The National Library of the Republic of Tatarstan is located in a building erected in 1987 for the Kazan branch of the Lenin Central Museum. The building, clad in Armenian tufa stone thus resembling the image of a waving Soviet flag, is one of the centerpieces of Kazan and a significant example of late Soviet architecture. After the collapse of the USSR, the National Cultural Center "Kazan" was located there, which also housed a Kazan City Museum until recently. The most notable achievement of the project, whilst being respectful to the material and spatial features of the original design, was to transform a somber and outdated structure into a vibrant and lively public space.

The historic architecture of the Tatars reveals quite consonant approaches to the late Soviet "monumentality" in relation to both the organization of space and the use of materials and color solutions. In line with the essence of the historical architecture of Tatarstan and with attention to the Soviet heritage, materials are used in their simplest yet the most solemn form.