The annual source of the Volga River. In which direction does the Volga river flow? Description of the great river. The general value of the Volga

The beautiful Volga Mother is sung in many works of famous writers and poets, many wonderful Russian folk songs have been written about her. The amazing river delights not only with its spacious blue waters and fabulous banks. Almost all Russian cities on the Volga and villages attract attention with their amazing history, majesty and beauty.

Volga river, geography

The largest river in Europe is the Volga. Throughout its course, various settlements have been built since ancient times. Cities located on the Volga are quite significant in all respects both for their regions and for the country as a whole.

The length of the river before the creation of reservoirs and the cascade of hydroelectric power stations was 3690 km, today it is 3530 km. According to some unspecified data, the length of the Volga has become much smaller - 3430 km. IN general list in terms of the length of all Russian rivers, the Volga ranks sixth, and 16th among all the rivers of the Earth.

The territory of 1 million 360 thousand km² is occupied by the area of ​​​​its basin, and this is about a third of the entire European part of Russia.

This amazing river begins on the Valdai Hills near the village of Volga-Verkhovye (Tver Region). The Volga flows from the west from the Valdai and Central Russian uplands to the Urals in the east (the European part of the Russian Federation).

Many large cities are located near the basin of the largest river. On the Volga, sailing along it, you can see many amazing natural landscapes with cities and villages that fit perfectly into them. Moreover, each has its own unique history, its own cultural values ​​and unique sights.

The generally accepted division of the Volga regions. Cities located on the Volga

1. The Upper Volga represents the territory from the source of the river to the place where the Oka River flows (Nizhny Novgorod).

2. From the place where the Oka flows into the Volga to the place where the Kama flows into it - the territory of the Middle Volga.

3. The Lower Volga covers the zones from the confluence of the Kama to the Caspian Sea itself. Now (after the construction of the Kuibyshev reservoir) the border between the Lower and Middle Volga is the Zhigulevskaya HPP (the area of ​​​​the cities of Tolyatti and Zhigulevsk).

Consider some of the largest cities located on the Volga, worthy of attention in terms of history and attractions.

Yaroslavl

This ancient city on the Volga has a population of over 590 thousand people.
The historical center of Yaroslavl, protected by UNESCO, is almost all a tourist attraction.

There are 785 cultural and historical monuments in the city. In one of them - the amazing Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery - a historical collection of old manuscripts and books has been preserved.

In the 16th century, the state treasury was transferred to Yaroslavl. Also here is a large state museum-reserve (historical, architectural and artistic) with a rich collection of icons.

This settlement, like other cities on the Volga River, has a rich historical heritage of ancient times. It cannot be fully described.

Samara

Samara is located between the mouths of the Samara and Sok rivers, in the very place where they flow into the Volga. The population of the city is more than 1,100 thousand people. During Soviet times, the city was called Kuibyshev.

The very first mention of the city in historical chronicles dates back to 1361.

The most interesting sights: Stalin's bunker, built in less than a year in 1942; the legendary Revolution Square (the oldest street in the city); the bell tower of the women's Iversky monastery (built in 1850, 70 meters high).

It should be noted that the aforementioned bell tower stood without repair for about 80 years. Only in the 90s of the last century was the reconstruction of this historical building.

Many cities on the Volga also have similar historical buildings that have survived to this day.

Saratov

On the right bank of the reservoir (Volgograd) is the beautiful city of Saratov. The date of its foundation is 1590, when a guard fortress was built on this site.

The population of Saratov is over 830 thousand people.

Attractions: on Kirov Avenue is located "Saratov Arbat"; monument to flying cranes (Sokolova Gora); circus of the Nikitin brothers; conservatory. L.V. Sobinova; monument in honor of Yu.A. Gagarin (Cosmonauts Embankment); national village (national houses of all the peoples of the Saratov region).

In this unusual village you can not only be in the atmosphere cultural heritage Dagestan, Uzbekistan, Tatarstan, etc., but also try dishes of various national cuisines.

Volgograd

What city on the Volga had several names? From 1589 to 1925, Volgograd was called Tsaritsyn, and then until 1961 - Stalingrad. The population of the city is more than 1 million people. The Hero City is the largest historical and cultural center of the region.

A majestic memorial monument (symbol of the Motherland) was erected in it in honor of the famous Battle of Stalingrad.

Nizhny Novgorod

At the confluence of two large rivers, the Volga and the Oka, the ancient city of Nizhny Novgorod is located. It is not only one of the oldest cities in Russia on the Volga, but also one of the largest. Its population is more than 1200 thousand people.

The date of the foundation of the city is calculated from the date of the founding of the Novgorod fortress of the Nizovsky land (hence its name) - this is 1221. This fortress is the main attraction of Nizhny Novgorod.

The Church of the Reigning Icon of the Mother of God is located not far (7.5 kilometers) from Sennaya Square.

Kazan

Kazan is a city that relatively recently celebrated its millennium (2005), although the exact year of foundation has not been completely studied. It is located on the banks of the Volga River at the confluence of the Kazanka River. The city is the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, and very often it is called the "third capital of Russia". The population is over 1,100 thousand people.

Almost all cities on the Volga have preserved unique historical ensembles in their architecture, perfectly combined with modern buildings.

The main attraction of Kazan is located in the historical center of the city: the Kremlin with the Kul Sharif mosque and the Syuyumbike tower.

The numerous ancient historical ensembles of the city fit perfectly and modern facilities: cultural center "Pyramid", the state circus, modern hotels, etc.

Also in Kazan, the following sights are very memorable and beautiful: a fabulous-looking children's puppet theater, the pedestrian cultural street of Bauman (similar to the Arbat in Moscow), beautiful embankments, on one of which there is a wedding palace in the form of a bowl, etc.

Astrakhan

This city, by its location, is the last of the regional centers located on the banks of the Volga. It is inhabited by more than 500 thousand people.

On the site of Astrakhan in the 8th-10th centuries was the city of Itil, which at that time was the capital of the ancient Khazar Khaganate.

Here you can also see the Kremlin, famous for its unprecedented beauty, built at the beginning of the 17th century.

Smaller notable towns on the Volga

Along the banks of the great Volga River, there are also smaller cities, which are historical and architectural monuments.

Togliatti is the second in the Samara region in terms of population. It was founded in 1737. The population is over 720 thousand people.

The city of Syzran is also located in the Samara region near the Saratov reservoir. It was founded by Grigory Kozlovsky in 1683. The population is over 170 thousand people.

The administrative and cultural center of the Kostroma region is Kostroma. The date of its foundation is 1152. The population is over 260 thousand people.

Tver (former Kalinin) is located at the confluence of the Tvertsa and Tmaka rivers into the Volga. The city was founded in 1135. The population is over 400 thousand people.

The capital of Chuvashia is Cheboksary. The population is over 450 thousand people.

The city of Mologa was once located near Yaroslavl, at the confluence of the Mologa and Volga rivers. It was located on a flat hill and stretched along the right bank of the Mologa and along the left bank of the Volga.

Its population was over 7,000 people.

During the Union in 1935, a government decree was adopted on the construction of a hydroelectric power station (Rybinsk). According to the project, the area of ​​the reservoir was to be 2.5 thousand square meters, and the height of its water surface above sea level was 98 m. The elevation of the city was 98-101 m.

However, in 1937, the famous five-year plans of those times forced the project to be revised to increase the capacity of the hydroelectric power station. In this regard, it was decided to raise the water level to 102 meters. As a result, the area of ​​flooded territories has almost doubled.

In April 1941, after the resettlement of people, the filling of the reservoir began. So the ancient original city of Mologa (800 years old), which was once a specific principality with numerous villages, did not become.

The flooded city on the Volga is a victim of the electrification of the country.

The amazing nature of the Volga basin, beautiful cities with unique historical, architectural and cultural attractions attract the attention of a huge number of tourists to travel to these places.

Oceans, lakes and rivers

The Volga River is a mighty water stream that carries its waters through the European territory of Russia and flows into the Caspian Sea. The total length from source to mouth is 3692 km. It is customary not to take into account individual sections of reservoirs. Therefore, officially the length of the Volga is 3530 km. It is considered the longest in Europe. And the area of ​​the water basin is 1 million 380 thousand square meters. km. This is a third of the European part of Russia.

The source of the Volga

The river begins its journey on the Valdai Upland. This is the Ostashkovsky district of the Tver region. On the outskirts of the village of Volgoverkhovye, several springs gush out of the ground. One of them is considered the source of the great river. The spring is surrounded by a chapel, which can be reached by a bridge. All springs flow into a small reservoir. A stream flows out of it, reaching a width of no more than 1 meter and a depth of 25-30 cm. The height above sea level in this place is 228 meters.

