Zolotoordynskoe Obozrenie (Jul 2014)
Development of Urban Planning Culture in the Kazan Khanate (1) »
Abstract
The Kazan Khanate has evolved over a century. However, during this period, the formation of its urban planning culture was based on the traditions of the Golden Horde, which was the materialization of the attitudes of the society and the State toward the form of cities and settlements with complexes of buildings and structures. Achievements of urban planning culture of the Kazan Khanate was largely manifested in its capital – Kazan.The author used a synergetic approach or complexity theory of the cities, according to which the city is investigated as a holistic and open system. It is organized hierarchically with interconnected mega-, media- and micro-levels and is capable of self-organization and development.Spatial organization of the Kazan Khanate was at the mega-level. The value of this level in the system of the city manifested itself in the location of Kazan on the territory of the khanate, connections with cities in other states and with centers of uluses of the khanate. Media level was formed by architectural-spatial structure and planning structure together with its elements: landscape, communication frame, large architectural complexes. Micro-level included separate religious, memorial, public, residential buildings and household constructions.Changes at each of these levels led to changes in the complicated system rectilinearly and unpredictably. In accordance with the theory of the complexity of cities, the urban system is changed by applying the means of influence (development mechanisms) into hierarchical levels. At the media level, these funds were laws and decrees that regulate construction, traditional principles and methods of construction of various ethno-social groups, medieval towns, etc. Mechanisms of development on the mega-level were: laws and decrees of the khans, military pressure of the neighboring states, recognition or denial of the rights of various ethnic groups within the khanate on the traditional ethnic areas, etc. Urban planning culture of the Kazan Khanate as a system in the period from 1445 to 1552, passed through several phases of development: formation after the collapse of the Golden Horde; development in the state of unstable equilibrium under conditions of confrontation with the Moscow State and the Nogai Horde; chaos and death when the Russian State defeated the khanate and Kazan. Application of the synergetic approach in the research made it possible to trace the features of the development of urban planning culture of the Kazan Khanate.
