Monument to Asgat Galimzyanov

A monument to Asgat Galimzyanov stands in the historic centre of Kazan, by the walls of the Kazan Kremlin on Millennium Square. It honours the memory of philanthropist and benefactor Asgat Galimzyanov (1936-2016), a carter at Kazan's collective-farm market, who used the income from his own smallholding to donate more than 80 buses and cars to orphanages across the country, and who also helped nursing homes and people affected by the Chernobyl disaster and the Armenian earthquake, as well as the families of sailors who died aboard the submarine Kursk.

The monument was unveiled on 30 August 2008, while Galimzyanov was still alive. It was installed on the initiative of the family of Tatarstan's first president, Mintimer Shaimiev, at their own expense; the sculptor was Asiya Minnullina. The sculpture is set directly into the pavement, without a pedestal, which makes the scene feel natural: Galimzyanov, in work clothes and a tyubeteika skullcap, leads a horse pulling a cart with happy children from orphanages. The monument weighs about 5 tonnes and is almost 7 metres long.

For his charitable work Galimzyanov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, the Leo Tolstoy gold medal of the Russian Children's Fund, the Order of Merit for the Republic of Tatarstan, the title of Honorary Citizen of Kazan, and the Andrew the First-Called international award "For Faith and Loyalty." He died on 3 January 2016, and in April of that year the square by the monument was named after him.