The article studies the existence experience of historical cities as centers of tourism development as in the case of Elabuga. The city of Elabuga is among the historical cities of Russia. The major role in the development of the city as a tourist center is played by the Elabuga State Historical-Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve. The object of the research in the article is Elabuga as a medium-size historical city. The subject of the research is the activity of the museum-reserve which contributes to the preservation and development of the historical look of Elabuga and increases its attractiveness to tourists. The tourism attractiveness of Elabuga is obtained primarily through the presence of the perfectly preserved historical center of the city with the blocks of integral buildings of the 19th century. The Elabuga State Historical-Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve, which emerged in 1989, is currently an object of historical and cultural heritage of federal importance. Museum-reserves with their significant territories and rich historical, cultural and natural heritage have unique resources for the implementation of large partnership projects. Such projects are not only aimed at attracting a wide range of tourists, but also stimulate interest in the reserve from the business elite, municipal and regional authorities. The most famous example is the Spasskaya Fair which revived in 2008 in Elabuga. It was held in the city since the second half of the 19th century, and was widely known throughout Russia. The process of the revival and successful development of the fair can be viewed as the creation of a special tourist event contributing to the formation of new and currently important tourism products.

The article explores the period of reviving the art of calligraphy and handwritten book art in the Tatar culture, which falls on the end of the XIX century and is associated with the names of A. Makhmudov and Sh. Tagirov. The authors of the article presented the genesis and revealed the stages of calligraphy and hand-written book art formation in the culture of the Tatars. The article provides an art criticism analysis of the manuscript book art works included in the creative heritage of A. Makhmudov and Sh. Tagirov. A contrastive-comparative analysis led to a conclusion that the traditions of Iranian, Turkish and Dagestanian handwritten book art which were processed by Kazan calligraphers. That allowed them to develop local traditions of handwritten art. The study is based on the analysis of collections of manuscript monuments, including paperwork (khan labels) and books (of religious, scientific, literary and artistic content) from the collections of the Department of Manuscript and Rare Books of Kazan Federal University’s N.I. Lobachevsky Scientific Library, the Center for Written and Musical Heritage of G. Ibragimov Institute of the Language, Literature and Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, the Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts of the Republic of Tatarstan National Library, the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan, the National Archives of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Graphics Department of the Republic of Tatarstan State Museum of Fine Arts. The article is based on a comprehensive study of the material; to conduct the analysis, analytical methods of research have been applied. The priority is given to the classical comparative-historical method which includes synchronous and diachronous analysis. In addition, general scientific art and cultural studies methods and approaches were implemented: the genetic one, for instance, allows making a diachronous section and tracing the process of book art formation.

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At the end of the 20th century, changes took place in the world that forced politicians and scientists to rethink many seemingly established postulates about the laws of social life and about the ways of development of human civilization. The modern development of the social movement among the Tatars of Russia, and especially the national processes in Tatarstan largely repeat the trends in the development of the nation in the pre-Soviet period. The main role in the social movement of nations is played by the activities of the elite aimed at creating political, educational and cultural institutions. The turning point in the history of the Tatar people should be considered the end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century. The Tatar ideology was created during the period of rapid development of bourgeois socio-economic relations (especially noticeable among the Tatars of the Volga-Ural region) and the rise of national culture. However, until recently, the sources and works of authors of different times have not been fully studied, although they contain data on the processes of formation of the Tatar social factor and the Tatar nation itself in the context of the development of the Russian community.