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Published: October 7th 2007
We drove 30 kms. towards the border on a cool gloomy day, Got through the Russian side quite easily, we were hushed in this hangar building and got stamped in, it was a cold day so I wore my liner gloves when it was my turn to get stamped the immigration guy laughed at me for wearing gloves, I said it was cold, well they can handle cold better I am sure. Our day bags were run through the x-ray machine, then a long wait for the truck to get inspected, probably about an hour, we can see from a distance it is being boarded, lockers being opened, and sniffing dogs all over the place. Then when that was over we are off. Another 200kms more of driving and we are in Samara. We are staying at this Soviet style hotel called the Volga. We had dinner at the posh restaurant in the hotel, the best part about this place is the toilet, it's got plasma TV! So you can piss and watch at the same time. Food was good, I took photos of the menu, I thought they were funny, it is by the way also expensive, got to watch
my budget from now on, Russia isn't exactly cheap. Had a few beers at the bar as well Dukat draft is not bad for 90 rubbles($3.5). The Russia vs England soccer match was on so we watched it, England won after I've gone to bed. The music in the bar is being recycled, it plays the same playlist over and over again, so does the TV it shows the same thing about this famous figure skater, a propaganda documentary type thingo and repeats it when it's done driving me mad!
The next morning Peter and I looked for the internet, it is really nice walking through the streets and seeing old wooden houses, they look cool. We walkde down towards the Volga river and passed by the Zhugili brewery, on the side of the building I noticed this couple selling crawfish, i bought some and it was delicious, fresh from the Volga, they are a bit bigger from the one's from the Mississippi River.
We walked back to the hotel, and went to the store and bought our lunch and had a nice picnic at the park on the shores of the Volga. Then walked a few more, found
a McDonald's place, quite tempting and is cheap compared to a sit down restaurant meal. Maybe next time, when I actually give in is just a matter of time.. We had dinner at the La Cucaracha in town, fine Mexican food. Catherine, Peter and me went back home after dinner the rest stayed in a downstairs bar with cheap beer, next morning they told me it got raided by police looking for teenage drinkers and probably looking for drugs as well, kids here drink in public it's normal, you can see them walking the streets bottles in hand ,they start young and sometimes early as in the morning at breakfast! It must be in their blood. Claire and Tony were supposed to join us for dinner but they got left at the hotel bar where we all met because they were too busy yelling at our incompetent guide Sasha, something to do with the hotel screwing up our reservations, they want us to move into dorms with no toilets tomorrow because they double booked, Claire said we are only moving up not down, and besides we were there first, I think they thought it would be easier to move the
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WORLD WAR MEMORIALforeigners out cause we don't speak the language, Sasha does not seem to want to do something about it though and also they are holding our passports hostage, they have not completed the registration process just yet, and maybe use it as a bargaining tool to their advantage Claire is upset Sasha did not tell her about this until too late, lots of yelling so we set off without them.
The next day went to see the Stalin bunker, it is under this building you have to enter from the back, it was really cool. You have to read the Wiki description further down on this blog, quite interesting. After lunch walked on my own and found the Troitsky bazaar where I bought a powerpoint round thong plug cause I left mine in Turkestan, eons ago. Went back to the crawfish seller and bought lots and that will be my dinner, and washed it down with a 1 liter plastic bottle of Baltika 3, I believe at the end of the night I had 2! That sorted me out for the night and slept like a baby.
Rainy, windy and cold to start the day this will be
a very long drive to Kazan. We have the big red hand working again, waving it to the locals, big hit to young people esp. the kids. At lunch stop I had 4 pieces of pork kebabs for lunch, it was vey good but costs me 310 rubbles ($13)! Raining all the way through Kazan and the worst day for police check points we got stop a record 8 times! We keep tab on how many police checks we go through, the whole of Kazakhstan we got stopped 10 times, this is only one day! Arriving late in Kazan we quickly got settled in our Soviet style hotel of course, Peter got the first dibs on the beds, he chose the good one mine sinks in the middle, the whole night I've been cursing under my breath about my luck. Anne and I had a really bad sushi craving so we had dinner at Yakitoria, Moscow's favorite sushi bar that has gone national, they are very pleasant, service efficient and the best looking white people wearing kimonos this side of earth!
