the largest and most prosperous in the country, say they have almost never faced anti-Semitic sentiments here.
One of the most prestigious schools of Kazan is Jewish: founded 20 years ago in a general education institution, it has been completely reequipped with help from the Jewish diaspora.
Kazan families, including many Tatar Muslims and Russians, want their children to enter the school despite mandatory Hebrew classes, but only one of three applicants gets in.
The leavers continue their education at leading universities of Russia and abroad because of the high level of academic training by highly skilled teachers.
Recently, Russia's only Museum of Samogon, a Russian moonshine, had opened in Kazan.
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[@ahmedhumoud8250]

tatarstan is the country not Russia the Volga tatars aren't Slavic Russians

[@Slicky165]

That's not a country

[@almatymalayali5668]

Tatarstan Muslim Majority Country