Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure

Kazan’s Gorky Park is one of the largest green spaces in the Vakhitovsky District, named — like dozens of similar parks across the former USSR — after the writer Maxim Gorky. The terrain, cut through by ravines, once earned the place the nickname “Russian Switzerland,” and today the park is home to a noticeable population of grey and red squirrels accustomed to living alongside city residents.

Since the 19th century this hilly area of groves and ravines has been considered one of the most picturesque corners of the city by Kazan residents — according to legend, the university professor Bronner compared the local landscape to the foothills of the Alps. Alexander Pushkin came here in 1833 while gathering material for his book on the Pugachev rebellion, and Fyodor Chaliapin is counted among the regulars of its shaded avenues. In Soviet times the site officially received its name in honor of Gorky and the status of the city’s main park: amusement rides appeared, along with a descent to the Kazanka River with a beach and a cable car of small open cabins, operated from the 1970s by the Sickle and Hammer factory.

Today the park’s southern border is marked by a memorial with the 1967 monument “To Those Who Fell for Soviet Power” and a monument to the Unknown Soldier. Deep within the grounds a small cemetery survives, with the graves of Kazan revolutionaries and writers, and two bridges span the ravines; in the wooded part of the park stand sculptures of fairy-tale characters, including Doctor Aibolit with an ailing animal. The Leto (“Summer”) café is open here, and the park is also the burial place of Irek Minnikhanov, son of the republic’s head, Rustam Minnikhanov.

The Soviet decades left the park with a rich array of amusement rides — from a Ferris wheel and a centrifuge to the Romashka (“Daisy”) carousel and a miniature train running a loop track; a wooden cinema here was built by German prisoners of war, and a summer variety theater renowned for its exceptional acoustics operated until 1993. In the 2000s, construction of the Millennium Bridge across the Kazanka and an access road to Vishnevsky Street took up a substantial part of the park’s territory: the official beach was eliminated, the amusement rides removed, and the role of the city’s main amusement park passed to Kyrlai Park. In 2010, building a road interchange led to the clearing of another section, including the descent to the bridge.

A revival began in 2007 and continued with a large-scale reconstruction in 2013–2014 as part of the “100 Parks of Kazan” program: new paths and lawns were laid out, and the city’s first major light-and-music fountain with contact jets was installed. By the second stage of works in the early 2020s, the park’s avenues and ski trails were restored, an artificial waterfall was created, and at the piers of the Millennium Bridge, on the site of the old descent to the river, the Uram extreme sports park opened — the largest facility of its kind in the country, covering 1.9 hectares with eight zones, from a skatepark and pump tracks to workout and streetball areas.

Having travelled the path from the aristocratic “Russian Switzerland” to a Soviet amusement park and, today, a modern extreme-sports cluster, Gorky Park remains one of the most visited recreational spots in the historic center of Kazan.