Kazan — summer 2010

Nowadays Russia is properly called “The Russian Federation” «Российская Федерация», which is made up of 83 “federal subjects” «субъекты Российской Федерации». One of those federal subjects is called the “Republic of Tatarstan” «Республика Татарстан», which is outlined in green down below:

There are about 10,000,000 Tatars worldwide, about 5.5 million of whom live in Russia. They are a Turkic people who speak a Turkic language. About four million people live in Tatarstan, of whom over 2,000,000 are ethnic Tatars. There are over a million Russians in the republic as well.

The largest city of Tatarstan is Kazan «Казань», which is located about 450 miles east of Moscow and is the eighth largest city in Russia with a population of over 1.1 million. Tatars make up somewhat more than 50% of the population of Kazan. Russians make up somewhat more than 40%. It is located on the confluence of two rivers: the Volga, which is the longest river in Europe, and the Kazanka.