Volga
Volga | |
---|---|
Togliatti | |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | |
• location | Valdai Hills, Tver Oblast |
• coordinates | 57°15′4.7″N 32°28′5.1″E / 57.251306°N 32.468083°E |
• elevation | 228 m (748 ft)[1] |
Mouth | Caspian Sea |
• location | Astrakhan Oblast |
• coordinates | 45°41′42″N 47°53′51″E / 45.69500°N 47.89750°E[2] |
• elevation | −28 m (−92 ft)[1] |
Length | 3,531 km (2,194 mi)[3] |
Basin size | 1,360,000 km2 (530,000 sq mi)[3] 1,404,107.6 km2 (542,129.0 sq mi)[4] |
Discharge | |
• location | Astrakhan (Basin size: 1,391,271.8 km2 (537,173.0 sq mi) |
• average | 8,060 m3/s (285,000 cu ft/s)
8,103.078 m3/s (286,157.5 cu ft/s)[4] Volga Delta: 8,110.544 m3/s (286,421.2 cu ft/s)[4] |
• minimum | 5,000 m3/s (180,000 cu ft/s) |
• maximum | 48,500 m3/s (1,710,000 cu ft/s) |
Discharge | |
• location | Volgograd (Basin size: 1,359,396.8 km2 (524,866.0 sq mi) |
• average | 8,150 m3/s (288,000 cu ft/s) 8,228.298 m3/s (290,579.6 cu ft/s)[5] |
• minimum | 5,090 m3/s (180,000 cu ft/s) |
• maximum | 48,450 m3/s (1,711,000 cu ft/s) |
Discharge | |
• location | Samara (Basin size: 1,218,995.3 km2 (470,656.7 sq mi) |
• average | 7,680 m3/s (271,000 cu ft/s) 7,785.921 m3/s (274,957.2 cu ft/s)[6] |
Discharge | |
• location | Nizhny Novgorod (Basin size: 479,637.3 km2 (185,189.0 sq mi) |
• average | 2,940 m3/s (104,000 cu ft/s)
2,806.467 m3/s (99,109.4 cu ft/s)[7] Yaroslavl (Basin size: 153,657.8 km2 (59,327.6 sq mi): 1,008.277 m3/s (35,607.0 cu ft/s)[7] Rybinsk (Basin size: 150,119.8 km2 (57,961.6 sq mi): 993.253 m3/s (35,076.4 cu ft/s)[7] |
Discharge | |
• location | Tver (Basin size: 24,658.6 km2 (9,520.7 sq mi) |
• average | 176 m3/s (6,200 cu ft/s) 186.157 m3/s (6,574.1 cu ft/s)[7] |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• left | Kama |
• right | Oka |
The Volga (
The river flows in Russia through forests, forest steppes and steppes. Five of the ten largest cities of Russia, including the nation's capital, Moscow, are located in the Volga's drainage basin.
Some of the largest
Name
The Russian
The
This name can be compared to several Indo-Iranic terms, such as:- Sogdian rʾk (𐽀𐼰𐼸) 'vein, blood vessel' (from Old Iranian *rahaka),[15]
- Persian رگ rag 'vein,'[16]
- Vedic Sanskrit rasā́ (रसा) 'dew, liquid, juice; mythical river'), which was also the name of a tributary of the Indus river.[17]
The Scythian name survives in modern Moksha as Rav (Рав).[18][19]
The Greek author Herodotus recorded two more ancient Iranic names of the Volga:
- Oarus (
- Araxes (
The
The Turkic peoples associated the Itil's origin with the
In Asia the river was known by its other Turkic name Sarı-su 'yellow water', but the Oirats also used their own name, Ijil mörön or 'adaptation river'. Presently the Mari, another Uralic group, call the river Jul (Юл), meaning 'way' in Tatar. Formerly, they called the river Volgydo, a borrowing from Old East Slavic.[citation needed]
Description
The Volga is the longest
The Volga has many
The Volga drains most of
The fertile river valley provides large quantities of
Confluences (downstream to upstream)
- Akhtuba (near Volzhsky), a distributary
- Bolshoy Irgiz (near Volsk)
- Samara (in Samara)
- Kama (south of Kazan)
- Kazanka (in Kazan)
- Sviyaga (west of Kazan)
- Vetluga (near Kozmodemyansk)
- Sura (in Vasilsursk)
- Kerzhenets (near Lyskovo)
- Oka (in Nizhny Novgorod)
- Uzola (near Balakhna)
- Unzha (near Yuryevets)
- Kostroma (in Kostroma)
- Kotorosl (in Yaroslavl)
- Sheksna (in Cherepovets)
- Mologa (near Vesyegonsk)
- Kashinka (near Kalyazin)
- Nerl (near Kalyazin)
- Medveditsa (near Kimry)
- Dubna (in Dubna)
- Shosha (near Konakovo)
- Tvertsa (in Tver)
- Vazuza (in Zubtsov)
- Selizharovka (in Selizharovo)
Reservoirs (downstream to upstream)
A number of large hydroelectric reservoirs were constructed on the Volga during the Soviet era. They are:
- Volgograd Reservoir
- Saratov Reservoir
- Kuybyshev Reservoir – the largest in Europe by surface
- Cheboksary Reservoir
- Gorky Reservoir
- Rybinsk Reservoir
- Uglich Reservoir
- Ivankovo Reservoir
Biggest cities on the shores of the Volga
- Kazan
- Nizhny Novgorod
- Samara
- Volgograd
- Saratov
- Tolyatti
- Yaroslavl
- Astrakhan
- Ulyanovsk
- Cheboksary
- Tver
Human history
The Volga–Oka region has been occupied for at least 9,000 years and supported a bone and antler industry for producing bone arrowheads, spearheads, lanceheads, daggers, hunters knives, and awls. The makers also used local quartz and imported flints.[25]