The stream is 3.2 km long. It flows into the lake Small Verkhity. It flows out of it and flows into the next lake Bolshie Verkhity. Here the brook expands and turns into a rivulet that flows into Lake Sterzh. It is 12 km long and 1.5 km wide. The average depth is 5 meters, and the maximum reaches 8 meters. The total area of ​​the lake is 18 sq. km. The lake is part of the Upper Volga reservoir, which stretches for 85 km. After the reservoir, the Upper Volga begins.

Great Russian river Volga

Waterway of the great Russian river

The river is conditionally divided into three large sections. These are the Upper, Middle and Lower Volga. The first major city on the path of the water flow is Rzhev. From the source to it 200 km. The next major settlement is the ancient Russian city of Tver with a population of over 400 thousand people. Here is the Ivankovskoe reservoir, the length of which is 120 km. Next is the Uglich reservoir with a length of 146 km. To the north of the city of Rybinsk is the Rybinsk Reservoir. This is the northernmost point of the great river. Further, it no longer flows to the northeast, but turns to the southeast.

The water stream once carried its waters here along a narrow valley. He crossed a series of uplands and lowlands. Now these places have turned into the Gorky reservoir. On its banks are the cities of Rybinsk, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Kineshma. Above Nizhny Novgorod is the regional administrative center Gorodets. Here, the Nizhny Novgorod hydroelectric power station was built, forming the Gorky reservoir, stretching for 427 km.

The Middle Volga begins after the reunion with the Oka. This is the largest right tributary. Its length is 1499 km. It flows into the great Russian river in Nizhny Novgorod. This is one of the largest cities in Russia.

Volga on the map

Having taken in the waters of the Oka, the Volga River becomes wider and rushes to the east. It flows along the northern part of the Volga Upland. Near Cheboksary, the Cheboksary hydroelectric power station blocks its way and forms the Cheboksary reservoir. Its length is 341 km, width is 16 km. After that, the course of the river shifts to the southeast, and near the city of Kazan it turns south.

The Volga becomes a truly powerful river after the Kama flows into it. This is the largest left tributary. Its length is 1805 km. Kama surpasses the Volga in all respects. But for some reason, it is not she who flows into the Caspian Sea. This is due to historically established names and traditions.

After reuniting with the Kama, the lower course of the great Russian river begins. It is steadily moving south towards the Caspian Sea. On its banks there are such cities as Ulyanovsk, Tolyatti, Samara, Saratov, Volgograd. Near Togliatti and Samara, the river forms a bend (Samarskaya Luka), directed to the east. In this place, the water flow goes around the Togliatti mountains. Upstream is the largest Kuibyshev reservoir on the river. In terms of its area, it is considered the 3rd in the world. Its length reaches 500 km, and its width is 40 km.

River pier in Saratov

Downstream of Samara is the Saratov reservoir, reaching a length of 341 km. It is formed by a dam built near the town of Balakovo.

From Samara to Volgograd, the river flows southwest. Above Volgograd, the left arm separates from the main water stream. It is called Akhtuba. The hand of the sleeve is 537 km. Between Volgograd and the beginning of Akhtuba, the Volzhskaya hydroelectric power station was built. It forms the Volgograd reservoir. Its length is 540 km, and its width reaches 17 km.

Volga Delta

The delta of the great Russian river begins in the Volgograd region. Its length is about 160 km, width reaches 40 km.. Included in the delta are almost 500 canals and small rivers. This is the largest estuary in Europe. The Bakhtemir branch forms the navigable Volga-Caspian canal. The Kigach River, which is one of the branches, flows through the territory of Kazakhstan. These places contain unique flora and fauna. Here you can meet pelicans, flamingos, as well as such a plant as a lotus.

Such ships sail along the Volga

Shipping

The Volga River underwent significant transformations during the Soviet era. Many dams were built on it, taking into account navigation. Therefore, the vessels easily get from the Caspian Sea to the northern regions of the country.

Communication with the Black Sea and the Don is carried out through the Volga-Don Canal. Communication with the northern lakes (Ladoga, Onega), St. Petersburg and the Baltic Sea is carried out through the Volga-Baltic waterway. The great river is connected with Moscow by the Moscow Canal.

The river is considered navigable from the city of Rzhev to the delta. It carries a wide variety of industrial goods. These are oil, coal, timber, food. During the 3 winter months, the water stream freezes over most of its path.

The Volga has a very rich history. Many important political events are inextricably linked with it. The economic significance of the water flow is also incommensurable. It is the most important artery that unites many regions into a single whole. On its banks are the largest industrial and administrative centers. There are as many as 4 millionaire cities alone. These are Kazan, Volgograd, Samara and Nizhny Novgorod. Therefore, the mighty waters are rightly called the great Russian river.

Igor Tomshin

Mouth of the Volga River

The Volga is one of the largest rivers: Europe. Among the rivers of Russia, it occupies the sixth place, yielding in terms of catchment area only to the Siberian giant rivers - the Ob, Yenisei, Lena, Amur and Irtysh. It originates on the Valdai Hills, where the source is taken as a key, fastened with a wooden frame near the village of Volgine. The source mark is 225 m above sea level. The Volga flows into the Caspian Sea. The length of the river is 3690 km, the basin area is 1380000 km2.

The mouth lies 28 m below sea level. Total fall - 256 m.

The Volga flows through the territory of the following constituent entities of the Russian Federation (from source to mouth): Tver Region, Moscow Region, Yaroslavl Region, Kostroma Region, Ivanovo Region, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Chuvashia, Mari El, Tatarstan, Ulyanovsk Region, Samara Region, Saratov Region, Volgograd Region region, Astrakhan region, Kalmykia.
There are four millionaire cities on the Volga (from source to mouth): Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, Volgograd.

The Volga is divided into three parts (elements): the upper Volga - starts from the very source to the mouth of the Oka River, the middle Volga - from the confluence of the Oka up to the mouth of the Kama River, and the lower Volga - from the confluence of the Kama to the very mouth.

At the source, in the upper reaches, on the Valdai Upland, the river passes through small lakes - Big and Small Verkhity and further, through large lakes - Sterzh, Peno, Vselug and Voglo (Upper Volga reservoir).

The channel of the Volga is winding, but the general direction of the flow is east. At Kazan, approaching almost the very foothills of the Urals, the river turns sharply to the south. The Volga becomes a truly mighty river only after the Kama flows into it. At Samara, the Volga breaks through a whole chain of hills and forms the so-called Samara bow. Not far from Volgograd, the Volga approaches another mighty river - the Don. Here the river again makes a turn and flows in a southeasterly direction until it flows into the Caspian Sea. At the mouth of the Volga, it breaks up into hundreds of branches, which, before flowing into the Caspian, diverge like a fan and form a vast delta with an area of ​​19,000 sq.

sq. km. The Caspian Sea is an inland body of water, or a giant lake. The mirror of its waters is located 28 m below the level of the World Ocean.

Delta - the shape of the mouth of the river with channels into which the main channel is divided.

The Volga Delta is the largest river delta in Europe. It begins at the place of separation from the Volga channel of the Buzan branch (46 km north of Astrakhan) and has up to 500 branches, channels and small rivers. The main branches are Bakhtemir, Kamyzyak, Staraya Volga, Bolda, Buzan, Akhtuba, Kigach (of which Akhtuba is navigable). They form systems of smaller streams (up to 30-40 m wide and with a water flow rate of less than 50 cubic meters per second), which form the basis of the channel network.
Due to the lowering of the level of the Caspian Sea, the area of ​​the delta has increased ninefold over the past 130 years.

At the mouth of the Volga is the city of Astrakhan. Astrakhan is the southernmost of the Volga cities. In the past - the capital of the Astrakhan Tatar Khanate. In 1717, Peter I made Astrakhan the capital of the Astrakhan province. Its attraction is the five-domed Assumption Cathedral, built in the times of Peter the Great with a white Kremlin built of stone from Saray, the capital city of the Golden Horde, which stood on Akhtuba.

The modern city is a city of sailors, shipbuilders, fishermen. The city is located on 11 islands in the upper part of the Volga Delta.

The Volga is in dire need of protection. Therefore, a reserve was created at the confluence of the Volga into the sea. The unique flora and fauna of the delta (sturgeons, lotus, flamingos, Siberian Cranes, pelicans) have been under state protection since 1919 as the Astrakhan Nature Reserve (nominated by Russia for inclusion in the World Heritage List).