The next morning started out a bit gloomy, overcast day. I went to explore the city on my
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HOTEL RESTAURANT MENU own walking the main pedestrian walkway just accross our hotel , still early so not a lot of people out, since this is also a weekend. I walked all the way down to the end of the street and got to within a viewing distance of the walled Kremlin, the first thing you can see is the Qol Sharif Mosque spires, it looks enormous, I made my way in and my jaw almost dropped, as I entered in the gates of the Kremlin this enormous structure came to view it was gorgeous! It looks like a Disney palace of some sort, I took gazillion photos naturally, went around it many times and just admire the beauty, then I walked toward the Annunciation Cathedral which is in the same complex, a mass service was going at that time, I came in and stayed for a good 45 mins. listening to the angelic voices, lots of singing and prostrating, quite serene and humbling. I met Alan and Lynn there and when we were outside Lynn told me I have to go inside the mosque it is free and well worth the effort, so I did, lots tourists already in line by then,
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HOTEL RESTAURANT MENU got in and the inside was trully stunning, it is similar to the one in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan but at a smaller scale. Saw some of the group inside as well, Doug, Brenda, Anne, Ron. When I got out I went close to have a look at the Syuyumbike tower which is named after a long suffering princess whao was married to three successive khans, Ivan the Terrible launched his siege of the city, she resused to marry him, according to legend to save her city, she agreed to marry him only if he could build a tower higher than any mosques in Kazan in a week, Unfortunately for Syuyumbike he did diving her to jump to her death from its upper terrace shortly thereafter.
From the kremiln i walked around closer to the lake shore and ended up near the soccer stadium where there is an event happening, it's some kind of marathon race for the locals, It was very lively, lots of runners and there is also entertainment at the stage if not handling trophies to winners, It was raining hard and cold but I stayed because it was quite entertaining watching these young people slipping and sliding
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HOTEL RESTAURANT MENU while folk dancing on the rain soaked center stage, the music was great too. Met Andrew and Amy there they were just starting their day, then I decided to go back to the hotel and get lunch, as I was walking i felt my fingers are numb, it was freezing cold, with the rain and all, I have to warm myself up so i walked hurriedly. As I was walking at the pedestrian street, a young Russian man asked me for time, he realized of course I am not a local so he started a conversation trying to practice his English, I really am not up for it but can't find away to shake him off, he said he's a student wanting to practice English and all that jazz, he wants to show me around, he was trying really hard but his English is bad he even calls the girlfriend on the phone to ask her to help out with the translations, "she speaks better English"apparently they will meet in 1/2 hour and that if I could join them please! I felt bad so i said meet me in 1/2 hour then and we'll go from there. I went back
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ZHIGULI BREWERY to the hotel to defrost my fingers and drop my pack then went out to the meeting point, the girlfriend was there, she does not look happy and hardly shook my hands, would not even look at me, pouting and all, well I got the message that I am imposing so I quickly said nice to meet you guys, I'm going now have a nice day, the guys's reaction was utter disbelief as I walk away quickly, the girl said excuse me, and I countered yes, you are excused!
Made my way to McDonalds, yes I gave in finally, well it is the cheapest food you can get, I got up the counter and ordered, the young woman quickly gave me an English menu and I got sorted. I haven't sat for more than 5 minutes when I saw Nancy walking past me tray in hand, I called her to sit with me, the first thing she said was something like, look it was the cheapest in town and is convenient, not gonna argue with that. We dicided to look for the Lanin State Uni, we went the wrong way and somehow found another statue, a pizza place and
oh a nudie bar next to a supermarket, ans is right within the Uni campus. We tried going another way and finally we found it just like the LP said. We saw Amy and Andy there and we went to find the internet, we did only there's a long line.
