"Kazan letters" of historian N.A. Popov as a source of public and cultural life of Kazan during pre-reform period
«Kazan letters» of N.A. Popov contain a wealth historical information about Kazan of 1850 <sup>s</sup> - time prior to the era of the Great Reforms. Social life of the city and periodicals are scrutinized by the author in the context of economic history, work of the Imperial University and literary movements. N. Popov had critical view of the events and that characterizes him as a thoughtful person who had his own established platform of scientific propositions.