Walking down the street with the mayor is not an easy pleasure. For the mayor, this is generally a job. Every second person he met considered it his direct civic duty, if not to ask the head of the city about something, then certainly to say hello

THE MAIN THING IS NOT TO BREAK THE CITY

The weather was cloudy in Kazan. The sun basically didn’t show up because of the clouds, and every now and then a light rain began to fall. He started somehow reluctantly, as if he had not yet decided whether it was worth wasting the precious moisture today. I started and changed my mind pretty quickly, and so on every half hour.

- Well, why weren’t you so prepared? — photographer Yuri Feklistov reproached the mayor of Kazan, Kamil Shamilyevich Iskhakov, during our general walk around the city. - Our Yuri Mikhailovich would not allow this. He would have launched a couple of planes at once and instantly organized normal weather for filming.

Of course, for a photographer such weather conditions are a real punishment. But for me, nothing, quite acceptable. And the mayor didn’t show any particular signs of discomfort.

STORY

— Kamil Shamilevich, I didn’t even think that Kazan would be older than Moscow. How did it happen that you rebuilt before us?

- Why Kazan, we will have an older state. The Tatar kingdom dates back over three thousand years. This is one of the oldest Muslim states. And with Kazan we were just lucky. It could have happened that we would have been not older, but two hundred years younger than Moscow. Somewhere at the end of the nineteenth century, the mayor already came to the City Duma with a proposal: let's celebrate the five hundredth anniversary of the city. He then provided materials proving that the city was no less than five hundred years old. The Duma sent the materials to the Imperial Kazan University so that they could give the final verdict: yes or no? Then such decisions were made at this level. But the scientists looked at the materials and returned them back, saying: “Maybe you are five hundred years old, maybe more, or maybe less, these materials are not enough to establish the date of birth. Keep digging further." Thus, the quincentenary did not take place. And now we say: “Allaga sheker” (thank God), because if it had happened, we would now be only a little over six hundred. After all, there was also serious evidence there.

Then, during the heyday of the party dictatorship, we again had the same idea. More precisely, new materials appeared first, and then the idea. In 1977, we wanted to celebrate the eight hundredth anniversary of Kazan. And they even began to prepare, because the first secretary of the regional party committee said: “Let’s get ready.” In Italy they printed a book about the city, issued badges, booklets, drew up a program, and at this time the materials were sent to the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. The Politburo sent the materials to the Academy of Sciences. The idea didn’t go through then. I was working here in the Komsomol at the time, and the situation was presented to us as if the Politburo was to blame. And only now, while studying the history of the issue, I found out that it turns out that the USSR Academy of Sciences was actually to blame, which returned the materials to the Politburo with the same resolution: “Maybe more, maybe less, there are few sources.” Determining the age was all the more difficult because no manuscripts survived. Kazan was always captured, burned, there were fires, wars, in general, there are no manuscripts.

However, I don’t want to live homeless. I’ve been in this job for almost fourteen years; there are no others like him in Russia, and after I worked as the head of the city for five or six years, I began to seriously deal with the issue of finding out the age of the city. I picked up all the materials from those years and began to study everything very scrupulously, so as not to repeat mistakes. In short, four to five years of painstaking work led to the fact that all five institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the bureau of the history department of the USSR Academy of Sciences unequivocally recognized that Kazan would soon be 1000 years old. Moreover, there were a lot of finds, and the spread of dates was wide. We even had to involve mathematicians, and using the method of mathematical approximation they were able to derive a more accurate date. In the end, it turned out to be 2005.

Following historians, in order to legally consolidate these results with state documents, the administration of Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin prepared a draft decree on the celebration of the millennium of Kazan. This decree went and went and went through the authorities and suddenly disappeared somewhere. We run around, looking for ends, and little by little they say to us: “Guys, you can’t do this, Kazan can’t be older than Moscow. This is not good, it’s indecent.” But then we still managed to prove that we were right, we even convinced Yuri Mikhailovich Luzhkov, and he agreed that there was nothing wrong with being older.

- But if there are no manuscripts, how can the date of birth of the city be established with such accuracy?

