The First Cheremis War or Kazan War 1552-1556 was a rebel war against the Muscovite Russia for the restoration of the Kazan Khanate.

The rebel armies mostly consisted of Tatars

Tatars

Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...

, Chuvashes, Cheremises, Mordvins and Udmurts. Some Nogays were also involved to the war. Independent rebel governments were formebd in Chalem and Mishatamaq, the khan

Khan (title)

Khan is an originally Altaic and subsequently Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, widely used by medieval nomadic Turko-Mongol tribes living to the north of China. 'Khan' is also seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289...

 were invited from the Nogai Horde

Nogai Horde

The Nogai Horde was a confederation of about eighteen Turkic and Mongol tribes that occupied the Pontic-Caspian steppe from about 1500 until they were pushed west by the Kalmyks and south by the Russians in the 17th century. The Mongol tribe called the Manghits constituted a core of the Horde...

. Russian troops under Andrey Kurbsky

Andrey Kurbsky

Knyaz Andrey Mikhailovich Kurbsky was an intimate friend and then a leading political opponent of the Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible. His correspondence with the tsar is a unique source for the history of 16th-century Russia...

 and Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky

Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky

Prince Alexander Borisovich Gorbatyi-Shuisky was probably the most celebrated and popular general of Ivan the Terrible. The town of Gorbatov in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast bears his name....

 opposed them.

At the peak of the rebellion Tatars controlled the most part of the former khanate. However Kazan

Kazan

Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...

, the former capital, stayed under Russian control. Ivan IV sent a major reinforcement to Kazan land and harshly suppressed the resistance. Deaths estimated several thousands.