Ilnaz Rinatovich Galyaviev was born in Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, in September 2001. He spent his childhood navigating a typical academic path, graduating from Gymnasium No. 175 in 2017 before enrolling at the College of TISBI, an informatics and management academy located in Kazan. Majoring in Information Technology, Galyaviev was historically described by the academy’s rector as a neat, quiet student who consistently attended courses. However, peers and study coordinators noted he was intensely unsociable, cold, and insulated, keeping a psychological barrier between himself and his peer group.

Galyaviev’s lifestyle and behavioral traits began shifting radically in 2020. Medical documentation later recovered by the Investigative Committee of Russia confirmed he had sought repeated institutional treatment for severe, chronic headaches. He was eventually diagnosed with encephalopathy—a neurological brain disease pathology defined by structural and functional tissue deterioration. As his neurological stability degraded, family members noticed a massive uptick in his volatile behaviors, sudden aggressive outbursts, and a short temper.

His ultimate separation from society occurred in April 2021, when he completely abandoned his studies and was officially expelled from college for failing to show up for his final examinations. Left completely isolated, Galyaviev sank into a violent god complex. He created an encrypted channel on the Telegram social messaging platform under the profile title “God,” posting photos of himself wearing a black tactical mask with the word “God” stenciled across it in bold red lettering. In his final online manifestos, he declared that the universe was an accidental mistake and stated his intent to liquidate a massive concentration of human targets before terminating his own life.

Because Galyaviev possessed no prior formal criminal footprint or active institutionalized psychiatric holds at the point of his evaluation, he successfully exploited Russia’s civilian firearm registration loops. On April 16, 2021, he secured an official weapons license. He traveled to Yoshkar-Ola to purchase his primary tactical implement: a Hatsan Escort Guard 12-gauge semi-automatic pump shotgun—notably the exact same class of firearm utilized during the 2018 Kerch Polytechnic College attack.

Galyaviev also engineered a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) inside his apartment. He mixed chemical components to create a volatile main charge, packed it tightly inside a container along with hundreds of rusty metal nails and metal shrapnel, and rigged it with a manual fuse mechanism. On May 5, he attempted a test-fire session in a secluded forest area outside the village of Voronovka, but aborted the trial when passing vehicular traffic raised concerns about detection. He originally planned his assault for May 6, but his tactical schedule was pushed back when President Vladimir Putin suddenly declared a national public holiday, closing all local schools until May 11.

**08:55 AM // Final Manifestation:** Galyaviev uploaded his final image to his “God” Telegram channel, warning followers of his immediate execution window. He walked out of his residential unit dressed in all-black clothing, a tactical vest, and his stenciled face mask, carrying his shotgun completely exposed in his hand as he marched down the urban streets toward Gymnasium No. 175.

**09:20 AM // Perimeter Breach and Initial Execution:** Galyaviev breached the school’s outer main door. He was immediately spotted by 55-year-old primary school teacher Venera Aizatova, who was working near the ground-floor corridor. Galyaviev shot Aizatova through the head at point-blank range, marking the first fatality. He then engaged the campus security worker, who managed to throw a manual switch activating the building’s centralized intercom system before being severely wounded by shotgun blasts.

**09:24 AM // The Main Intercom Alert:** Over the school-wide PA system, the principal shouted a high-stress alert order, commanding all instructors to instantly lock their classroom doors and secure students beneath their desks. This manual alert saved hundreds of lives. Concurrently, Galyaviev dropped his heavy shrapnel IED right next to the doors of the main first-floor English language classroom, lighting the fuse before moving up the central stairs.

**09:25 AM // The IED Blast & Second-Floor Breach:** The nail bomb detonated with extreme velocity. The shockwave blew out the walls of the corridor, turning glass and nails into lethal shrapnel and collapsing part of the ceiling structure. Galyaviev reached the second floor, where 26-year-old English teacher Elvira Ignatyeva aggressively pushed her body into the doorway of her classroom to hold the lock against the shooter. Galyaviev fired multiple 12-gauge rounds through the partition panel, killing Ignatyeva on the spot.

**09:27 AM // The Room 310 Eighth-Grade Sweep:** Galyaviev ascended to the third floor, finding Room 310 unlocked. Inside was an eighth-grade class huddled along the back walls. Galyaviev stepped inside and fired systematically into the cluster of students. He killed seven children in a rapid firing sequence. Terrified students in neighboring classrooms began smashing their window panes, with several jumping from the third-story windows to the grass below to escape the gunshots.

**09:33 AM // Tactical Surrender:** As heavily armed Russian National Guard (Rosgvardiya) tactical units and state police elements surrounded the school’s outer paths, Galyaviev realized his escape lines were completely cut off. Dropping his remaining cartridges, he walked out through the school’s front entrance with his hands raised, surrendering to the arresting officers. The entire active assault spanned approximately 13 minutes.

The physical interior of Gymnasium No. 175 suffered severe structural damage from Galyaviev’s multi-weapon assault. The first-floor hallway where the shrapnel IED was detonated was completely destroyed; the blast stripped the drywall off the framing studs, shattered the glass of every window in a 50-meter radius, and ruptured structural water pipes. Thick smoke, concrete powder, and loose plaster covered the main walkways, severely slowing down the initial tactical clearance and evacuation operations.

The second and third-floor corridors were marked by extensive ballistic damage from 12-gauge buckshot impacts. Room 310 was left covered in blood, broken desks, and scattered school books. Outside, the lawn was littered with broken glass and debris from the third-floor window jumps. Paramedics established a large emergency triage zone on the school’s outer running tracks to handle the massive influx of students suffering from traumatic blast injuries, gunshots, and broken bones from fleeing the upper floors.

Galyaviev’s post-arrest custody was marked by a complex series of forensic psychiatric evaluations. Initial evaluations conducted at the Serbsky Center in Moscow leaked claims that he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and was legally insane at the time of the shooting. However, the Investigative Committee ordered a secondary, comprehensive review. This secondary evaluation concluded that while Galyaviev exhibited deep neurological abnormalities, his actions were planned with clear cognitive intent, making him fully fit to stand trial. He entered a formal guilty plea to all charges. On April 13, 2023, the Supreme Court of Tatarstan sentenced Galyaviev to life imprisonment in a maximum-security penal colony.

The political fallout from the Kazan massacre directly altered Russia’s national gun management laws. In June 2021, President Vladimir Putin signed an extensive federal bill that significantly tightened weapon acquisition paths. The new law **raised the minimum legal age to buy hunting rifles and long-barreled firearms from 18 to 21**. It also introduced mandatory, centralized medical-psychiatric tracking networks, stripped gun rights from anyone under active investigation for drug consumption, and placed strict bans on issuing weapons licenses to citizens with multiple expired criminal records.

The historical verified registry of the 9 innocent victims executed inside Kazan Gymnasium No. 175 on May 11, 2021: