This page was created by Bonnie Bennett.  The last update was by Kelly O'Neill.

The Imperiia Project: a spatial history of the Russian Empire

Timeline of Kazan

1000s - Founding of the city.  Disputes as to how and when the city was founded--perhaps it was a Bulgar city beginning in the early 11th century.  There is another story about how the Tatar princess Söyembikä dropped a gold dish (called a qazan) into a river while washing it, and the city of Kazan was founded there.
 
1200s - In the 13th century, Mongols attacked the Bolğar and Bilär areas, desecrating Kazan.  The city was resettled by people who traveled there after the attacks.
 
1430s - Hordian Tatars, including Ghiasetdin of Kazan, seized Kazan from the Bolghar dynasty.  This ended the two centuries during which Kazan had been a duchy under the Golden Horde.
 
1438 - The Golden Horde was destroyed.  After that, Kazan became the capital of the Khanate of Kazan.
 
1450 - Kazan’s city bazaar, Taş Ayaq (Stone Leg), becomes a large trade center in the region.  Slavery becomes very prevalent in the area, and they make and sell excellent furniture.
 
1552 - The Siege of Kazan was led by Ivan IV Grozny (Ivan the Terrible) in 1552.  After capturing the city and adding it to the Russian state, he killed most of the people living there and set 8000 slaves free.
 
1550s - The governor Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky led a terror campaign against the Tatars living in Kazan.  They were either killed, forced to convert to Christianity, or forced to relocate to 31 miles away from Kazan.  Their mosques and palaces were destroyed.  Alexander also refortified the city by reconstructing the citadel.  Ivan beheaded him in 1564.
 
1612 - When the Time of Troubles began, the Kazan Khanate declared independence.  However, Kuzma Minin put down this secession in 1612.
 
1700s - Peter the Great visited Kazan in the early 1700s, and, at his direction, the city became involved in shipbuilding for Peter’s Caspian fleet.
 
1774 - Kazan was destroyed during the Pugachev rebellion.  This revolt was led by the Cossack Yemelyan Pugachev.
 
1801 - Alexander I encouraged the rise of education in Kazan.  Kazan State University was founded in 1804, and the Qur’an was printed in Kazan in 1801.
 
1917 - Kazan Gunpowder Plant fire of August 14-24, 1917.  Kazan became a center for the Russian Revolution in 1917, and this fire was devastating because many items of warfare were lost and many people were injured.

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