- There are many ways. For example, according to indirect data. Kazan was created as an outpost of the Bulgar state, as a fortress that protected the city of Bulgar and the entire Bulgar state from attacks by the Normans and Varangians from the north. And there are sources that say that starting from 1005, the Bulgars became much calmer, and before that there were constant attacks. This means someone got in their way. This means that somewhere higher along the Volga, and they were marching towards Bulgar along the Volga, powerful fortifications were built that were not easy to overcome.

- So powerful. Surely it was at first some kind of wooden fortress.

- Well, at first, maybe it was wooden, but by the 16th century it was already a real bastion, which could withstand very large armies. Ivan the Terrible tried to take Kazan three times. His troops rafted down the Volga three times. Not far from the city there is an island called Sviyazhsk. It was empty then, and they settled there. And they were so serious that they even floated the church down the Volga on rafts. There are still many monuments left there. From there the royal regiments carried out offensive operations. And they broke through to Kazan only by digging under the Kremlin wall and blowing it up. Even on Kazanka there is now a monument to the soldiers who fought here. It was from there that the digging was carried out, if you believe the legend. This year in mid-October marks 450 years since Ivan the Terrible captured Kazan. In 1552. And so the Orthodox part of the city asks, in honor of the anniversary, to restore the temple-monument at the mass grave of soldiers. And there it is written: “Memory of the Orthodox soldiers who died during the capture of Kazan.” And the other part of the city says: “What are you talking about, how is this possible, they were aggressors” - and asks to erect a monument to the defenders of Kazan. And only then will we be able to mark this date when we simultaneously restore the monument to Orthodox soldiers and build a monument to the defenders of the city.

— Were there active mosques in the city in Soviet times?

- There was only one left - the Marjani Shigabutdin mosque.

Having passed through some inconspicuous Kremlin courtyard, we found ourselves at a construction site. Directly in front of us stood a mosque surrounded by tower cranes of unearthly beauty. Light, fragile, almost airy, crowned with seemingly translucent blue domes, it pointed to the sky with an imperious gesture with all its eight minarets. The openwork arched ceilings, separated by glass walls, seemed unbearably thin and at the same time surprisingly durable.

“Great,” Yura and I sincerely admired. - Beautiful. It looks like the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

- Similar, huh? — the mayor perked up. “And it seems to me that there are no people like her in the world.” You know, if you look at the ancient drawings of the city, you will see that there were mosques, mosques, mosques and mosques everywhere. Then, when Ivan the Terrible captured Kazan, they were all destroyed, and the Tatars were expelled from the territory of the city. The settlement where they settled then is still called the “Starotatar settlement”. And here, on the sites of former mosques, churches began to appear. Some Muslims believe that the main Orthodox temple of Tatarstan, the Cathedral of the Annunciation, was built on the foundation of the Kul Sharif mosque, which at one time was central to the Kazan Kremlin and one of the most beautiful in the world. Of course, knowing the character of Ivan the Terrible and the morals of that era, one can assume that this could have happened. And they always said about the Cathedral of the Annunciation that it stands on the site of the Kul Sharif mosque, and the prototype of the Kul Sharif mosque was moved to Moscow and stands on Red Square and is now called St. Basil's Cathedral. The mosque also had eight domes. But now we are trying to resolve this dispute; we are not pitting anyone against each other. A lot of scientific work was carried out at the Cathedral of the Annunciation and it was proven that the temple stands on its foundation. Those arguing with us found one Muslim gravestone there and, based on it, are trying to prove that the mosque stood there. But we also found an explanation for this; in the altar part it is built right into the wall. We discovered it and proved that yes, it exists, but it ended up here completely by accident. That is, we removed this issue, and revived the Kul Sharif mosque, also eight-domed, but... Since no images of it have survived, more precisely, there is one drawing, but there it is depicted from a distance and only in general terms, we organized a competition for the design of the mosque and we are building it according to a new project.

- When will you consecrate it? So will you open it?

— We have now completed mostly the exterior work. The highest people from Iran came to us, and an agreement has already been reached; all that remains is to deliver 2,200 square meters of carpets from them with a total weight of 7,400 kilograms. They have already woven them and are giving them to us for the carpet part of this mosque. And now a tender is being held to determine which contractor will finish the temple. There are a lot of people interested, a dozen and a half companies are applying for this job. So, if not this year, probably this year, then we will finish the work next year. Moreover, simultaneously with the construction of the mosque, we will also restore the Annunciation Cathedral, thus maintaining fair parity between Muslims and Christians.