That night our last night we went out, to a bar with cheap drinks, Me, Andy, Amy, Nancy, Bruce and Ron. I had a head start with my 1 liter can of Balitka 7 I bought at the supermarket, had a few more then left the bar to look for dinner, in a mall like place where food is cheap but good. Went back to the bar again and right outside we were greeted by this group of young people who was at the bar earlier on, they befirended us and all, and the girls pulled us out for a photo so we obliged and I said why not and ask one of the guys to take one too on my camera, that's when the trouble begins, after the photo he quickly walked off towards the direction of the bar and I caught him I asked him for the
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CRAWFISH VENDOR camera but he acted as if I never gave it to him and he can't speak English so made it more difficult but he know damn well what I was asking for,he pretended he does not know where, certainly he must have passed it on to someone, I got ticked off I pleaded to the other guys in his group to help me out on this, the girls did not realized what their friends did and when I told them one said they are bad people do not deal with them, I asked Andy if he could stay with me as this could get ugly, him being tall and imposing he could scare the bastards. One dude offered to bring back my camera only if I pay 5oo rubbles to him, I balked but my camera means evertyhing to me at the mo', I took gazzillion shots earlier my memory card is still there, If worse comes to worse I will tell them take the camera but give me the card. The negotiation went on and on, out of frustration I cornered the bad guys and started pointing and yelling, I said something like "is this how you want tourists
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VOLGA RIVER to remember this town, full of crooks ,do you want tourists to still come here you f----g ass" before it got worse Andy brought me back to my senses, telling me not to go there and make things worse, I threathened them that I will go to the police, that shook them a bit, then out of the blue this tall quite guy friend of theirs came to me and said give me about 10 mins, I will bring your camera back do not pay them! And true enough he did. I got it back! I was ready to explode, punch the kids or what but Andy took me and said just walk away, let's go back to the bar. They followed us, Amy put them in their place, brushing them aside, the young man who got it back for me and couple of girls came to me later to check if I was alright, I owe them my camera and thanked them profusely but did not want anything, gave them a hug and they left.
Now I thought the adventure for the night is over, but no, the guys sitting on the table next to us joined in
in our group, as bad their English was they're quite fun but like any red blooded Russian dude they will offer you vodka shots and so we did the shots of course, when in Rome..as if we learned from the Siberia episode... Alexei with the hat, Andrei in stripe shirts and a quite unfriendly looking guy friend of theirs, seeing my puzzled look why he does not join in , Alexei offered, oh he is from Abkhazia, like I know where it is.. A few more beer rounds and we all got friendly, i asked Alexei what he does for a living, he started punching the air like a boxer, you're in boxing? No he smiled, Mafia!! And had a laugh with his buddies. Well they look it ,local Mafias at best. we were later joined in by more young people on another table , a number of the girls quite pretty, When last call came we all decided to visit another bar, not after Andrei challenged our Andrew for an arm wrestling, the bet was $100 i think which was meant as a joke, Andrew lost and he won't pay up so Alexei wanted to take his(andy) wife from
him, Amy, well pretend wife so they stop picking up on her. It got tricky but somehow worked itself out, Nancy and Amy opted to go back home while the boys joined our new friends to another bar, these are the young professionals from the other table, they seem nicer, the mafia boys stayed outside for awhile. The guy sitting next to me is a lawyer so we feel safe, one of the guys bought us shots of vodka again, Alexei came back and sat next to me, In his broken English he said you want sex tonight? the look of surprise on my face got him, as I move away from him he said not me, with a girl!! I said what do you mean? Turns out he can arrange it for me, a polite no was all I said and ignored him the rest of the time. Meanwhile Andy moved to another table and he was told as well, those mafia boys are bad, stay away! Last call again came after 1/2 an hour, Andy's new friends offered to take us to another bar only we have to take a taxi about 1/2 an hour away out of
town, at first we said yeah but quickly changed our minds, the mafia boys are still outside, we just walked away, me , Andy, Ron and Bruce, and that was how the night went in quiet unknown Kazan.
Went back to the hotel no sooner than I got in my sunken bed the phone rang, a woman on the other line, all too familiar, no sex for me tonight spasiba, dasvidaniya!
WIKI INFO:
SAMARA:
Samara (Russian: Сама́ра) (from 1935 to 1991—Kuybyshev (Ку́йбышев)) is the sixth-largest city in Russia. It is situated in the southeastern part of European Russia, the Volga Federal District, the administrative center of Samara Oblast. Its geographical location is 53°14′N, 50°10′E. Population: 1,157,880 (2002 Census); 1,254,460 (1989 Census).
It was founded in 1586 as a defense outpost, a fortress, and later grew into a major grain-trading center for the Volga region. It was renamed after the Soviet politician Valerian Kuybyshev under Soviet rule, but returned to its historical name after the fall of Communism.
Now it is a large social, economic, industrial and cultural center of European Russia. The metropolitan area of Samara-Togliatti-Syzran within
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THE FLYING MAN Samara Region with a population of more than 3.0 million people is known for its automobile (AvtoVAZ), aluminium (Alcoa), railroad equipment, chemicals, oil and gas, machinery, and confectionery (Nestlé) industries. The city also has an aerospace industry, namely TsSKB-Progress, producing the Soyuz and Molniya launch vehicles. Due to this industry Samara was a closed city during the Cold War.
The city was the secondary capital of the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1943 when German troops threatened Moscow.
