KAZAN CITY
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.