During classical antiquity, the Volga formed the boundary between the territories of the Cimmerians in the Caucasian Steppe and the Scythians in the Caspian Steppe.[21] After the Scythians migrated to the west and displaced the Cimmerians, the Volga became the boundary between the territories of the Scythians in the Pontic and Caspian Steppes and the Massagetae in the Caspian and Transcaspian steppes.[22]
Between the 6th and the 8th centuries, the Alans settled in the
The area around the Volga was inhabited by the
Subsequently, the river basin played an important role in the movements of peoples from
Khazars were replaced by
Construction of Soviet Union-era dams often involved enforced resettlement of huge numbers of people, as well as destruction of their historical heritage. For instance, the town of Mologa was flooded for the purpose of constructing the Rybinsk Reservoir (then the largest artificial lake in the world). The construction of the Uglich Reservoir caused the flooding of several monasteries with buildings dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. In such cases the ecological and cultural damage often outbalanced any economic advantage.[34]
20th-century conflicts
During the
During the Civil War, Joseph Stalin ordered the imprisonment of several military specialists on a barge in the Volga and the sinking of a floating prison in which the officers perished.[36][37]
During World War II, the city on the big bend of the Volga, currently known as
For this reason, many
Ethnic groups
Many different ethnicities lived on the Volga river. Numerous were the Eastern Slavic
Apart from the Huns, the earliest Turkic tribes arrived in the 7th century and assimilated some Finno-Ugric and Indo-European population on the middle and lower Volga. The Turkic Christian Chuvash and Muslim Volga Tatars are descendants of the population of medieval Volga Bulgaria. Another Turkic group, the Nogais, formerly inhabited the lower Volga steppes.
The Volga region is home to a German minority group, the Volga Germans. Catherine the Great had issued a manifesto in 1763 inviting all foreigners to come and populate the region, offering them numerous incentives to do so.[46] This was partly to develop the region but also to provide a buffer zone between the Russians and the Mongols to the east.[citation needed] Because of conditions in German territories, Germans responded in the largest numbers. Under the Soviet Union a slice of the region was turned into the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
Flora and fauna
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The Volga, widened for navigation purposes with construction of huge dams during the years of
Connections with the river
This infrastructure has been designed for vessels of a relatively large scale (lock dimensions of 290 by 30 metres (951 ft × 98 ft) on the Volga, slightly smaller on some of the other rivers and canals) and it spans many thousands of kilometers. A number of formerly state-run, now mostly privatized, companies operate passenger and cargo vessels on the river;
In the later
Satellite imagery
-
View of the river and Volgograd from space.
-
Volga river delta,MODIS2010-07-17.
-
Terra/MODIS, 2002-05-17.
-
Terra/MODIS, 2001-10-10.
Cultural significance
Literature
- Without a Dowry, The Storm – dramas by the Russian playwright Aleksandr Ostrovsky
- In the Forests, On the Hills – novels by Pavel Melnikov
- Yegor Bulychov and Others, Dostigayev and Others – plays by Maxim Gorky
- "Distance After Distance" – poem by Aleksandr Tvardovsky
- "On the Volga" – a poem by Nikolay Nekrasov
- "Volga and Vazuza" – a poem by Samuil Marshak
- The Precipice – a novel by Ivan Goncharov
- Volga Se Ganga - a novel by Hindi language writer Rahul Sankrityayan
Cinema
- Volga-Volga (1938) – a Soviet film comedy directed by Grigori Aleksandrov
- Ekaterina Voronina (1957) – Soviet drama film directed by Isidor Annensky
- The Bridge Is Built (1965) – a Soviet film about the construction of a road bridge across the Volga in Saratov by Oleg Efremov and Gavriil Egiazarov
- A Cruel Romance (1984) – romantic drama directed by Eldar Ryazanov
- Election Day (2007) – Russian comedy film directed by Oleg Fomin
Music
Video games
- Metro Exodus – Volga is one of main levels of the game
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 0-89577-087-3.