During this period the city was nicknamed The Second Baku because of the crisis, in which the Soviet State Defense Committee decided to transfer the main forces of oil-workers and oil enterprises of Baku to the regions of Volga, Ural Mountains, Kazakhstan and Central Asia for the enforcement of the oil extraction there. Meanwhile all the nine drilling offices, oil-expedition and oil-construction trusts and various other enterprises with their staffs were transferred to the Samara area. Highly qualified specialists and masters in oil industry were sent there along with more than 5,000 workers with half of their equipment. The Kuybyshev Square is the largest city square in Europe and the third largest in the world, largely for the accommodation of
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THE RUSSIAN NANNY Soviet-era military parades. An enormous opera house is located on the square.
Along with its many universities (including Samara State University and Samara State Aerospace University), theaters, and museums, the city is also a major intellectual and academic center in Russia. The city is served by highways and railways. Its airport is Samara Kurumoch Airport, with a number of international airlines, among them Lufthansa flying to and from Frankfurt, or Czech Airlines flying to and from Prague with convenient connections worldwide, which makes it an attractive tourist destination. Samara is served by Aeroflot Russian Airlines, Samara Airlines, and a number of regional carriers. The "Kurumoch" code for Samara International Airport is KUF. It also has a rapid transit system, the Samara Metro. However, this system has only 8 stations at present.
One popular tourist location in Samara is Stalin's bunker, a World War II bunker built to house military operations in the event of Moscow falling to the invading German forces. This monument is located south west of Kuybyshev Square, behind a series of apartment complexes. Vladimir Lenin's body was also evacuated to Samara when the Soviet Union was invaded by Germany, and Moscow seemed to be on
the verge of falling into German hands.
Samara boasts of a vibrant nightlife. There are several clubs that play house music, including Zvezda, Birzha, Aura, Postel, and MTL. However, due to the federal anti-drug agency's ("Gosnarkokontrol") increased activities in the city, there appears to have been a decline in the quality and vibrancy of the nightlife (citation required here).
Samara is also the name of a model of a Lada car made by the VAZ auto company in Togliatti, in Samara Oblast.
Samara is the home to the FC Krylya Sovetov Samara, a football club in the Russian Premier League. Samara is also the home to the best world women basketball club VBM-SGAU with many famous international players.
STALIN'S BUNKER:
Only in 1991 citizens of Samara learnt that in the very heart of the city, in Chapaev Square, on the other side of the building of the Institute of Culture, there is a tiny metal door that leads to the bunker that was built during WW II for Stalin. It is 37 m deep( Hitler's was 16 m. Churcill had an ascape room just on the second undeground floor.) There are 192 steps leading downstairs.
The bunker is actually a 8-m wide shaft. Absolutely hermetic up to now, and is suitable for 5 days of self-air supply. It was built within several months in 1942 -1943, when Samara became the extra capital as many factories, plants, embassies, etc. were moved here and Stalin thought of moving there as well in case Hitler took Moscow. The bunker was built in absolute secret, nobody knew of it except for the builders who were obliged to keep the secret till they die. Only in 1991 it was announced, and opened for visitors. You wil see several rooms, offices inside, pictires of Karl Marx and Lenin, real old telephone that is still working, only is switched off by the supervisors as some of the tourists being on top of delight called their friends to say hello from the Bunker and later the bunker got bills to pay :-) Though Stalin never visited this bunker as thanks god there was no need for him to use it, but it does not make it less valuable. Still it is history, a war monument, and an amazing marsterpiece of Soviet architects and engineers. Normally they have excursions for groups from 10 a.m.
to 3 p.m., it costs USD 20, and actually you can visit it alone and the guide will show you around if you pay the sum.
KAZAN:
Kazan (Russian: Каза́нь; Tatar: Казан, Qazan) is the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, and one of Russia's largest cities. It is a major industrial, commercial and cultural center, and remains the most important center of Tatar culture. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in central European Russia.
The origin of the name is unclear. The literal translation of the Tatar word qazan is a boiler or cauldron. Alternately, it may have been derived from qazğan, Tatar for dug .
"Qazan" is originally a name for a special cooking pan, a variant of a wok, but more solid and heavier. It was believed that the city of Kazan is named after this object because of its geographical similarity with a "qazan"-pan; namely the city is situated in a U-shaped lowland.
Another, more romantic legend tells a story of a Tatar princess Söyembikä, who dropped a golden dish (golden qazan) in to the river on which the city
is located while washing it.
