Pestrechinsky District

The districta rea is located in Predkamye. And encompassesT he a total area ofis 1361 m². ToIn the north, the Pestrechinsky district borders on the Vysokogorsky and Arsky districts, in the east - with the Tyulyachinsky to the east, and the Rybno-Slobodsky and Laishevsky districts to the south. The western part of the region adjoins Kazan.[6][8]

Red field with a green tip, on top of everything, there is a golden jug full of the same grain, a golden rooster standing on it, supported by two silver minks sitting and turned around with tails at their paws.[6].

The coat of arms of the Pestrechinsky district was approved in 2007 and entered into the State Heraldic Register of the Russian Federation under No. 3190. In the center of the coat of arms, there is a jug representing the development of crafts in the region, whose inhabitants were actively engaged in jewelry, leather, wood, and metalworking industries. The jug filled with grain symbolizes the agricultural traditions and modern agricultural production that form the basis of the region's economy. The two minks represent another developed sector of the economy - fur production. The red color on the coat of arms represents the qualities of hard work, strength, courage, beauty. Golden identifies harvest, wealth, solar energy, and warmth. Green is a symbol of nature, health, youth, growth in life.[6]

The regional flag was developed on the basis of the coat of arms and was also approved in May 2007. It is red cloth with a green stripe 2/9 of the flag's width at the bottom edge. In the center, there are also two burrows holding a yellow jug with grain and a rooster standing on it.[6]

After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Tatarstan made an attempt to secede from Russia and gain independence. In 1992, a referendum was held, as a result of which Tatarstan proclaimed state sovereignty. However, the region subsequently decided to remain part of Russia as a sovereign republic. At the same time, Tatarstan began to pursue an independent socio-economic policy and the regions within the republic received greater independence.[10]

From 1998 to 2013, the Pestrechinsky district was headed by Shaikhulla Nasybullin, followed as head of the region by Eduard Diyarov who began to actively develop the agricultural industry in the region.[11] Since 2018, the district has been headed by Ilham Kashapov.[12][13]

As of 2019, there were 45,054 residents in the region. The region is ethnically heterogeneous and 57% of it is inhabited by Tatars, 38% by Russians, baptized Tatars and small groups of Chuvashes, Armenians, Georgians, Mari and Ukrainians are represented separately 2%.[8]

From 2001 to 2011, the region experienced population decline. In 2012, the birth rate in the district slightly increased to 343 births compared to 332 registered deaths. Also, in the last decade, mortality rates have been falling.[14][11]

There are 74 settlements in the Pestrechinsky district, comprising 21 rural settlements. The administrative centers of rural settlements are the large villages: Belkino, Bogorodskoe, Ekaterinovka, Kibyachi, Kobyakovo, Kovali, Kon, Koschakovo, Kryash-Serda, Kulayevo, Lenino-Kokushkino, Nadezhdino, Otar-Dubrovka, Panovka, Pestretsy, Pimeri, Tatarskoe Khodyashevo, Chita, Shali, Staroe Shigaleevo and Yantsevary.

Several large highways pass through the Pestrechinsky district: M-7 (Volga) "Moscow - Kazan - Ufa", Shali - Sorochi Gory, Kazan - Lenino-Kokushkino - Tyulyachi - Shemordan, Staroye Shigaleevo - Pestretsy - Kulaevo (M-7). The Ministry of Transport plans to lay a part of the highway of the transport corridor "Western Europe - Western China" (section Yoshkar-Ola - Shali) [12][6][11] through the territory of the region. Since the M-7 highway crosses the Mamadyshsky tract, this causes traffic jams. To solve this problem, construction of the Voznesensky tract should begin in 2021, which will relieve the Mamadyshsky tract.[23]

The most significant water source in the region is the Myosha River. In total, 146 springs have been identified in the region, of which 7 are of historical importance.[7]

The Lenino-Kokushkinsky state natural-historical zakaznik (natural park) resides on the territory of the district, containing artificially created forests, which are composed of species of pine and larch in the water protection zone of the Ushnya River.[7]

There are 29 secondary schools, 13 preschool institutions, 1 boarding school, and the Lenino-Kokushkin vocational lyceum in the region. In the field of health care infrastructure, there is a clinic, a hospital, and an intensive care unit as well as 4 medical outpatient clinics. There are 36 medical institutions in the region. These include the Pestrechinskaya central regional hospital, Koschakovskaya, Lenino-Kokushkinskaya, Panovskaya, and Shalinskaya medical outpatient clinics, as well as 31 medical and obstetric points.[6]

Pestrechinsky district is included in the small ring of the tourist route "Pearl Necklace of Tatarstan". On the territory of the district, there is the State Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve of Republican significance "Lenino-Kokushkino" with the estate of Vladimir Ulyanov's grandfather - Alexander Blank.[7] In the village of Arkatovo, there is the Smolensk Church of 1746, where the miraculous icon is kept. There are three holy springs near the church, attracting pilgrims from all over the region.[7]

Kryashens (baptized Tatars) live in the Pestrechinsky district, there is one Kryashen church - the temple of St. Nicholas in the village of Kryash-Serda.[25] The culture of the Kryashens of Zakazania and the Pestrechinsky region is considered the standard of the Kryashen folk tradition. The ancestors of the Kryashens of the Pestrechinsky district were old-baptized Tatars and retained pagan beliefs even in the 19th century. At the same time, from the 16th to the beginning of the 20th centuries, the Kryaschens adopted many Christian beliefs, which began to be combined with their old traditions.[26][25] In the post-Soviet period, the religious, cultural, and everyday distinctiveness of the Kryashens from the Muslim Tatars became the reason for a number of Krashen organizations to demand recognition of the status of an independent people.[26] The most famous district Kryashen is the Hero of the Soviet Union Pyotr Gavrilov, the defender of the Brest Fortress.[25] Another well-known native of the area is the honored test pilot of the USSR Avdeev, Ivan Yegorovich from the village of Priyutovo.

In the Pestrechinsky district there is a centralized club and library system, the Pestrechinsky Museum of Local Lore operates, which includes a department of the Regional Museum in the village of Kryashch-Serda with the study of the life and national culture of the Kryashens, as well as the Museum of the Hero of the Soviet Union named after Pyotr Gavrilov in the village of Alvidino.[6]

A branch of Tatmedia, Pestretsy-inform, operates in the region; it includes the regional newspaper Vperyod (Alga) in Russian and Tatar languages and the Pestretsy TV channel. In 2013, on the territory of the village of Pestretsy on the right bank of the Mesha, in the forest of the Laishevsky forestry enterprise of the Pestrechinsky forestry, two places of living of ancient people were found - the Pestrechinsky site (Bronze Age, XVIII-IX BC) and the site of the Eneolithic era, belonging to the Garino-Borsk culture (III-II thousand years BC). In total, along the coast of Myosha, archaeologists have recorded a cultural layer, 45 meters long.[7]

In 2010, in the vicinity of the village of Lenino-Kokushkino, a treasure hoard of 350 silver coins was found, minted on behalf of the Moscow rulers Ivan III, Vasily III, Ivan IV at the mints of Moscow, Tver, Novgorod, and Pskov.[27]