Kanash is a small Russian town located on the slopes of the Volga Upland, 82 km to the south of Cheboksary.

The town with the area of 19 square km has the population of 50 593 people as of 2002.

History of Kanash

Kanash was founded in 1891 as the Shikhrany railway station (it was opened in 1893) on the Moscow and Kazan railway. It was named after a nearby village. Timber warehouses and grain barns were constructed by the station.

In 1920 the settlement and Shikhrany station was renamed into Kanash (the word meaning “a council” in the local Chuvash language). Kanash became a town in 1925.

The town has a museum of local lore. There is M. Sespel's Memorial Complex in the Sepsel Village of the Kanash District.