The mouth of the Volga near Astrakhan (Caspian Sea)

Education

Volga is the source. Volga - source and mouth. Volga river basin

The Volga is one of the most important rivers in the world. It carries its waters through the European part of Russia and flows into the Caspian Sea. The industrial significance of the river is great, 8 hydroelectric power stations have been built on it, navigation and fishing are well developed. In the 1980s, a bridge was built across the Volga, which is considered the longest in Russia. Its total length from source to mouth is about 3600 km. But due to the fact that it is not customary to take into account those places that relate to reservoirs, the official length of the Volga River is 3530 km. Among all the water streams in Europe, it is the longest. It contains such large cities as Volgograd, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan. That part of Russia, which is adjacent to the central artery of the country, is called the Volga region. Slightly more than 1 million km2 makes up the river basin. Volgaz occupies a third of the European part of the Russian Federation.

Briefly about the river

The Volga is fed by snow, ground and rain waters. It is characterized by spring floods and autumn floods, as well as low water in summer and winter.

The Volga River freezes, the source and mouth of which are covered with ice almost simultaneously, in October-November, and in March-April it begins to thaw.

Previously, back in ancient times, it was called Ra. Already in the Middle Ages there were references to the Volga under the name of Itil. The current name of the water stream comes from the word in the Proto-Slavic language, which is translated into Russian as “moisture”. There are also other versions of the origin of the name of the Volga, but so far it is impossible to confirm or refute them.

The source of the Volga

The Volga, whose source originates in the Tver region, begins at an altitude of 230 m. In the village of Volgoverkhovye there are several springs that were combined into a reservoir. One of them is the beginning of the river. In its upper course, it flows through small lakes, and after a few meters it passes through the Upper Volga (Peno, Vselug, Volgo and Sterzh), currently united in a reservoir.

A tiny swamp, which hardly attracts tourists with its appearance, is the source of the Volga. A map, even the most accurate, will not have specific data on the beginning of the water flow.

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Mouth of the Volga

The mouth of the Volga is the Caspian Sea. It is divided into hundreds of branches, due to which a wide delta is formed, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bwhich is about 19,000 km2.

Due to the large amount of water resources, this area is the richest in plants and animals. The fact that the mouth of the river ranks first in the world in terms of the number of sturgeon already speaks volumes. This river has a sufficient influence on climatic conditions, which have a beneficial effect on the flora and fauna, as well as on humans. The nature of this area fascinates and helps to have a good time. Fishing here is best from April to November. The weather and the number of fish species will never allow you to return empty-handed.

Vegetable world

The following types of plants grow in the waters of the Volga:

• amphibians (susak, reed, cattail, lotus);
• water immersed (naiad, hornwort, elodea, buttercup);
• aquatic with floating leaves (water lily, duckweed, pondweed, walnut);
• algae (hari, cladophora, hara).

The largest number of plants is represented at the mouth of the Volga. The most common are sedge, wormwood, pondweed, spurge, saltwort, astragalus. In the meadows in large quantities wormwood, sorrel, reed grass and bedstraw grow.

The delta of the river called the Volga, the source of which is also not very rich in plants, has 500 various kinds. Sedge, spurge, marshmallow, wormwood and mint are not uncommon here. You can find thickets of blackberries and reeds. Meadows grow on the banks of the water stream. The forest is located in stripes. The most common trees are willows, ash and poplars.

Animal world

The Volga is rich in fish. It is inhabited by many aquatic animals that differ from each other in the way of existence. In total, there are about 70 species, of which 40 are commercial. One of the smallest fish in the pool is the puhead, whose length does not exceed 3 cm. It can even be confused with a tadpole. But the largest is the beluga. Its dimensions can reach 4 m. It is a legendary fish: it can live up to 100 years and weigh more than 1 ton. The most important are roach, catfish, pike, sterlet, carp, pike perch, sturgeon, bream. Such wealth not only provides products to nearby areas, but is also successfully exported to other countries.

Sterlet, pike, bream, carp, catfish, ruff, perch, burbot, asp - all these representatives of fish live in the introductory stream, and the Volga River is considered to be their permanent place of residence. Istok, unfortunately, cannot boast of such a rich diversity. In places where the water flow is calm and has a shallow depth, the southern stickleback lives - the only representative of sticklebacks. And in those areas where the Volga has the most vegetation, you can meet carp, which prefers quiet waters. Stellate sturgeon, herring, sturgeon, lamprey, beluga enter the river from the Caspian Sea. Since ancient times, the river has been considered the best for fishing.

You can also meet frogs, birds, insects and snakes. Dalmatian pelicans, pheasants, egrets, swans and white-tailed eagles are very often located on the banks. All these representatives are quite rare and are listed in the Red Book. There are many protected areas on the banks of the Volga, they help protect rare animal species from extinction. Geese, ducks, teals and mallards nest here. Wild boars live in the Volga delta, and saigas live in the nearby steppes. Very often on the seashore you can meet Caspian seals, which are quite freely located near the water.

Significance of the Volga for Russia

The Volga, whose source is located in a village in the Tver region, flows throughout Russia. With its waterway, the river connects with the Baltic, Azov, Black and White seas, as well as the Tikhvin and Vyshnevolotsk systems. Large forests can be found in the Volga basin, as well as rich adjacent fields sown with various industrial and grain crops. The lands in these areas are fertile, which contributed to the development of horticulture and melon growing. It should be clarified that there are gas and oil deposits in the Volga-Ural zone, and salt deposits near Solikamsk and the Volga region.

It is impossible to argue with the fact that the Volga has a long and rich history. She is a participant in many important political events. And it also plays a huge economic role, being the main water artery of Russia, thereby uniting several regions into one. It has administrative and industrial centers, several millionaire cities. That is why this water stream is called the great Russian river.

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Description: Volga (in ancient times - Ra, in the Middle Ages - Itil, or Etel), - a river in the European part of Russia, one of the largest rivers in the world and the largest in Europe. Length 3530 km (before the construction of reservoirs 3690 km). The area of ​​the basin is 1360 thousand km2.

The Volga originates on the Valdai Hills at an altitude of 228 m and flows into the Caspian Sea. The mouth lies 28 m below sea level. The total fall is 256 m. The Volga receives about 200 tributaries. The left tributaries are more numerous and more abundant than the right ones. The river system of the Volga basin includes 151 thousand watercourses (rivers, streams and temporary watercourses) with a total length of 574 thousand km. The Volga basin extends from the Valdai and Central Russian uplands in the west to the Urals in the east. At the latitude of Saratov, the basin narrows sharply, and the Volga flows from Kamyshin to the Caspian Sea without tributaries. The main, feeding part of the Volga drainage area, from its sources to Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan, is located in the forest zone, the middle part of the basin to Samara and Saratov is in the forest-steppe zone, the lower part is in the steppe zone to Volgograd, and to the south - in the semi-desert zone.

It is customary to divide the Volga into three parts: the upper Volga - from the source to the mouth of the Oka, the middle Volga - from the confluence of the Oka to the mouth of the Kama, and the lower Volga - from the confluence of the Kama to the Caspian Sea. After the construction of the Kuibyshev reservoir, the boundary between the middle and lower Volga is usually considered to be the Zhigulevskaya HPP upstream of Samara.

The source of the Volga is the key near the village of Volgoverkhovye in the Tver region. In the upper reaches, within the Valdai Upland, the Volga passes through small lakes - Verkhit, Sterzh, Vselug, Peno and Volgo. As early as 1843, a dam (Upper Volga Beishlot) was built at the source of Lake Volgo to regulate the flow of water and maintain navigable depths in low water. Between Tver and Rybinsk on the Volga, the Ivankovskoye reservoir with a dam and a hydroelectric power station near Dubna, the Uglich reservoir (hydroelectric power station near Uglich) and the Rybinsk reservoir (hydroelectric power station near Rybinsk) were created. In the region of Rybinsk - Yaroslavl and below Kostroma, the river flows in a narrow valley among high banks, crossing the Uglich-Danilov and Galich-Chukhloma uplands. Further, the river flows along the Unzha and Balakhna lowlands. At Gorodets (above the city of Nizhny Novgorod), the Volga, blocked by the dam of the Nizhny Novgorod hydroelectric power station, forms the Gorky reservoir. The main tributaries of the upper Volga are Selizharovka, Tvertsa, Mologa, Sheksna and Unzha. In the middle reaches, below the confluence of the Oka, the Volga becomes even more full-flowing. It flows along the northern edge of the Volga Upland. The right bank of the river is high, the left is low. The Cheboksary hydroelectric power station was built near Cheboksary, above which the reservoir of the same name is located. For a number of reasons, the hydroelectric power station has not yet been brought to its design capacity, and the level of the Cheboksary reservoir is 5 meters below the design level. In this regard, the section from the Nizhny Novgorod hydroelectric power station to Nizhny Novgorod remains extremely shallow, and navigation on it is carried out thanks to water releases from the Nizhny Novgorod hydroelectric power station in the morning. At the moment, the final decision on filling the Cheboksary reservoir to the design level has not been made. As an alternative option, the possibility of constructing a low-pressure dam combined with a road bridge above Nizhny Novgorod is being considered. The largest tributaries of the Volga in its middle reaches are the Oka, Sura, Vetluga and Sviyaga.

