A bakery named Kazanskiy Kuchtenech. Kuchtenech (spelled Күчтәнәч in Tatar) means a present, a special kind of present that you give someone when you come to visit them in their house, and that is often some kind of food.
The bakery is located in the house which belonged to the merchantess Anfisa Borodulina and which Leo Tolstoy visited while he was a law student at Kazan University. In his memoirs he mentions revising for exams at the Black Lake nearby and suddenly remembering her apple pie and her beautiful daughter (in that exact order).
The street in which the house is situated has taken on new significance as it leads to Kazan Virgin Monastery and the recently restored and consecrated Our Lady of Kazan Church, the domes of which dominate the skyline and glisten beautifully in the sun now.
05/09/2021
