Collections History

The exhibition of the main hall (the former university church) enumerates more than one thousand exhibits. There are a lot of relics among them. The exhibition tells us about the history of one of the oldest universities in Russia.

The document, which opens the exhibition, is of great historical value. It is the Charter of Kazan Emperor University signed by Aleksandr I on November 5, 1804, and later on by the Minister of Public Enlightenment P.V.Zavadovsky.

Every of the Charter nine pages is a genuine work of design art. They are kept in a green velvet etui with the State Seal and Full Emperor Title. The ornamented text, pictures of double-headed eagle and emblems of Russian cities were made by unknown artists of taste and mastership. But the most important thing is the content of the document. The Charter includes twenty one articles, which specify aims, rights and main principals of the university.

"We order to establish the University and provide inviolability of this beneficial institution as well as the opportunity to accomplish the purpose of educating bright citizens to serve the Motherland and disseminate profound knowledge".

The document history is also very interesting. The first warden of Kazan Educational District, S. Ya. Rumovsky brought the Charter, signed in February 1805, to Kazan two month later and gave it to the University Council. For more than 100 years the Charter had been kept in a mahogany fretted shrine, decorated with bronze, which was specially made in 1806.

After 1917 the Charter was withdrawn from the university as the Soviet government found it impossible to keep a document with tsar symbols in a soviet institution of higher education. In 1933 by order of OGPU the Charter was given to the Tatarstan Central Museum of Regional Studies, now the Tatarstan National Museum.

The Painter V.Daichman designed a plaster cast of the etui and the first page of the Charter. But the museum staff had no peace for lack of the original document. On their initiative the KSU Council asked to give the Charter to its rightful owner. In March 1993 the document took honorable place in the museum exhibition.