Volga River

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The Volga river in Western Russia, Europe's longest river, with a length of 3,690 km (2,293 miles), provides the core of the largest river system in Europe.

The names of the Volga in the languages of different ethnic populations located along it are:

Russian Во́лга
Tatar İdel, Идел,
Chuvash Атăл (Atăl)
Mordvin Рав (Raw)
Mari Юл (Jul)
German Wolga

Ancient name is Rha (note Mordvin name)

1 Description
- 1.1 Confluents
- 1.2 Human History
2 Ethnic Groups
3 Navigation
4 See also
5 External links

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Description

Rising in the Valdai Hills 225 m (740 ft) above sea level north-west of Moscow and about 320 kilometres south-east of Saint Petersburg, the Volga heads east past Tver', Dubna, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan (Qazan). From there it turns south, flows past Tolyatti, Samara and Volgograd, and discharges into the Caspian Sea below Astrakhan at 28 metres below sea level. At its most strategic point, it bends toward the Don ("the big bend"). Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, is located there.

The Volga has many tributaries, most importantly the Kama, the Oka, the Vetluga, and the Sura rivers. The Volga and its tributaries form the Volga river system, which drains an area of about 1.35 million square kilometres in the most heavily populated part of Russia. The Volga Delta has a length of about 160 kilometres and includes as many as 500 channels and smaller rivers. The Volga freezes for most of its length during three months of each year.

The Volga drains most of Western Russia. Its many large reservoirs provide irrigation and hydroelectric power. The Moscow-Volga Canal, the Volga-Don Canal, and the Mariinsk Canal systems form navigable waterways connecting Moscow to the White Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. High levels of chemical pollution currently give cause for environmental concern.

The fertile river valley provides large quantities of wheat, and also has many mineral riches. A substantial petroleum industry centres on the Volga valley. Other minerals include natural gas, salt, and potash. The Volga Delta and the nearby Caspian Sea offer superb fishing grounds. Astrakhan, at the delta, is the centre of the caviar industry.

Volgograd and Nizhny Novgorod are vital manufacturing cities on the banks of the Volga. During Soviet rule, Nizhny Novgorod was closed to foreigners. Other important cities on the river include Saratov, Kazan, Tolyatti, and Samara. Nine major hydroelectric power stations and several large artificial lakes formed by dams lie along the Volga. The largest of the lakes are, from north to south, the Rybinsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, and Volgograd reservoirs.

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Confluents

Image:Rzhev.jpg (In orography sequence)

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Human History

In ancient historical times, the Volga was known as the Atil, Itil or Idil, a Turkic name meaning "long river." The arrival of the Turkics, however, postdates the more remote occupation of the region by Indoeuropeans. Specifically, "Volga" is probably a Slavicization of a proto-Baltic name related to Lithuanian Jilga, "long river". The upper Volga was the border of a prehistoric Baltic-speaking population, as attested by river names. Such names as Ilgupe, "the long river", and others like it are frequent in Lithuania and Latvia. (Gimbutas, The Balts, 1963).

The ancient scholar Ptolemy of Alexandria mentions the Volga in his Geography (Book 5, Chapter 8, 2nd Map of Asia). He calls it the Rha, which is still a third ancient name. It refers, however, to the lower Volga. Ptolemy believed the Don and the Volga shared the same upper branch, which flowed from the Hyperborean Mountains. Perhaps the mountains are the Valdai Hills, but the name is used by other sources to mean an unknown region to the north. People of Baltic customs appear in some of them. Nevertheless, we know the Slavs were on the lower Volga, because Ptolemy mentions the Serbi dwelling on the west bank.

The downtream of Volga was settled by Hunns and other Turkic peoples in the first millennium AD, replacing Scythians, some major cities, such as Atil and Saqsin appeared.

Subsequently the river basin played an important role in the movements of peoples from Asia to Europe. A powerful Volga Bulgaria once flourished where the Kama river joins the Volga. They had arrived with the Huns, subsequently transformed to Tatars. Also, the Volga passed through the Khazar khaganate.

Khazars were replaced by Kipchaks, Kimeks and Mongols. Mongols founded Golden Horde in the lower stream of Volga. Later the Empire broke into several khanates; subsequently they were conquered by Russians in the 16th century.

In modern times, the city on the big bend of the Volga - Volgograd - witnessed the Battle of Stalingrad, the outcome of which was a major victory of the Soviet Union over Germany in World War II. The Russian people's deep feeling for the Volga often finds echoes in their songs and literature. Russia was, after all, originally founded along the Volga, partly by Viking entrepreneurs using it as a road to the south from an entry point at or near Archangel.

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Ethnic Groups

The indigeneus population of Upper Volga were Finnic Merya, that were assimilated to Russians. Some theory sees Volga as a Finnic word valka which is translated as water. Other Finnic ethnic groups are Maris and Mordvins of middle Volga. Turkic populations appeared in the 600s and assimilated some Finnic and Indo-European population at the middle and lower Volga, later they were transformed to Christian Chuvash and Muslim Tatars; also to Nogais, which were supplanted to Daghestan later. Mongolian Buddhists Kalmyks resettled to Volga in the 17th century.

The Volga region is home to a German minority group, the Volga Germans, many of whom were invited to settle in Russia by various czars, such as Peter the Great, as part of a campaign to improve the country by importing skills. Under the Soviet Union a slice of the region was turned into the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to house many of the Volga Germans. Others were evicted from Russia after WWII.

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Navigation

Image:Lotus 27 by dlee.jpg

The Volga is of great importance to inland shipping and transport in Russia: all the dams in the river have been equipped with large (double) ship locks, so that vessels of considerable dimensions can actually travel from the Caspian Sea almost to the upstream end of the river. Connections with the Don River and the Black Sea are possible through the Volga-Don Canal. Connections with the lakes of the North and with Saint Petersburg are possible through the Volga-Baltic Waterway; and a liaison with Moscow has been realised by the Moscow Canal connecting the Volga and Moskwa rivers. This infrastructure has been designed for vessels of a relatively large scale (lock dimensions of 290 x 30 meters on the Volga, slightly smaller on some of the other rivers and canals) and it spans many thousands of kilometers.

Until recently access to the Russian waterways was only granted on a very limited scale. The increasing contacts between the European Union and Russia have led to new policies with regard to the access to the Russian inland waterways. It is expected that vessels of other nations will be allowed on the Russian rivers soon. (Source: NoorderSoft Waterways Database)

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