In the lower reaches, after the confluence of the Kama, the Volga becomes a mighty river. It flows here along the Volga Upland. Near Togliatti, above the Samarskaya Luka, which is formed by the Volga, skirting the Zhiguli mountains, the dam of the Zhigulevskaya hydroelectric power station (the former Volga hydroelectric power station named after V. I. Lenin) was built; above the dam extends the Kuibyshev reservoir. Downstream - near the city of Balakovo, the dam of the Saratov hydroelectric power station was erected. The Lower Volga receives relatively small tributaries - Samara, Big Irgiz, Eruslan.

21 km above Volgograd, the left branch - Akhtuba (length 537 km) - separates from the river, which flows parallel to the main channel. The vast space between the Volga and Akhtuba, crossed by numerous channels and old rivers, is called the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain; the width of floods within this floodplain reached 20-30 km before. On the Volga, between the beginning of Akhtuba and Volgograd, there is the Volzhskaya HPP (the former Volzhskaya HPP named after the 22nd Congress of the CPSU).

The river delta begins at the point of separation from its channel of the Buzan branch (46 km north of Astrakhan) and is one of the largest in Russia. There are up to 500 branches, channels and small rivers in the delta. The main branches are Bakhtemir, Kamyzyak, Staraya Volga, Bolda, Buzan, Akhtuba (of which Bakhtemir is navigable).

The Volga is mainly fed by snow (60% of annual runoff), ground (30%) and rain (10%) waters. The natural regime is characterized by spring floods (April - June), low water levels during the summer and winter low water periods, and autumn rain floods (October). Annual fluctuations in the level of the Volga before the construction of a cascade of waterworks reached 11 m near Tver, 15-17 m below the Kama mouth, and 3 m near Astrakhan. With the construction of reservoirs, the flow of the Volga was regulated, level fluctuations sharply decreased.

The average annual water consumption at the Upper Volga Beishlot is 29 m3 / s, at Tver - 182, at Yaroslavl - 1110, at Nizhny Novgorod - 2970, at Samara - 7720, at Volgograd - 8060 m3 / s. Below Volgograd, the river loses about 2% of its discharge to evaporation. The maximum water flow during floods in the past below the confluence of the Kama reached 67,000 m3/s, and near Volgograd, as a result of a spill over the floodplain, they did not exceed 52,000 m3/s. In connection with the regulation of the flow maximum expenses floods have sharply decreased, and summer and winter low-water flows have greatly increased.

Prior to the creation of reservoirs, during the year, the Volga carried to the mouth about 25 million tons of sediment and 40-50 million tons of dissolved minerals. The water temperature of the river in the middle of summer (July) reaches 20-25°C. The Volga breaks up near Astrakhan in mid-March, in the first half of April, the break-up occurs on the upper Volga and below Kamyshin, for the rest of its length - in mid-April. The river freezes in the upper and middle reaches at the end of November, in the lower - at the beginning of December; Free from ice remains about 200 days, and near Astrakhan about 260 days. With the creation of reservoirs, the thermal regime of the Volga changed: in the upper pools, the duration of ice phenomena increased, and in the lower pools it became shorter.

Historical and economic-geographical essay. Geographical position The Volga and its large tributaries determined already by the 8th century. its importance as a trade route between East and West. Fabrics, metals were exported from Central Asia, furs, wax, and honey were exported from the Slavic lands. In the 9th-10th centuries. such centers as Itil, Bolgar, Novgorod, Rostov, Suzdal, and Murom played a significant role in trade. From the 11th century trade weakens, and in the 13th century. the Mongol-Tatar invasion disrupted economic ties, except for the basin of the upper Volga, where Novgorod, Tver and the cities of Vladimir-Suzdal Rus played an active role. From the 14th century the significance of the trade route is being restored, the role of such centers as Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Astrakhan is growing. Conquest by Ivan IV the Terrible in the middle of the 16th century. The Kazan and Astrakhan khanates led to the unification of the entire Volga river system in the hands of Russia, which contributed to the flourishing of the Volga trade in the 17th century. There are new large cities - Samara, Saratov, Tsaritsyn; Yaroslavl, Kostroma, and Nizhny Novgorod play an important role. Large caravans of ships (up to 500) float along the Volga. In the 18th century the main trade routes are moving west, and the economic development of the lower Volga is constrained by poor population and nomadic raids. The Volga basin in the 17th-18th centuries was the main area of ​​operations of the rebellious peasants and Cossacks during the peasant wars under the leadership of S. T. Razin and E. I. Pugachev.

In the 19th century there is a significant development of the Volga trade route after the connection of the Mariinsky river system of the Volga and Neva basins (1808); a large river fleet appeared (in 1820 - the first steamboat), a huge army of barge haulers (up to 300 thousand people) worked on the Volga. Large shipments of grain, salt, fish, and later oil and cotton are made along the Volga. The Nizhny Novgorod fair acquires great economic importance.

During civil war In 1918-1920, major military operations took place on the Volga, and it acquired important military and strategic importance. Since the end of the 30s. In the 20th century, the Volga also began to be used as a source of hydropower. During the Great Patriotic War In 1941-45, the largest Battle of Stalingrad of 1942-43 took place in the East. In the post-war period, the economic role of the Volga increased significantly, especially after the creation of a number of large reservoirs and hydroelectric power stations. After the completion of the construction of the Volga-Kama cascade of HPPs, the total generation of electricity reached 40-45 billion kWh per year, the area of ​​​​the reservoir mirror was about 38 thousand km2, the total volume was 288 km3, and the useful volume was 90 km3.

The Volga is connected to the Baltic Sea by the Volga-Baltic Waterway; with the White Sea - through the White Sea-Baltic Canal and the Severodvinsk system; with the Azov and Black Seas - through the Volga-Don Canal. An important role is played by the Moscow Canal, which connects the Volga with Moscow and was created for the purpose of navigation, water supply of the capital and watering of the Moscow River. Currently, regular navigation along the Volga is carried out from the city of Tver. (According to the materials of the site: www.riverfleet.ru)

A.S. Glednev report "The Volga River - and its significance"

There are many large and beautiful rivers in Russia, such as the IRTYSH, LENA, ANGARA, OB. One of the largest and most beautiful Russian rivers in Europe is the Volga River, the 16th longest in the world.

“Each country has its own national river,” Dumas wrote. “Russia has the VOLGA, the largest river in Europe, the queen of our rivers, and I hastened to bow to Her Majesty the Volga River!” Geologists determine from deposits in the earth’s crust what an immeasurably long In the history of the Earth, significant areas of the present Volga region have repeatedly turned into the seabed. One of the seas slowly receded to the south about twenty million years ago, and then the Volga River flowed in its wake. The Volga did not begin in Valdai, but near the Ural Mountains. She, as it were, cut a corner, taking the direction from there to the Zhiguli, and then carried the waters much more east than now. Movements of the earth's crust, the formation of new heights and depressions, sharp fluctuations in the level of the Caspian Sea and other reasons forced the Volga River to change direction.

RA - this is how the Greek scientist Ptolemy called the Volga River in his "Geography". He lived far from the Volga, on the coast of Africa, in the city of Alexandria, but rumors about the great river also reached there. It was in the second century AD. ITIL, ETIL, ATIL... Such names of the Volga River are noted in medieval chronicles.

The source of the Volga River on the Valdai Upland, where groundwater comes out. The Volga is a typical flat river. The Volga River flows into the Caspian Sea. At the confluence of the Volga forms a delta with an area of ​​19 thousand square meters. km.

For almost 370 km. she rolls her waters from them for 3500 km. ships are allowed to move. At this distance, it descends no more than 250 m. The fall of the river is small. The average flow velocity is less than 1 m/s.

Most of the rivers are tributaries of other larger rivers. OKA is the right tributary of the Volga, KAMA is the left tributary of the Volga River. Smaller rivers, when flowing into larger ones, form the basin of the main river, due to which the rivers are full-flowing. The Volga river basin is 1360 thousand square meters. km.

The main food of the Volga River is melted spring waters. Rains, which fall mainly in summer, and ground water, due to which the river lives in winter, play a smaller role in its nutrition. In accordance with this, in the annual level of the river, there are: high and prolonged spring floods, a fairly stable summer low water and a low winter low water. The duration of the flood is an average of 72 days. The maximum rise in water usually occurs in the first half of May, half a month after the spring ice drift. From the beginning of June to October - November, a summer low water is established. Thus, most of the navigation period, when the Volga River is ice-free (on average 200 days), coincides with the period of low low water levels (2 - 3 m).