— Actually, as a politician, you should be outside of religion, but you are at the very center of it. In the boiler.

— Well, the mayor is not exactly a politician. More likely an administrator. But you cannot be an administrator and stand outside the flow. We must keep our finger on the pulse of all public life. Including religions. Recently I met with the Pope, we discussed the problem of returning to Russia the Great Shrine - the Miraculous Icon of the Kazan Mother of God. We were given ten minutes, and we talked for half an hour.

— Did you speak Russian?

— No, through an interpreter, although he knows Russian well. So, we talked for half an hour, because of this he could not come to the window at the appointed time. And there the crowd gathers, everyone is waiting for the papal blessing, but here it still doesn’t come. There, various suspicions were born, that’s it, Dad was dying, he couldn’t even go to the window, and it was just us talking. And so we sat and sat until the calls began, hinting that it was time to end the audience. And then Papa turned to me and said in Russian, with surprise and with some kind of even Volga-like voice: “Gee, they’re already calling.”

- So, what about the icon? How did you agree?

“The agreement was fine, but the Pope wants to hand it over himself, but they don’t accept him in Russia.”

METRO

At the entrance to the Metrostroevskaya construction site, the mayor’s white Volga was very picturesquely covered with obscenities by a tractor driver driving towards us. His speech was addressed to the driver and, translated into standard language, looked something like this: “Where are you going, weirdo? Can’t you see that my tractor has no grip on the soil, it’s slippery!”

In general, since childhood, I have loved wandering around the metro under construction, so I accepted the mayor’s invitation to walk through the tunnels with pleasure. We went down the narrow steep stairs to the very bottom of the pit in which it is planned to build the Sukonnaya Sloboda station. The name of the station comes from a cloth factory built on this site under Peter I. It was light and relatively dry in the tunnels located on both sides of us. The construction site was resting: a day off.

— And when are you going to open?

— If everything works out, and I really want it to work out, then by the thousandth anniversary of the city of Kazan we will try to launch the first five stations. The first station is Kremlevskaya, because the line will start from the Kremlin. Then there will be “Tukay Square”, then this one, “Sukonnaya Sloboda”, then “Ametyevo” and then “Gorki”. The total length is eight and a half kilometers.

— Is this a gift to the townspeople for their anniversary?

- Not really. A gift is a nice thing, but not necessary. And the metro is an extremely important thing for Kazan now. We plan to use it to relieve congestion in the historical center of the city. And besides the metro, we are building two more transport rings for the same purposes. And if we succeed, it will be very good, because otherwise we will completely destroy the center. Transport should go around the center and enter it only for special needs. But this is also a gift for the anniversary. And one hundred and thirty-one more gifts are expected. In any case, this is exactly how many projects are included in the federal target program for preparing the city of Kazan for the millennium holiday. There are plans to restore many monuments of architecture, culture, and art. So there will be many gifts, the metro is just one of them.

“As I see it, you’ve already got a lot set up here.” How long ago did you start?

- In 1996.

— When did the city cross the million mark?

— No, the city crossed it back in ’77.

— But in Soviet times, if I remember correctly, the construction of the metro in the city began precisely from the millionth mark?

— No, from the millionth mark the right to build appeared. And in order to implement it and actually start construction, it was necessary to collect a lot more documents, draw up a feasibility study, conduct an examination of the project, and so on and so forth. City leaders were dealing with these issues long before me, but I had the honor of starting to build. Only in 1995, Ufa and I were able to get into the state metro construction program together.

— It must be a difficult task to build a metro?..

— The biggest difficulty was getting into the program. Then, of course, equipment. We bought a tunnel boring complex in Canada, designed specifically for our soils. Our soils here are very wet. Then it was necessary to set up the entire production complex for reinforced concrete finishing, and we set it up. The factories started working. As a result, we achieved the highest rate of tunneling; the rest, even taken together, are completing less than us.

- And how many meters do you cover per day?

— The maximum distance was fourteen meters, but on average it was ten to twelve. This is a very high pace.

- Who are the builders?