Additionally, Chuvash legends refer to the Bulgarian Prince Khusan (Хусан) (Chuvash rendering of the Muslim name Hassan) and Chuvashes call this city Хусан after the name of this prince.
There is a long-running dispute as to whether Kazan was founded by the Volga Bulgars in the early Middle Ages or by the Tatars of the Golden Horde in the mid-fifteenth century, as written records before the latter period are sparse. If there was a Bulgar City on the site, estimates of its foundation range from the early 11th century to the late 13th century (see Iske Qazan). It was a block-post on the border between Volga Bulgaria and Finnic tribes (Mari, Udmurt). Another vexed question is where the citadel was built originally. Archaeological explorations have produced evidence of an urban settlement in three parts of the modern city: in the Kremlin, in Bişbalta in the place of modern Zilantaw monastery and near the Qaban lake. The oldest was the Kremlin which could be dated back to the 11th century.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, Kazan could have shielded a Volga trade route from Scandinavia to Iran. It was a trade
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DINNER PLACE center, and possibly a major city for Bulgar settlers in the Kazan region, although their capital was at the city of Bolğar further South.
In the 13th century, re-settlers came to Kazan from Bolğar and Bilär, which had been ruined by the Mongols. Kazan became a center of a duchy, which was a dependency of the Golden Horde. In 1430s Hordian Tatars (such as Ghiasetdin) usurped power in the duchy, which was ruled by Bolghar dynasty before.
After the destruction of the Golden Horde, Kazan became the capital of the powerful Khanate of Kazan (1438). The city bazaar Taş Ayaq (Stone Leg) became the most important trade center in the region, especially for furniture. The citadel and Bolaq channel were reconstructed, giving the city a strong defensive capacity. The Russians managed to occupy the city briefly several times, but before the 1552 they withdrew.
In 1552, the city was conquered by Russia under Ivan the Terrible and the majority of the population was massacred. During the governorship of Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky, most of the khanates's Tatar residents were killed, repressed, or forcibly Christianized. Mosques and palaces were ruined. The surviving Tatar population was moved to a place 50 km
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OLD WOODEN HOUSES away from the city and this place was forcibly settled by Russian farmers and soldiers. Tatars in the Russian service were settled in the Tatar Bistäse settlement near the city's wall. Later Tatar merchants and handicraft masters also settled there.
Kazan was largely destroyed as a result of several great fires. After one of them in 1579, the icon Our Lady of Kazan was discovered in the city. During the Time of Troubles in Russia the independence of the Kazan Khanate was restored with the help of the Russian population, but this independence was suppressed by Kuzma Minin in 1612. The history of that period requires further research.
In 1708, the Khanate of Kazan was abolished, and Kazan became the center of a guberniya. After Peter the Great's visit, the city became a shipbuilding base for the Caspian fleet.
The major Russian poet Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin was born at Kazan in 1743, the son of a poor country squire of Tatar origin though himself having a thorough Russian identity and making a substantial contribution to Russian culture.
Kazan was largely destroyed in 1774 as a result of a revolt by border troops and peasants led by
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STATUE AT CHAPAEV SQ. the Don Cossack ataman (captain) Yemelyan Pugachev, but was rebuilt soon afterwards, during the reign of Catherine the Great. Catherine also decreed that mosques could again be built in Kazan. But discrimination against the Tatars continued.
In the beginning of 19th century Kazan State University and Printing Press were founded by Alexander I. The Qur'an was firstly printed in Kazan in 1801, and it became an important centre for Oriental Studies in Russia. By the end of the 19th century, Kazan had become an industrial center of the Middle Volga. People from neighboring villages came to the city looking for work. In 1875, a horse tramway appeared; 1899 saw the installation of a tramway.
After the Russian Revolution of 1905, Tatars were allowed to revive Kazan as a Tatar cultural center. The first Tatar theater and the first Tatar newspaper appearedIn 1918, Kazan was a capital of the Idel-Ural State, which was suppressed by the Bolshevist government. Kazan was also the center of an anti-Bolshevik Bolaq artea Republic. In August 1918 it was shortly occupied by White Czechs. In 1919 (after the October Revolution), Kazan became the center of Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In the 1920s and
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STALIN'S BUNKER 1930s, most of the city's mosques and churches were destroyed (as occurred elsewhere in the USSR).
During World War II, many industrial plants and factories were evacuated to Kazan, and the city subsequently became a center of the military industry, producing tanks and planes.
