Yelabuga is one of the oldest cities in Tatarstan and it celebrated its millennium in 2007, although the city’s official adoption of 1007 as the year of foundation is debated among some historians. Supporters of the 1007 theory suggest that Yelabuga was founded by Emir Ibrahim I ben Muhammad of the Volga Bulgars – a nomadic Turkic people who settled here in the 10th century and whose lands were incorporated into the Mongols’ Golden Horde in 1236. It were the Bulgars who built the fortification whose tower, restored in the mid-19th century, now once again stands overlooking the River Toyma as it flows into the Kama.
The details of the monument reflect the mentality of the Bulgarians: the saber of the rider is shielded, the horse stands quietly and proudly. Signs of peaceful intentions.
