The university, founded in 1804, grew into one of the leading centres of learning in the Russian Empire, and its astronomical observatory, established in the 1830s, was one of the first in the country. Nikolai Lobachevsky, who developed non-Euclidean geometry here in the 1820s, served as rector for nearly two decades, and the university remembers him with a statue and a square. A young Leo Tolstoy studied briefly in Kazan, and Lenin was expelled from the university in 1887 after a student protest, so the place has a habit of producing famous dropouts.
The city around is a meeting of cultures. Founded about a thousand years ago and capital of a Tatar khanate until Ivan the Terrible stormed it in 1552, Kazan has a white-walled Kremlin containing both an Orthodox cathedral and the Qol Sharif Mosque, rebuilt in the 2000s with bright blue domes. Streets are lined with merchant houses, and Tatar food, including chak-chak, a sweet of fried dough and honey, and echpochmak, a triangular meat pie, is easy to find. The Volga and the Kazanka rivers meet near the centre, and long embankments are popular for evening walks.
A ride into Kazan is a comfortable urban ride, with wide avenues, a modern metro and a lot of traffic. The weekday rush hours are heavy, and you should pay attention to tram lines and cobbles in the old streets, which can be slippery in rain. The roads to the north and west, along the Volga, are smooth and pleasant, with good views of the river. Cameras are common, and parking in the centre is paid. The best season is May to September, and the city is a pleasure in the long evening light, though winters are bitterly cold.
Fuel, food and lodging are plentiful, and the city has no shortage of petrol stations, cafés and hotels. For a break, the pedestrian street of Bauman is lively, and local cafés serve good coffee and pastries.
Spend an evening here. The old town glows, and the river is just a few minutes away.