The upper Volga - from the source to Nizhny Novgorod, to the confluence of the Oka, the middle - from the mouth of the Oka to the mouth of the Kama, the lower Volga - from the confluence of the Kama to the Caspian Sea.

From the city of Nizhny Novgorod, after the confluence of the Volga with the Oka, as is commonly believed, the middle course of the Volga begins. The width of the riverbed immediately more than doubles, then fluctuating in the range from 600 to 2000 m. And more.

The middle Volga is characterized by three main types of banks. On the right, the ancient banks, unflooded at any level of water, rise down to the river in steep slopes; sometimes, at a turn, such a bank protrudes into the Volga River, forming a cliff. On the left, extremely gentle, gradually rising to a low meadow floodplain, sandy shores predominate, alternating with "ravines - steep, almost sheer slopes, clayey, sandy-clayey; in some places they reach a considerable height." noiselessly, solemnly and unhurriedly flow its waters; the mountain shore is reflected in them with a black shadow, and on the left side it is decorated with sandy rims of shallows, wide meadows with gold and green velvet "(M. Gorky," Foma Gordeev ").

The difference between the right and left banks of the Volga River affects the settlement and economic development of the banks of this river. The quiet backwaters of the left bank are widely used for parking, wintering, repair and construction of ships: along the entire Volga coast of the Volga there are settlements of shipbuilding and ship repair plants.

Left-bank villages on the Volga River, and settlements are located, as a rule, far from the river, outside the low, flooded floodplain, with the exception in this respect are the villages on high ravines. The wide left-bank floodplain is rich in meadows; Collective farmers also come here to mow from the right bank, where floodplains are small. Another thing is on the right bank. The villages are often located "right above the Volga River", on the top of the bedrock bank and on the slopes.

The high right bank of the Volga River is fraught with a constant threat of landslides and landslides, which is unfavorable for settlement on it. The condition for their occurrence is the interbedding of water-resistant clayey and aquiferous sandy horizons observed on the right bank, with their exit towards the river. The Volga rivers saturated with water after snowmelt or summer showers, the upper sandy-argillaceous strata begin to slide along the water-resistant layer towards the river. This sliding can be very slow, but in the end, it can lead to a collapse. Landslides are being combated by strengthening dangerous sections of the coast, the construction of drainage systems.

Abstract: The Volga River

Volga river

1. Volga - the great Russian river

Our country is rich in rivers: there are almost 200 thousand of them. And if you pull them out one after another, you get a ribbon about 3 million km long, many dozens of times it could wrap around the globe along the equator.

"Throw a look at Russia from above - it has turned blue with rivers."

V. Mayakovsky

“Each country has its own national river. Russia has the Volga - the largest river in Europe, the queen of our rivers - and I hastened to bow to Her Majesty the Volga, ”Dumas wrote.

The Volga is the 16th longest river in the world and the 5th in Russia. Like a giant tree, the Volga spread its branches - tributaries - across the great Russian plain. It captured almost 1.5 million km2 within the boundaries of its basin. Originating as a small stream among forests and swamps near the village of Volgoverkhovye in the center of the Valdai Upland, the Volga, on its way to the sea, receives tribute from numerous tributaries (the largest of them are the Oka and Kama) and turns into a mighty river, the largest in all of Europe, with a length of 3700 km, carrying its waters into the inner Caspian Sea-lake. In the lower reaches (after Volgograd) it has no tributaries.

“... - seven thousand rivers

She collected from all over -

Big and small - up to one,

What from Valdai to the Urals

They furrowed the globe of the earth "

A. Tvardovsky

(poem "For the distance distance")

The Volga is a typically flat river. From source to mouth, it descends only 256 meters. This is a very small slope compared to other great rivers in the world, which gives very great convenience for navigation.

“... they are slowly moving towards the banks of the Volga, - the left one, all drenched in the sun, spreads along to the edge of the sky, like a lush, green carpet, and the right waved its slopes, overgrown with forest, to the sky, and froze in stern peace. A broad-breasted river stretched majestically between them; noiselessly, solemnly and unhurriedly flow its waters ... "

M. Gorky

According to its natural features, the natural, former Volga is a typical Eastern European mixed-flow river with a predominance of snow, with a long freeze-up and a summer decline in water.

During the year, a huge amount of water flows down the Volga - about 250 km3.

According to natural features, the Volga is usually divided into three parts. From the source to the confluence of the Oka, it is called the Upper Volga, then to the confluence of the Kama - the Middle and from the Samara Luka to the mouth - the Lower. The territory where the river flows is called the Upper Volga, Middle and Lower Volga regions, respectively.

2. Historical Volga

The great Russian river Volga has long been known to the Greeks. Ra (which meant "Generous") - this is how the Greek scientist Ptolemy called the Volga in his "Geography". He lived far from the Volga, on the coast of Africa, in the city of Alexandria, but rumors about the great river also reached there. It was in the 2nd century AD.

The Finnish tribes living on its banks called the Volga River - “Light”, “Shining”, and the Arabs in the Middle Ages called it “Iyshl” - “River of Rivers”. Some geographers believe that the name "Volga" comes from the Russian words "moisture", "water". Entire pages of the history of the Russian state and its people are connected with the word Volga. There was a time when, crushed by extortions, driven from the land, hungry and impoverished, the Volga peasants went to the great river. Here they huddled together in artels and pulled barges down the Volga day and day, in rain and snow, in heat and cold. This is well reflected in the picture by I.E. Repin "Barge haulers on the Volga". Even the strongest could not stand this hard labor, and brought many to the grave ahead of time. But others made millions from their slave labor. "The river of slavery and longing" called the Volga N.A. Nekrasov.

"Come out to the Volga, whose groan is heard

Over the great Russian river?

We call this moan a song,

That barge haulers are towing.

In some years in the past, when a lot of snow fell in winter, the water level near Volgograd reached 10-14 m. But it was not always so. More often, there were periods when there was little water, and the Volga became very shallow in summer.

In 1885, a cute picture was depicted on the cover of the Alarm Clock magazine: a beautiful woman lies on her deathbed - this is the Volga. Nearby, her daughters, Oka and Kama, are crying in a kneeling pose. Saddened stand at the bed of the dying - History, Trade, Poetry. The doctor throws up his hands - I can’t help you with anything. The shallowing reached the point that large ships no longer sailed above N.-Novgorod.

The Volga and its cities endured many trials during the years of the civil war and the military intervention of foreign states. Counter-revolutionary rebellion in Samara ("death trains"), military threat (1918) to Samara and Simbirsk, now from Kolchak's army. In the battles for the liberation of these cities, units under the command of V.I. Chapaev. Fierce battles went on for Tsaritsyn, which was the key to the grain regions of southern Russia and Baku oil.

In the first half of 1918, 5,037 wagons of food were sent through Tsaritsyn to Moscow and Petrograd. That is why the White Guards rushed to Tsaritsyn: they sought to deprive the young Soviet Republic of bread and fuel. In the second half of 1919, the city was occupied by the White Guard troops of General Wrangel, where the defenders were brutally massacred. 3.5 thousand people became victims of terror. In January 1920, the Red Army drove the troops out of the city. To fight for the Volga and its cities during the Civil War, at the suggestion of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, in April 1918, the first Soviet river military flotilla was created. It consisted of river vessels and a group of warships delivered from the Baltic Fleet. The flotilla operated on the Volga and its channels and went down in history as the Volga military flotilla. With the participation of the Volga flotilla, the White Guard units near Sviyazhsk were defeated, Kazan, Syzran, Volsk, Samara were liberated. In July 1919, she became part of the Volga-Caspian military flotilla.

Special mention should be made of those terrible and difficult months when, during the Great Patriotic War (WWII), the fate of our state was decided on the banks of the Volga. This is about Battle of Stalingrad, which marked a turning point in the course of the war, seeing that it was not possible to take Moscow by attack, the Nazi command changed its plans. It decided to direct the main blow south of the capital, to seize Ukraine and the Volga region with their innumerable food and material resources. Particular importance was attached to the early physical destruction of Stalingrad - the largest industrial center on the Volga, which supplied the fronts of World War II with tanks, armored personnel carriers, guns, and ammunition. Then it was planned to advance to Astrakhan and cut the main channel of the Volga there. The plans of the enemy were unraveled. On the near and far approaches to the city, 100 thousand people erected four defensive lines in a short time. Leaving the fortifications, the builders wrote on the walls: “Fighter, be steadfast! Not a step back, remember, behind your back is the Volga, Our Motherland! From the summer of 1942 to February 1943, the heroic saga of the battle for Stalingrad and the Volga lasted. At the beginning of 1942, the Volga military flotilla was re-created from the converted ships of the Volga River Shipping Company, which in the period from 11/19/1942 to 12/16/1942. (during the counter-offensive near Stalingrad) transferred over 27 thousand people and 1300 tons of military cargo to the right bank of the Volga. The Nazis were squeezed into "pincers", and then completely surrounded. On February 2, 1943, the Germans surrendered. This battle lasted 6.5 months. For Germany, the battle on the Volga for Stalingrad was the gravest defeat, and for Russia - the greatest victory. After the defeat on the Volga, the Nazis were no longer able to recover. There was a great turning point in the war. The victorious offensive of our troops began on all fronts.

