The complex of buildings of the Cannon Yard in the Kazan Kremlin has a history spanning more than 300 years. The 20th century in the history of this architectural complex is no less fascinating than the previous centuries, when artillery production was functioning here. The exhibition introduces the history of the Cannon Yard complex in the 20th century, as well as the stages of restoration of its buildings.
The exhibition showcases photographic and textual materials from the Funds of the Kazan Kremlin Museum-Reserve, as well as archival materials and items contributed by residents and visitors of Kazan during a public collection organised in preparation for the exhibition.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Cannon Yard Complex of the Kazan Kremlin was under the jurisdiction of the Kazan Military School.
It is known that as early as 1866, the buildings of the Artillery Yard were transferred to the newly opened Kazan Junker Infantry School. The project for adapting these buildings for educational purposes was prepared by the provincial architect Nikolai Gricevich. The Cannon Yard Complex became the second courtyard of the Junker Military School.
In 1878, due to an increase in the number of students at the Junker Infantry School, a new expansion project was developed. The project was prepared by military engineer Staff Captain Fedorov. According to this project, additions were made to the officers’ wing and service buildings in the second courtyard of the school. The northern wing of the building was also expanded. Additionally, two-storey gateways were constructed between the main building of the Junker Military School and the officers’ wing. The façades of the buildings were also redesigned.
According to the “Plan of the Wings Around the Second Courtyard of the Junker Military School in Kazan, 1870,” the Main (Eastern) building of the courtyard housed the office of the provincial military commander, the apartment of the school adjutant, the apartment of the provincial military commander, and a kitchen. The upper floor of the main building contained officers’ apartments. The northern wing also housed the office of the provincial military commander (office archive, apartments, kitchen). The western wing contained a stable, carriage house, cellars, laundry, drying room, and bathhouse. The southern wing housed apartments for single and married servants of the school, with the upper floor occupied by a married officer’s apartment.
On September 1, 1909, the Kazan Junker Infantry School was renamed the Kazan Military School, which was disbanded on November 6, 1917.
In 1919, the First Kazan Muslim Infantry Command Courses were established on the basis of the Kazan Military School. After a series of disbandments and reorganisations, in March 1941, by order of the People’s Commissar of Defence of the USSR, the Kazan Tank School was formed. The newly established educational institutions were located in the complex of buildings of the former Junker Military School.
During the Great Patriotic War, the Kazan Tank School occupied half of the territory of the Kazan Kremlin. The Cannon Yard Complex housed a dining hall, kitchen, food storage, and apartments for the school’s command staff and commander.
In the post-war period, the territory of the Artillery Yard was under the jurisdiction of the tank school for some time, and then, until 1993, it housed a military unit.
Over the years of the military unit’s presence on the territory of the Cannon Yard, the architectural appearance of the buildings suffered significantly: the courtyard façade of the Main Building was heavily altered with additions, rusty metal staircases, and a large number of wires. The windows of the first floor of the southern wing, where the soldiers’ dining hall was located, were widened and filled with glass blocks, and the walls inside were saturated with rancid grease. The central risalit housed Tatptitseprom, and the northern wing contained food storage facilities.
The South and West Buildings were used as administrative offices with vegetable storage and supply warehouses, respectively. The South Building suffered the least damage, with the interior walls of the basement, dating back to the time of the complex’s construction, being plastered. The West Building was expanded with a second floor.
Additionally, in December 1993, a collapse occurred in the end of the West Building of the Cannon Yard, caused by the disruption of natural hydrogeological processes due to unsystematic water use, which threatened the preservation of the building and the adjacent walls and towers.
After the withdrawal of the military unit from the Kazan Kremlin in 1993, which occupied its entire western part, it was planned to house the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic and its departments in the vacated premises of the Junker Military School and the Artillery Yard. However, during the discussions, the idea of creating a museum-reserve and developing a concept for the restoration and museumification of the Kazan Kremlin ensemble emerged. On January 22, 1994, the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, M.Sh. Shaimiev, signed a decree establishing the Kazan Kremlin State Budgetary Historical, Architectural, and Art Museum-Reserve.
By the decree of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan dated November 13, 1995, proposals for the implementation of priority restoration and reconstruction work on the complex of monuments of the Cannon (Artillery) Yard, the Governor’s Palace, and the Annunciation Cathedral were approved. The main repair and restoration work on the objects of the Cannon (Artillery) Yard was carried out from 1995 to 2005 by the firm Tatinvestgrazhdanproekt Company and the Yugoslavian company Progress.
From 1995 to 2002, the Main Building of the Cannon Yard was restored under the project of architects F.M. Zabirova, R.M. Zabirov, L.Sh. Sayfullina, S.P. Shakurov, and A.K. Daisheva. During the restoration work in 1995, a casting pit for manufacturing cannons and a blast pipe for the casting furnace were discovered in the southern risalit.
In 2017, the casting pit was museumised and is now open for viewing. According to architect R.M. Zabirov, during the restoration of the Main Building, “there were many moments of architectural archaeology,” when, upon removing later layers of plaster, rich details, finely and skilfully carved in brick in the 18th century and knocked off in the 19th century during the change of architectural style, were discovered on the façades.
The discovery of traces of these architectural details, as well as archival research, allowed the architects to restore the Main Building of the Cannon Yard to its original appearance in the Peter I Baroque style.
From 1997 to 1999, the Northern Building of the Cannon Yard was restored under the direction of F.M. Zabirova, with architects R.M. Zabirov and S.P. Shakurov; the engineering part of the project was carried out by the Kazan Promstroyproject Institute under the direction of G.I. Nikitin; the architect was A.H. Belostotskaya; the engineer was N.A. Imaikin; contractors: Yoldyz LLC, Antika, Stroyservice. The Progress company from Yugoslavia was responsible for the interior design, an interior architect was Peter Arsich.
A symmetrical two-storey building with a ground floor is attached to the Cannon Yard’s Main Building at a right angle from the north. From the late 1990s, the North Building housed ministries and departments, as well as the temporary residence of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan. Currently, the building serves as the representative building for the Office of the Rais (Head) of the Republic of Tatarstan.
The restoration of the West Building was carried out from 1995 to 1999 under the project of the Personal Creative Workshop of the Union of Architects of the Republic of Tatarstan, led by F.M. Zabirova; the architect was R.M. Zabirov; and the engineering part of the project was carried out by Tatinvestgrazhdanproekt Company under the direction of I.S. Abdrakhmanov and engineer A.I. Iskhakov. During the restoration, the building was returned to its original appearance.
The one-storey, extended building had a single-pitched roof with 16 pipes. Each pipe was connected to two furnaces. The extended building is divided into four sections, each with a firewall (a blind firewall) facing the roof. The Western Building of the Cannon Yard now houses a Crafts Centre, a jewellery salon-workshop, and a blacksmith shop with pottery and sewing workshops, all affiliated with the Republic of Tatarstan Chamber of Crafts.
The South Building of the Cannon Yard was restored in 1997–2005 with the participation of the design workshop of F.M. Zabirova, with architect S.G. Persova, and replicates the appearance of the building at the time of its construction in the 17th century. During the restoration work, a preserved system of air ducts necessary for foundry production using Dutch technology was discovered in the building.
On the west side, the two-storey building is adjacent to the fortress wall, and the eastern end of the building finishes with the brickwork of the destroyed building, clearly showing that the Cannon Yard Complex used to be U-shaped. The restoration work on the architectural complex of the Artillery Yard was finally completed in 2014. In the same year, the Cannon Yard Museum was opened in the southern risalit of the Main Building and is still in operation today.
