Kazan cat

Cats, cats, cats... In Kazan, these cute fluffs can be found almost everywhere: in the form of souvenirs, toys and even monuments. Tourists are lured by inscriptions that the Kazan cat attracts wealth and luck. You can immediately see that the cat in Kazan has a special attitude, not without reason in Russia there was even such a concept as “Kazan cat”. Let’s try to figure out where love is in those parts. Who is a meow from Kazan?

Meow from Kazan
In the center of Kazan in 2009, a monument was erected, but not to anyone, but to a well-fed cat, which impassibly collapsed in the heart of Kazan, on the pedestrian street of Bauman. The aluminum cat settled under an eastern canopy on a couch with carved legs. On the mat at the foot you can see the famous Tatar proverb: “Kazan cat, Astrakhan mind, Siberian mind.” The Kazan cat is fat, Bayese. He thinks all the time, but without tension. Just drinks tea and dreams! – so says about his hero sculptor Igor Bolshakov. The monument is not difficult to find - it is located at the intersection of Bauman (local Arbat) and Musa Jalil streets.

Monument to the Kazan Cat
There is also a monument to the cat in the vicinity of Kazan - on the shore of the Raifsky Bogoroditsky Monastery lake. There are many legends and stories associated with the cat in Kazan. Here are some of them.

Legend 1. Medieval "King-Cat" booths

Lubow Cat Kazan
In medieval Russia were very popular lubricated pictures on the plots “How mice buried a cat” and “Cat Kazan”. According to one version, the lubok “Kat Kazansky” was nothing more than a parody of the appearance of Tsar Peter I (mustache and bulging eyes really resemble him in some way). Such lubberries with a cat-king appeared at the end of the VIII century, the people took innovations very hard. “How mice buried a cat” is a series of funny pictures, where each mouse-participant of the funeral is dedicated to a joke text. By the way, such pictures are stored even in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. It should also be noted that the cat at the funeral is alive. Almost always he holds a mouse in his teeth, as if punishing stupid tailed ones. According to one of the Mari legends, it was the cat that saved the last of the Kazan khans. This happened at a time when Ivan the Terrible and his troops besieged Kazan. The tsars of the Mari family, Yolanda and Akpars, decided to curry favor with the Russian tsar, dig under the Kremlin, and bring the khan with his family as a trophy to the Russians. This was planned for the night so that no one would suspect anything. However, an intelligent kote, Khan’s favorite, sniffed the enemy and woke up his master. Khan awoke, gathered his children and wife in an arm (and a cat, of course!), and escaped through a secret climb to the Volga and sailed to Persia. A rescue cat!

Legend 3. Kazan cats in Hermitage

Kazan cats
Kazan cats became famous as the best mice! It is a historical fact that in 1745 Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, while in Kazan, issued a decree: “To find in Kazan the local breeds of the best and largest thirty cats, convenient for catching mice, and send to St. Petersburg.” If anyone has such cats to report under fear, otherwise, a fine.” More than 30 Kazan cats were taken from Kazan to protect the royal chambers of the Winter Palace from rodents. The furry were enrolled in the Life Guards service, fed in the royal way: beef and grouse. The descendants of those cats still live in the Hermitage, where they enjoy constant reverence. They say that on April 1, museum workers arrange for their cats the holiday "Day of the March cat" in the obligatory program of the holiday abundant lunch and stroking fluffy bellies.

That's what a Kazan cat he is!!!