After the liberation of Stalingrad, the Volga Flotilla did a great job of clearing mines from the Volga.

On the site of the ruins, the ashes of Stalingrad, people created a new, even more beautiful city and called it Volgograd, in honor of the great Russian river.

3. Great Volga Cascade

The young Soviet state got: a shallow river, the miserable remnants of the fleet, the ruined port facilities. To prevent catastrophic consequences, it was necessary to transform the Volga system. To this end, even before the war, a plan was conceived and developed to turn the Volga into a cascade of dams, reservoirs and the construction of new canals on it. The prophetic words of the poet K.A. Nekrasov:

Other times, other pictures

I foresee the start...

Freed from shackles

The people are relentless

Ripens, densely populates

coastal deserts;

The science of water will deepen

On their smooth plain

Giant ships will run

Innumerable crowd,

And cheerful work will be eternal

Over the eternal river

A large group of scientists and engineers worked on the creation of this grandiose plan. This plan was given the strategic name "Big Volga". He was complex. This means that during its development, the needs of navigation, irrigation, energy, water supply and much more were taken into account and provided for. According to the project, the Volga was supposed to turn into a wide waterway, connect with the northern and southern seas, become a powerful factory of electrical energy and direct part of its waters for irrigation in arid regions. The Great Volga project began to be implemented from the moment when the construction of the Moscow Canal began.

The canal was built from 1932 to 1937. It was necessary to immediately solve two important problems: to make the capital a large river port and give it plenty of fresh drinking water. Its length is 128 km. Water five pumping stations rises 40 meters to the Volga-Moscow watershed, and then follows by gravity.

About 200 structures were erected on this "man-made river": 10 dams, 11 locks, dozens of bridges. 8 HPPs have been built. Many buildings are decorated with bas-reliefs, statues, frescoes. When you float along the canal, it seems that you are in a museum of monumental sculpture. Channel traffic never stops.

Ivankovsky waterworks - the main structure of the canal. Near the village of Ivankovo, the Volga was blocked by a dam and forced to spill over the floodplain. The Moscow Sea arose here, and the river began to rotate the turbines of the Ivankovskaya hydroelectric power station. The news that the Russians for the first time in history stopped and forced to work for themselves the greatest river in Europe spread all over the world. The HPP's capacity was modest, only 30,000 kW.

Later, below Ivankov, the construction of the Uglich and Rybinsk hydroelectric facilities began. The Uglich HPP with a capacity of 110 thousand kW was built in 1940, and the first stage of the Rybinsk HPP was built in 1941. The Upper Volga hydroelectric power stations during the difficult war winter (1941-1942) supplied up to 3.5 billion kWh. electricity. The Rybinsk "sea" at that time was the largest artificial reservoir in the world.

The Upper Volga, for 1300 km, became subject to man. The central energy system was filled with new strength, deep-sea Astrakhan river ships reached Moscow.

In the 1950s, the construction of the Rybinsk hydroelectric power station was completed on the Volga. In 1956, the construction of the Gorkovskaya hydroelectric power station (Nizhny Novgorod) was completed.

At the beginning of the Samarskaya Luka above the city of Samara, in 1950, work began on the Volga near the Zhiguli to build the Samara hydroelectric power station. After 8 years, the work was completed, the Volga Hydroelectric Power Station named after V.I. Lenin (Samara) with a capacity of 2.3 million kW. This is a powerful building. The building of the Samara HPP "Palace of Electricity" is longer than the building of the Admiralty in St. Petersburg (it was considered the longest in the USSR).

A river approximately equal to the Oka flows through each turbine, and the Kuibyshev reservoir occupies about 6 thousand km2. In general, a titanic work has been done. It was necessary to bring the railway tracks, hang cable cars over the Volga, break up settlements, drive them into the bottom of the river steel fence, go deep behind it with excavators much lower than the channel, lay a mountain of concrete, wash a shaft of earth across the entire river and launch cars and trains along its crest, raise the Volga by 25-26 meters, arrange locks and mount units - each with an 8-storey height house, stretch the dam wall 5 km long. Help came from everywhere: automatic concrete plants from Moscow, bucket-wheel electric excavators from Kyiv, dump trucks from Minsk, turbines from Leningrad.

In 1951-62. the Volgograd hydroelectric complex is being built from the Volgograd hydroelectric power station with a capacity of 2.5 million kW. The Volgograd and Kuibyshev reservoirs irrigate over 2,000 hectares of fertile arid lands.

In the same years, the first hydroelectric power station was built on the Kama, not far from the city of Perm - the Kama hydroelectric power station with an original design (combines a spillway dam and a hydroelectric power station building), which results in savings in the cost of concrete structures.

Then the Volzhskaya hydroelectric power station with a capacity of 1 million kW and the Nizhnekamsk hydroelectric power station are being built. Since 1967, the first units of the Saratov hydroelectric power station began to give current. The launch of the Cheboksary HPP has practically completed the construction of the Volga-Kama cascade. The whole complex of structures on the Volga was called the "Great Volga Cascade". The Volga-Kama HPP cascade formed a system of reservoirs (from Kostroma to Volgograd), which makes it possible to redistribute the flow of water according to the seasons in accordance with the requirements of the national economy and irrigate the arid lands of the Middle and Lower Volga region (more than 2 million hectares, which is about half of all irrigated lands of Russia).

The Volga supplies water to thousands of enterprises and dozens of urban settlements located on its banks.

Volzhsky and Kamsky HPPs allow saving up to 25-30 million tons of coal annually. In addition, the hydroelectric power station performs the functions of regulating the load schedule of power systems. The cost of energy from hydroelectric power plants is 4-5 times lower than the cost of electricity from thermal power plants in the regions of the Volga region and the Center.

The creation of a cascade of HPPs improved navigation conditions: a deep-water route was formed with uniform guaranteed depths (3.65 m) over 3,000 km on the Volga and 1,200 km on the Kama, which reduced the cost of transportation in the Volga basin by 2-3 times compared to other inland waterways. ways and 2-3 times in comparison with the adjacent railways.

But there were also negative aspects in the transformation of the Volga. In order to obtain a large amount of electricity, they went to flood land over large areas. Two million hectares of land, thousands of villages and even some cities were under water. After the construction of hydroelectric dams, the fishery importance of the Volga decreased due to the deterioration of water quality (industrial effluents) and the difficulty of spawning fish.

4. Volga - transport highway

In distant geological epochs, it so happened that nature “offended” the Volga, depriving it of access to the ocean, and forcing it to flow into the inland sea.

This circumstance has long caused great inconvenience to the Russian people who communicated with other neighboring peoples. The lively Black Sea market has always attracted Russian merchants.

The need to connect the Volga with the Don is long overdue. The first attempt to connect the great rivers was made by the Turks, who wanted to transfer warships, heavy guns and troops by water along the Don and Volga in order to take away Astrakhan from us, annexed to Russia in 1556.

For this, their Sultan Selim II ordered a tunnel to be made in the place of the drag between the rivers. Ivan the Terrible, having learned about the uninvited guests, sent a large army to the place of work, but they fled even earlier from the inhospitable Russian land. "Turkish ditch" has survived to our time.

Peter I also dealt with the problem of connecting the Volga and the Don. But this idea was really implemented only from 1948 to 1952. The Volga was connected to the Don. Here the Volga-Don canal arose. It starts from the Volga near Volgograd and comes to the Don at Kalach. The length of the route is 101 km. There are 9 locks on the Volga slope, 4 on the Don slope. Tens of millions of tons of all kinds of cargo go through it. So the Volga got access to the southern seas - the Azov and the Black.

But it wasn't enough for her. She badly needed access to the northern seas - convenient and accessible for large modern ships. On the site of the outdated "Marinka" (a waterway connecting the basins of the Volga and Neva rivers in 1810), a new large deep road Volga-Balt - the Volga-Baltic waterway 360 km long was created. Instead of dilapidated small locks, seven new ones with several hydroelectric stations were built here. In 1964, for the first time, large ships and motor ships passed through it from the Volga to the Baltic.

And, finally, the White Sea-Baltic Canal connected the Volga with the White Sea.

