The
Russian forces included
streltsy as well as Moscow and
Qasim irregular feudal cavalry, but the Muscovite
artillery and
sappers, both Russian and foreigners, played a vital role. At first they faced the
Tatar garrison of Kazan, 10,000
Nogai horsemen led by the khan of Kazan,
Yadegar Mokhammad, who originated from the
Nogai Horde.
Cheremiss units and Kazan irregular
feudal cavalry had bases in forests north and east of Kazan respectively, with the stronghold of
Archa as their base. Before the battle Russians had a fortress on the
Volga, Ivangorod, later known as Sviyazhsk, some kilometres above Kazan. The Russian
military engineer Ivan Vyrodkov had built this wooden
fortress in 1551, when after the conclusion of peace, the right bank of the Khanate (
Taw yağı) had passed to Russia. It would serve as a strong point for the capture of Kazan by the
Muscovite army. The 150,000 strong Muscovite army under
Ivan the Terrible came under Kazan's walls and laid siege to the city on August 22, 1552 (
Old Style). Russian cannons shelled the walls from 29 August. Soon they smothered the fire of large-calibre Tatar cannons. During the period from 30 August to 6 September
Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky defeated the inner cavalry under Yapancha and the
Ar units and burned Archa.
Andrey Kurbsky defeated
Cheremis troops. Sappers blew up the underground way to Kazan's underground drinking-water source. Ivan Vyrodkov built on site a 12-metre-high wooden
siege tower (also called a "battery-tower", to distinguish it from pre-gunpowder siege engines) to mount siege
cannon. This revolutionary new design could hold ten large-calibre cannon and 50 lighter cannon, allowing a concentration of artillery fire on a section of the earthen-filled wooden wall of the city; this played a crucial role in shattering
Tatar resistance. However, the few cannon defending Kazan had first to be put out of action for the tower to be effective, as it would otherwise have become an obvious target for the remaining Tatar artillery. On 2 October, sappers (believed to have been led by the Englishman Butler, also known as
Rozmysl in Russian chronicles) blew up the wall near the Nogai and
Atalıq Gates. Russian soldiers entered the city; the civil population as well as the army of Kazan opposed them. After desperate street fighting, some survivors were blockaded in the
citadel. Then, after the capture of
khan Yadegar Moxammad and of
Nogai leader Zaynash, the defenders of the citadel tried to escape to the northern forests, but they were defeated. A number of
Russians who had been captured in military campaigns from the Russian borderland and held captive in the Khanate were released, and a large massacre of
Kazan Tatars took place, as well as the destruction of almost all Tatar buildings, including
mosques. Before the siege, Ivan IV encouraged his army with examples of Queen
Tamar of Georgia's battles, describing her as: "The most wise Queen of
Iberia, endowed with the intelligence and courage of a man". ==Aftermath==