They may have come for the football but visitors to Kazan in southwest Russia have been flocking to the striking turquoise Qolsharif Mosque in the heart of the city. With origins in the early 1500s, for centuries the mosque has borne witness to the changing fortunes of the local ethnic Tatars. Interest in Kazan’s history points to a broader positive consequence of the 2018 Fifa World Cup: an erosion of the myth of monolithic Russia, as international visitors become acquainted with the vast country’s considerable cultural diversity. But while the Tatars might be putting on a brave face for World Cup celebrations, their identity is under threat. In 2017 a law requiring compulsory Tatar lessons at schools in the Republic of Tatarstan was repealed and Moscow has allowed the treaty governing the region’s special status to lapse. Tatarstan is the last legally autonomous part of Russia – perhaps not for much longer.