—” an obscure Muskovite city on the Volga?”
Not too obscure, pop over one million.
But like most Russian things it is turning to shite.
You mean like our own country is?
Once a Tatar city, and thus 100% Muslim. Ivan the Terrible conquered it in 1552. I think that's the first conquest by Moscow of a city outside the historic range of the Eastern Slavs, setting up a paradigm for Muskovite foreign policy that continues to this day. Now about half Slav, half Muslim according the Innertubes.