Thus, the modern Volga is a waterway connected with the five seas of Europe. Day and night, a variety of goods flow along it in an endless stream - building materials and timber, cars and coal, oil, salt, bread, vegetables and fruits. Two-thirds of the republic's river cargo is transported along the Volga and its tributaries. It has 1450 ports and marinas and all the largest cities of the Volga region. The Volga unites them as a great transport artery. Freight turnover on it is 10 times higher than the railway in this area.

5. Volga - the economic axis of the Volga region

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the industrialization of the Volga region began. It becomes a major area for the production of marketable grain and the flour-grinding industry. The importance of the Volga is growing. It becomes the "main street of Russia" (grain, oil are transported, timber is rafted). The most powerful sawmills in Russia appear in Tsaritsyn (Volgograd).

The industrialization policy during the years of the pre-war five-year plans (the largest tractor plant in Volgograd) and the first years of the war (due to the evacuation of defense enterprises here in 1941-42) made the Volga region from an agrarian - industrial one, from a flour milling one - a machine-building one with an enhanced development of the military industry.

In the post-war period, especially since 1950, for two decades, the Volga region became the main region of Russia for oil production and its processing of petrochemicals. The main areas of oil and gas production and processing are located in Tataria (Almetievsk, Yelabuga), Samara region (Novokuibyshevsk, Syzran, Otradny). The flow of oil has changed. She has now gone down the Volga. The Volga region has become a land of oil and gas.

At present, the main branches of specialization of the Volga region are mechanical engineering and petrochemistry. Mechanical engineering (18.6% of Russian) is represented mainly by military-industrial complex enterprises, the main branch of specialization of which is the aviation and rocket and space industries. The largest centers of the military-industrial complex are Samara, Kazan, Saratov, Ulyanovsk.

A special place in the mechanical engineering of the Volga region belongs to the transport region of the Volga region - the automobile workshop of the country. It is the largest manufacturer of cars and trucks (Naberezhnye Chelny, Ulyanovsk, Tolyatti, Nizhny Novgorod).

Of the other modes of transport, aircraft manufacturing is developed (Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov, Samara, Ulyanovsk), shipbuilding (Rybinsk, Volgograd, Astrakhan) - sea and river vessels, including hovercraft (Sormovo, Nizhny Novgorod).

The Volga region is a major manufacturer of tractors (Volgograd, Cheboksary), car building (Tver), machine tool building, instrument making, excavators and much more are developed.

Although oil production is declining, but oil refining and petrochemistry are switching to Siberian oil, Astrakhan gas, so the Volga region is still the country's largest region for oil refining, chemical products, and organic synthesis.

It produces plastics, chemical fibers, synthetic rubber, tires ("shoes for cars"), mineral fertilizers.

The share of the Volga region in the chemical and petrochemical industry is 15.1% of Russia (Kazan, Balakovo, Engels, Volgograd).

Light industry has retained its importance and is growing. This is textile (Tver, Kineshma, etc.), food (everywhere). Of particular note is the extraction and processing of table salt from Lake Baskunchak, which has long been used as the “All-Russian salt shaker”. The only mustard plant in the country operates in Volgograd. The mining and processing fish industry (Astrakhan) is successfully developing.

There are 67 cities on the banks of the Volga. They all stretched out along or near it. The largest of them are as follows.

Nizhny Novgorod (former Gorky) - the first city on the Volga and the third largest in Russia (1 million 357 thousand inhabitants), was founded in the 13th century by Prince Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodovich and was of great strategic importance at that time. Its location at the confluence of the Oka with the Volga contributed to the development of industry and trade.

In 1817, the Makariev Fair was transferred to Nizhny Novgorod (previously it was held in the town of Makaryevo, on the left bank of the Volga), which occupied a huge area on the spit of the Oka and Volga. Now she is reborn again.

Since the middle of the 19th century, the city has gained industrial importance. The Sormovo Shipbuilding Plant, now Krasnoye Sormovo, was built there, where sea and river hydrofoil ships (Rocket, Meteor, Kometa) are built. Gorky's passenger cars and trucks "Volga" (with the emblem of a deer figure on the hood) and GAZ (famous "gaziki") are known all over the world.

There is a large river port in Nizhny Novgorod. The department of the Volga United River Shipping Company is located here. The life of many outstanding people of Russia is connected with the history of this city. The Ulyanov family lived here. This is the birthplace of A.M. Gorky, Russian inventor Kulibin, mathematician Lobachevsky and many other prominent figures. The grave of Kuzma Minin is located in the Archangel Cathedral of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin. The Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky and others are also known.

The second largest population in the Volga region (1 million 156 thousand) is the city of Samara, founded in the 16th century as a fortress in the bend of the Volga near the confluence of the Samara River (which gave the city its name). During the Second World War, dozens of industrial enterprises were evacuated here, turning the city into one of the largest centers of engineering (aircraft, various machine tools, drills for wells, electrical equipment for cars and tractors). Samara is a center for the manufacture of bearings of all-Union significance. The metal-working and chemical industries are developed here. Samara is famous for the largest and most comfortable embankment, dressed in concrete and Ural granite. Samara is the birthplace of the famous Zhiguli beer. The city is also known for its chocolate factory "Russia".

The capital of Tatarstan - Kazan (1 million 101 thousand people), was founded in the 12th century as a fortress and a trading center, on the border of the Volga Bulgaria and Russian lands. It is a large industrial center and the main center of Tatar culture in Russia. Here are developed: mechanical engineering and chemical industry. It supplies the national economy with turbo-refrigeration and electronic computers, compressors, synthetic rubber, polyethylene, film, household chemicals, and so on.

Kazan is the most university city. Scientists of Kazan University N.I. Lobachevsky, V.M. Bekhterev, A.V. Vishnevsky brought glory to domestic science. Leo Tolstoy studied at Kazan University. F.I. was born in this city. Chaliapin, passed his "universities" A.M. Bitter. In the former bakery where he worked, a museum was opened to them. Gorky.

There are many memorable places in Kazan connected with the development of the labor movement, with the revolutionary events of 1917, with the liberation of Kazan from the White Guards and interventionists in 1918. Near the walls of the Kazan Kremlin there is a monument to the hero of the Soviet Union Musa Jalil, who wrote his immortal poems about the fearlessness and resilience of the Soviet people (“Moabit Notebook”) in the fascist dungeons. For these poems in 1957, the poet was awarded (posthumously) the Lenin Prize.

The Kazan river port is one of the largest on the Volga. Routes of all transit, transport and tourist lines of steamships of the central basins pass through it.

The largest city of the Lower Volga region is Volgograd, known since the end of the 16th century under the name Tsaritsyn (from the river Tsaritsa, which flows into the Volga). The city is stretched along the right bank of the Volga for 80 km from the dam of the Volgograd hydroelectric power station to the locks of the Volga-Don Canal. It arose in the place of the closest approach of the two great rivers of the Russian plain, the Volga and the Don, and developed as a center of trade, transshipment of timber, extraction and processing of the Volga fish resources.

Today's Volgograd is a major industrial center of the Volga region. It has developed metallurgy (Krasny Oktyabr plant), mechanical engineering, including the largest tractor-building plant, chemical oil refining, light industry, food and other industries. Volgograd is a major transport hub.

With Volgograd (Tsaritsyn and Stalingrad), as mentioned above, the history of Russia is connected during the Civil and WWII wars. Volgograd residents honor the memory of the fallen heroes both during the defense of Tsaritsyn and during the great battle of Stalingrad. On Mamaev Kurgan, a monument was created - the ensemble "To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad".

The second largest city in the Lower Volga region is the city of Saratov (874 thousand inhabitants). It first became a center for the processing of agricultural products, especially grain. Then machine-building, shipbuilding, nail-and-wire plants appeared, later large oil refineries, chemical plants, the largest technical glass plant in Europe (used in the construction of the Kremlin Palace of Congresses in Moscow), and a large-panel housing construction plant were built. Mobile power plants, refrigerators, and light and food industry products are produced.

Saratov is a major center of science, culture and education. Saratov is the birthplace of N.G. Chernyshevsky (he has a museum and a monument), writer K.A. Fedin. In the Saratov province were born A.N. Radishchev (marble bust), P.I. Yablochkov, inventor of the electric light bulb. Here, in the industrial technical school, Yu.A. Gagarin. The city has an embankment astronaut. Among the fields in the Saratov region, a high obelisk was built, where, after flying around the globe, the first cosmonaut of the world, Yu.A. Gagarin. This year, April 12 marks the fortieth anniversary of his flight (Cosmonautics Day).

Saratov is home to the oldest university in the Volga region, an art gallery created by the artist Bogolyubov, one of the largest in Russia.