In the late 1980s and in the 1990s, after the dissolution of the USSR, Kazan again became the center of Tatar culture, and separatist tendencies intensified. Since 2000, the city has been undergoing a total renovation. A single-line metro opened on 27 August 2005. The Kazan Metro has five stations. But there are plans to extend the line in both directions. Kazan celebrated its millennium in 2005, when the largest mosque in Russia, Qolsharif, was inaugurated in the kremlin, and the holiest copy of Our Lady of Kazan was returned to the city. The date of "millennium", however, was fixed rather arbitrarily.
THE KREMLIN:
The city has a beautiful citadel (Russian: kreml, or, sometimes, Tatar: kirman), which was declared the World Heritage Site in 2000. Major monuments in the kremlin are the 5-domed 6-columned Annunciation Cathedral (1561-62) and the mysterious leaning Soyembika Tower, named after the last queen of Kazan and
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STALIN'S BUNKER regarded as the city's most conspicuous landmark.
Also of interest are the towers and walls, erected in the 16th and 17th centuries but later reconstructed; the Qol-Şarif mosque, which is already rebuilt inside the citadel; remains of the Saviour Monastery (its splendid 16th-century cathedral having been demolished by the Bolsheviks) with the Spasskaya Tower; and the Governor's House (1843-53), designed by Konstantin Thon, now the Palace of the President of Tatarstan.
Next door, the ornate baroque Sts-Peter-and-Paul's Cathedral on Qawi Nacmi Street and Marcani mosque on Qayum Nasiri Street date back to the 18th century.
In the beginning of 1990s most of Central Kazan was covered by wooden buildings, usually consisting of two floors. There was a historical environment of Kazan citizens, but not the best place to live in. During the Republican programme "The liquidation of old apartments" most of them (unlike other Russian cities), especially in Central Kazan, where the land isn't cheap, were destroyed and their population was moved to new areas at the suburb of the city (Azino, Azino-2, Quartal 39). Nearly 100,000 citizens resettled by this programme.
The capital of the Republic of Tatarstan is Kazan - a large railway, highway
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STALIN'S BUNKER and airway knot, the largest port on the Volga River. Kazan is the main economic centre of Tatarstan. 35% of population, employed in economic branches, concentrate in Kazan. 151 large and medium-size companies are situated in the city, including 98 JSC.
Main branches of municipal industry are as follows: automotive, chemical and petrochemical, light and food industries.
In 2002 the gross territorial product of Kazan reached 96,8 billion rubles. It was mainly formed by the industrial production (27 %), trade and public catering (21,9 %), transport (6,6 %), building sector (4,9 %), net taxes (20 %). Industrial enterprises produced 45 billion rubles worth of products (111,4 % in established prices to the 2001 level). The wages in industry were 4500 rubles (21,5 % higher than in the previous year). The average salary as a whole exceeded 4200 rubles (142,9 % in year-on-year terms). The physical index of industrial production as a whole was 105,3 %. As a preliminary, the industrial income was 6 billion rubles (102,8 % in year-on-year terms).
48,6% of goods produced in Kazan are sold inside the Republic of Tatarstan, 31% - in the territory of Russia, 20,4% - is exported to the CIS
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STALIN'S BUNKER countries and countries of "far abroad".
Export sales of JSC "Kazanorgsintez" form more than 30% of the total volume of enterprise's output. JSC "Kazan Helicopter Plant" exports 92,3% of its output.
JSC "Kazan Optical-mechanical Plant" exports 36,6% of its output.
JSC "Kazanorgsintez" is one of the largest chemical enterprises in Russia. It produces more than a half of the whole polyethylene production of the country. It was included to the RF State List of associations and monopoly enterprises producing polyethylene, polyethylene pipes and details of pipelines. Enterprise is marked by a high management level and firm growth of output volume. Produce quality meets the European standards and is exported to many world countries.
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Alexander
non-member comment
People who think that everywhere is everything the same are not right. The best thing is to get a local guide, especially if you just want to get to know the city. If you don´t have that opportunity, well, can be different. You can never know what is good to do and what is not in another country. You know your place but not everythere is the same as at home. I am originally from Kazan and I know what kind of city it is. There are both good and bad people, as everywhere. But to distinguise that you have to know the place and people there. You will never see the differences if you don´t know them. Often it is also luck, some people have luck.. some not. I think for you.. you just didn´t have it. There are a lot of nice people here and I know people from different countries of the world who remember time in Kazan with a good feeling. Some of them even turn back again. Good luck you next time, wherever you go and wherever you are!