Arsk Field (russian: Арское поле; tt-Cyrl, Арча кыры) was east of the walls of mediaeval

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...

. The name may come from the

Archa Darugha The Archa Darugha ( tt-Latn, Arça daruğası) was a subdivision of the Kazan Khanate and the Kazan Uyezd in 16th–18th centuries. The center was the town of Archa. Its territory covered the basins of the Kazanka, Noqsa, Kinderle, Shapshe, Y ...

, a subdivision of the

Khanate of Kazan The Khanate of Kazan ( tt, Казан ханлыгы, Kazan xanlıgı; russian: Казанское ханство, Kazanskoye khanstvo) was a medieval Tatar Turkic state that occupied the territory of former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 1552 ...

. Alternatively, it could be named for the road leading to the city of

Arsk Arsk ( rus, Арск, p=ˈarsk; tt-Cyrl, Арча, ''Arça'') is a town and the administrative center of Arsky District in the Tatarstan, Russia, located on the Kazanka River, from the republic's capital of Kazan. As of the 2010 Census, its p ...

, which passed through the field. In 1552 it served as the base of for Tatar troops during the

siege of Kazan The siege of Kazan in 1552 was the final battle of the Russo-Kazan Wars and led to the fall of the Khanate of Kazan. Conflict continued after the fall of Kazan, however, as rebel governments formed in Çalım and Mişätamaq, and a new khan wa ...

by Russian troops under

Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV Vasilyevich (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич; 25 August 1530 – ), commonly known in English as Ivan the Terrible, was the grand prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of all Russia from 1547 to 1584. Ivan ...

. In 1774, it was a battlefield for engagements between rebels supporting

Pugachev Yemelyan Ivanovich Pugachev (russian: Емельян Иванович Пугачёв; c. 1742) was an ataman of the Yaik Cossacks who led a great popular insurrection during the reign of Catherine the Great. Pugachev claimed to be Catherine ...

and governmental forces. In the 18th and 19th centuries, a trade fair was held at the field. Since the beginning of the 19th century the field has been built up with housing, but the nearby forest was turned into parklands, nicknamed ''Russian Switzerland'' and ''German Switzerland''. During the Soviet period, both parks were subsumed by the newly created ''Gorky Park'', and the park carries that name to this day. After the 1917

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

the field was renamed Yershov Field, after Nikolay Yershov, who led the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

uprising in

during the

in 1917. To this day the street running alongside the park is named Yershov Street in his honor.Source: Walks about Kazan: Nikolay Yershov Street (russian: Прогулки по Казани: улица Николая Ершова

Accessed March 27, 2008

References

*{{TES, Арча кыры History of Kazan Geography of Tatarstan