Century-Old Kazan Comes Back to Life in Virtual Reality Headsets
Students from the Spassk Technical College traveled to 1920s Kazan without leaving the walls of a museum.
Participants put on VR headsets at the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan and found themselves on Ivanovskaya Square as it looked a century ago. A button press on the controller – and modern Kazan disappears, replaced by the city of the early 20th century. Visitors can see the Spasskaya Tower of the Kazan Kremlin, the City Hall building and the monument to Alexander II in their historical form, just as residents of pre-revolutionary Kazan once saw them.
Honored Artist of Russia Vladimir Yeremin narrated the virtual tour. Russian audiences know him as the official Russian voice of Al Pacino. The experience ended with a quiz on the history of Ivanovskaya Square, where participants answered questions while reinforcing what they had learned.
The project is called Perekhod (Transition), with the pre-revolutionary spelling reflecting its concept: the boundary between past and present disappears. Virtual reality technology turns a standard museum visit into a personal adventure where history stops feeling like a textbook and becomes a lived experience.