- Only our own, Kazan ones. This is our achievement, that we rely only on our own strength. But our friends from Ufa, with whom we started together, have already left the program. Over the years they have done nothing, not even a ruble. Boris Nikolaevich laid the first stone there back in 1996, and that was the end of it. Now they have a foundation stone instead of a metro. It is a difficult matter, very difficult, to build a metro. But necessary. We can’t live without it, the central part of the city is now loaded to the limit, and we can’t load it any further, it won’t stand it.

CITY

- Kamil Shamilevich, all this is certainly interesting, but are you only showing us good things? Show us the bad stuff too. Or is it not there?

The mayor became sad. This is probably how the poet feels sad, knocked off his high rhyme by the reminder that he has to pay for utilities.

- Eat. And you don't have to go far. All you have to do is go into the yard.

And we turned into the first courtyard we came across on the way. Directly in front of us gaped with broken windows a half-stone, half-wooden barracks with a small toilet hut attached to the side. On the right, a half-collapsed building gradually descended to the ground.

“Here,” the mayor pointed at him, “the homeless children lived.” I visited them there. On the second floor they set up bunks for themselves and an extension ladder. And there are still many such houses. Although we are gradually getting rid of them.

— Is Putin helping you?

- But of course, of course. He is the chairman of the Russian State Commission for preparations for the millennium of Kazan, and Mintimer Sharipovich is the chairman of the republican commission for preparations. In general, Putin now heads two such commissions: in addition to ours, there is also a commission for preparing the anniversary in St. Petersburg. He has already come to us twice, and talked with people, and visited Kazan houses...

— Do you mean monuments?

- In the sense of a slum. Natural slums. I watched how people lived and went to visit. The Tatars are hospitable people, so they greeted him everywhere with joy. They were seated at the table and treated to food. Well, they complained, of course.

- And how many people live in your slums?

- Enough for now. We have already resettled 22,282 families, with about nine thousand more left to resettle. We have construction going on, do you know at what pace? Moscow is behind us! If you count how much new housing has been built per capita, we are almost one and a half times ahead. We built 602.3 thousand square meters of living space last year, and Moscow built three and a half million. That is almost six times more. But the population there is ten times larger, so do the math. Yuri Mikhailovich and I counted, so he was still surprised: “Wow,” he said, “Kamil, but it turns out you have more.”

— And do you distribute it to everyone or only to those in dire need?

- Those in dire need first. We have a targeted assistance program. For example, families in which more than five children, we give apartments at all right away.

- And do you have many such families?

- How many more. We have families in which thirteen children, and all children are still under their mother. For such, we are already building a separate house, a cottage. We generally have demography and birth rate - these are problems that we must constantly monitor. Over the years of perestroika, the birth rate began to fall, and mortality to increase in the same way as the average in Russia. We held a whole range of measures to protect motherhood and childhood, and, as a result, the birth rate immediately crawled up. We even introduced special checks for large and needy families, for which products and things can buy in Kazan and in general in Tatarstan. Such peculiar money for the poor.

- Will the old part of the city remain?

- Now, in most of the old city, we see an unsightly picture. There are dilapidated resettled houses in which no one lives, in which the windows are knocked out, which generally make an oppressive impression. And it is difficult to deal with this position, because when you begin to equip it, this house with the site turns out that very large costs are needed for this. Because before, people who lived in this house went to the toilet to the street, they took water in a column or in a well, consumed electricity for very little, for lighting and on TV. We are now rebuilding such plots by quarters, we bring communications, but, of course, this is quite affected by the cost of the site.

Remember, next to the metro, where we were, was the site so flat? This site is fully prepared for development. Previously, it was all built up with huts, but we took a loan at the bank of reconstruction and development, eleven million dollars, cleared it, brought communications, and now it is ready for sale and development. And so the whole Kazan, the microdistrict behind the microdistrict, will be built up with such new low houses.

- Why low? But what about skyscrapers, how is glass and concrete?

- This will not happen in the center. We want to maintain the historical appearance of the city.

- You have very narrow streets, you won’t get particularly on the car. Do you plan to expand them somehow?

- You know, where it is possible, yes, but in most cases it is simply impossible. After all, we have solid monuments of history and architecture in the center. Therefore, how these streets were designed for horse -drawn transport, so they will retain their historical appearance. At least we would really like this. Although, of course, this is expensive: to make sure that, reviving the city, not to break it.

Valery CHUMAKOV

The material used photos: Yuri Feklistov, Farida Gubaev