- ^ Volga at GEOnet Names Server
- ^ a b c «Река Волга» Archived 5 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Russian State Water Registry
- ^ a b c "Rivers Network". 2020. Archived from the original on 9 January 2023. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
- ^ "Rivers Network". 2020. Archived from the original on 9 January 2023. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
- ^ "Rivers Network". 2020. Archived from the original on 9 January 2023. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
- ^ a b c d "Rivers Network". 2020. Archived from the original on 9 January 2023. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
- ^ Gannholm, Tore. "Birka, Varangian Emporium". Archived from the original on 18 April 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
- OCLC 733913679.
- S2CID 192943660.
- OCLC 56535045.
- ^ See Max Vasmer's dictionary under "Волга".
- ^ Brunner, C. J. (1986). "ARANG". Encyclopædia Iranica. Archived from the original on 12 August 2022. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
Middle Persian Arang/Arag renders Avestan Raŋhā, which is cognate with the Scythian name Rhâ (*Rahā) transmitted by Ptolemy
- ^ J.P. Mallory & D.Q. Adams, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, s.v. "dew" (London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997), 158-9.
- ^ Michiel de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italian Languages, s.v. "rōs, rōris" (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 526-7.
- ^ Nourai, Ali. 2013. An Etymological Dictionary of Persian, English and Other Indo-European Languages. Index of Words in Different Languages, vol. 1, p. 130.
- ^ Lebedynsky, Iaroslav. Les Sarmates: Amazones et lanciers cuirassés entre Oural et Danube. Paris: Editions Errance, 2002.
- ISBN 978-0-300-24564-6.
- ISBN 951-29-1244-9.
- ^ a b Harmatta 1999, p. 129.
- ^ ISBN 978-8-371-88337-8. Archivedfrom the original on 13 August 2022. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
- ^ ISBN 978-8-371-88337-8. Archivedfrom the original on 25 September 2022. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
- ISBN 5-298-01004-0(In tatar: Әхмәтьянов Р. Г. Татар теленең кыскача тарихи-этимологик сүзлеге. — Казан: Тат. кит. нәшр., 2001. б. 76. )
- ^ "Kama River | river, Russia | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Archived from the original on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
- ^ Zhilin, M. (2015). Early Mesolithic bone arrowheads from the Volga-Oka interfluve, central Russia. 32. 35-54.
- ^ "VORGESCHICHE DER URALISCHEN SPRACHFAMILIE, GESCHICHTE DER KLEINEREN URALISCHEN SPRACHEN: CHRONOLOGIE" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 May 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
- ^ Katona, Cseste (2018). Co-operation between the Viking Rus' and the Turkic nomads of the steppe in the ninth-eleventh centuries (PDF) (MA thesis). Central European University. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 April 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
- ^ "Marija Gimbutas. "A Survey Study of the Ancient Balts - Reviewed by Jonas Puzinas". www.lituanus.org. Archived from the original on 4 August 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
- OCLC 1076253515.
- ^ a b "Weather Sredniy Buzhan | Forecast, Radar, Lightning & Satellite". Meteologix. Archived from the original on 16 December 2018. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
- ^ "Early East Slavic Tribes in Russia". Study.com. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
- ^ Gannholm, Tore. "Birka, Varangian Emporium". Archived from the original on 18 April 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
- ^ "The Volga". www.volgawriter.com. Archived from the original (Microsoft FrontPage 12.0) on 20 June 2010. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
- ISBN 1-55963-777-3. Page 31.
- ^ Brian Pearce, Introduction Archived 3 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine to Fyodor Raskolnikov s "Tales of Sub-lieutenant Ilyin."
- ISBN 978-1-135-75840-0. Archivedfrom the original on 3 October 2023. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-7538-1766-7.
- ^ "::The Battle of Stalingrad". Historylearningsite.co.uk. Archived from the original on 30 May 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
- ^ "Early East Slavic Tribes in Russia | Study.com". Study.com. Archived from the original on 26 August 2018. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
- OCLC 1076253515.
- ^ Bašić, Marko (14 May 2015). "Noble Sarmatian Grave Discovered In Russia". Slavorum. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
- OCLC 56535045.
- ^ "When the Arabs met the Vikings: New discovery suggests ancient links". The National. 6 May 2015. Archived from the original on 25 May 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
- ^ "The Volga Trade Route". www.pbs.org. 7 February 2013. Archived from the original on 23 May 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
- ^ "Unique History of Volga River That You Need to Know - Learn Russian Language". Learn Russian Language. 30 June 2018. Archived from the original on 13 October 2018. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
- ^ "Catherine's Manifesto 1763". NORKA. Archived from the original on 4 March 2021. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
- .
- ^ "NoorderSoft Waterways Database". Noordersoft.com. Archived from the original on 9 November 2005. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
Sources
- ISBN 978-3-774-92415-4.
Further reading
- Hartley, J. M. (2021). The Volga: A History. New Haven: Yale University Press.[1]
External links
- Kropotkin, Peter Alexeivitch; Bealby, John Thomas (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). pp. 193–195.
- Volga Delta from Space
- Photos of the Volga coasts
- Geographic data related to Volga at OpenStreetMap
- Video about the source of the Volga
- S2CID 259804772.