The modern Volga city of Tolyatti is located on the left bank of the Kuibyshev reservoir, the population is 722.6 thousand inhabitants. The largest enterprise in Togliatti is the Volga Automobile Plant (VAZ). The car plant "Zhiguli" produces cars of three names: "Zhiguli", "Niva", "Lada".

It manufactures equipment for the cement, mining, and chemical industries. Nitrogen-fertilizer and synthetic rubber plants were built. Tolyatti is one of the largest elevators, a highly mechanized river port, which is connected with other cities by high-speed lines. Today Tolyatti is the largest industrial center of the Middle Volga region.

Ulyanovsk is a large river port on the Kuibyshev reservoir, with a population of 667.4 thousand people. This ancient city (until 1924 - Simbirsk) was founded as a fortress in 1648. Being in the center of the Middle Volga region, it more than once found itself in a whirlpool of historical events. Here stood and fought the troops of Stepan Razin. Simbirsk peasants joined Pugachev's detachments, and during the Civil War, Simbirsk was captured by the White Guards. Commander of the Iron Division G.D. Guy, after the liberation of Simbirsk, sent Lenin a well-known telegram: "... The capture of your hometown is the answer to your one wound ..." (Simbirsk is Lenin's birthplace).

There are many historical monuments and monuments to outstanding personalities (Lenin, Karamzin, Goncharov, etc.) in the city.

Ulyanovsk is a major center of the automotive industry (UAZ). A whole family of trucks (vans, ambulances) is produced here. Cutting machines, sprinklers, washing machines, shoes, furniture, knitwear. Ulyanovsk port is connected with dozens of ports in other cities. The cargo and passenger flow of this city is very large.

Astrakhan is the southernmost of the Volga cities. In the past - the capital of the Astrakhan Tatar Khanate. In 1717, Peter I made Astrakhan the capital of the Astrakhan province. Its attraction is the five-domed Assumption Cathedral, built in the time of Peter the Great with a white Kremlin built of stone from Saray, the capital city of the Golden Horde, which stood on Akhtuba.

Currently, Astrakhan is an important port and the main fishing center for breeding, harvesting and processing fish. Known fish canning refrigeration plant, where the fish is cut, frozen, salted, smoked, canned, etc.

An important role in the economy of Astrakhan is played by enterprises of mechanical engineering and metalworking. Seiners, tankers are built here, refrigeration equipment, cellulose, cardboard, paper are produced, salt mining and woodworking are developed. In the delta, a canal was dug to enter the Volga from the sea, but not all ships can come close to Astrakhan. At sea, about a hundred kilometers from the coast, their cargo is reloaded onto smaller ships and transported to Astrakhan.

Mechanical engineering is well developed in Naberezhnye Chelny, mainly the automotive industry.

All the leading fundamental industries of the Volga region are located in port cities, which the Volga connects and unites into a single communication. The Volga provides the entire region with water, hydropower, and cheap transport, thus being the economic axis of the Volga region. Its importance for the economy of this area is equivalent to the importance of the spine for the human body.

We are also interested in the Volga as a tourist route for water travel, replete with unique historical monuments. These are world-famous Kremlins in Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Astrakhan, memorials in Ulyanovsk and Volgograd, a unique nature reserve in Astrakhan.

6. Problems of the Volga (Volga region). Improving the economic situation on the Volga and its tributaries

The role of the Volga region in the economy of Russia is great, but the burden of this region with the most acute problems is also great. The catchment area of ​​the Volga is huge. It is 1 million 350 thousand km2. It receives effluents from industrial enterprises, including from the VLK, city sewerage, wastewater contaminated with pesticides from the vast fields of the Volga region. The Volga is also polluted by water transport (port runoff, oil leakage, etc.). All this causes great damage to the fish industry, especially sturgeon, which has always been the glory of Russia. Therefore, it is necessary to improve methods of cleaning Wastewater using both mechanical and chemical, as well as biochemical methods, to protect water resources from depletion (very high evaporation from twenty thousand square kilometers of the Volga reservoirs) by reducing the consumption of fresh water for technical purposes (reuse of waste water after its preliminary purification).

Fish hatcheries have been built to restore fish stocks. They release young sturgeon, beluga, stellate sturgeon into the river. The Black Sea mullet was airlifted to the Caspian by planes. (The annelids were transported to feed the fish, especially for sturgeon and beluga).

But not only the water of the Volga and its dwindling fish stocks require improvement, but also the lands of the Volga region, the air basins of the Volga cities, saturated with enterprises of chemistry, oil refining, metallurgy, etc.

To solve the environmental problems of this region, the Federal Target Program "Revival of the Volga" was developed and adopted. The program is designed for 15 years (1996-2010).

As a result of the implementation of the measures envisaged by the program, the discharge of polluted effluents into water bodies will be reduced by 30%; the use of drinking water for industrial needs will be reduced by 40%, the specific consumption of raw materials and energy resources will be reduced by 20%, emissions into the atmosphere from stationary sources will be reduced by almost 2 times, and there will be 2 times more fish in the Volga reservoirs.

At all times of the existence of Russia, the Volga has been and remains the great Russian river, on which the life of the entire Volga region largely depends.

We are Russians. We are the children of the Volga.

For us the meanings are full

Her slow waves

Heavy as boulders.

Russia's love for her is imperishable.

All souls are drawn to her

Kuban and Dnieper, Neva and Lena,

Both the Angara and the Yenisei.

I love her all in threads of light,

All in the edging of willow ...

But the Volga for Russia is

Much more than a river.

And I live young and loud,

And forever I make noise and bloom,

As long as you, Russia, are.

E. Yevtushenko.

Bibliography

1. Alekseev A.I., Nikolina V.V. Geography: population and economy of Russia. - 1999.

2. Geography of Russia: Textbook. / Ed. A.V. Darnitsky. - 1994.

3. Medvedev A. Shaburov Yu. Moscow - the port of five seas. - 1985.

4. Muranov A. The Greatest Rivers of the World. - 1968.

5. Verkhotin. Electric power system of the USSR.

6. Soviet encyclopedic Dictionary. 3rd edition - 1984.

7. Soviet historical encyclopedia. T.3. - 1963. Fishing bases on the Volga (Astrakhan region)

It flows through the European part of the country, and its mouth is located in the Caspian Sea. Officially, it is believed that the length of the Volga is 3,530 km. But if we add some more reservoirs to this figure, it turns out that the length of the queen of Russian rivers will be 3,692 km. The Volga is the longest river in all of Europe.

The area of ​​its basin is 1 million 380 thousand square meters. km. Interestingly, there are already mentions of the Volga in the writings of the ancient Greek scientist Ptolemy. He calls it "Ra" in his studies. And the Arabs once called the Volga the word "Itil", which means "river".

Burlaki and Volga

For all times, the Volga entered history due to the use of heavy barge work. It was necessary only at a time when the movement of ships turned out to be impossible against its current, that is, during floods. During the day, the burlatskaya artel could travel up to ten kilometers. And the total number of working barge haulers for the entire season could reach six hundred.

Sources of the great river

The river originates at Not far from the village of Volgoverkhovye, several springs spring from the ground. One of these springs is recognized as the source of the great Volga. This spring is surrounded by a chapel. All springs in this area flow into a small lake, from which, in turn, flows a stream no more than a meter wide. The depth of the Volga (if we conditionally designate this stream as the beginning of a great river) here is only 25-30 cm.

It is believed that the Volga exists mainly due to snow. About 60% of all its nutrition is due to melting snow. Another third of the Volga is provided by groundwater. And rain food accounts for only 10%.

Upper Volga: depth and other characteristics

Moving further, the stream becomes wider and then flows into a lake called Sterzh. Its length is 12 km, width - 1.5 km. And the total area is 18 km². The rod is part of the Upper Volga reservoir, the total length of which is 85 km. And already behind the reservoir begins called the Upper. The depth of the Volga here averages from 1.5 to 2.1 m.

The Volga, like most other rivers, is conditionally divided into three parts - the Upper, Middle and Lower. The first big city on the way of this river is Rzhev. It is followed by the ancient city of Tver. The Ivankovskoye reservoir, which stretches for 146 km, is located in this area. In its area, the depth of the river also increases to 23 m. The Volga in the Tver region stretches for 685 km.

There is a section of the river in the Moscow region, but on this territory it occupies no more than 9 km. Not far from it is the city of Dubna. And next to the Ivankovskaya dam, its largest tributary in the Moscow region, the eponymous one, also flows into the Volga. Here, in the 30s of the 20th century, a canal named after. Moscow, connecting the Moscow River and the Ivankovskoye reservoir, the waters of which are indispensable for the economy of the capital.

Further downstream is located. Its length is 146 km. The depth of the Volga at the Uglich reservoir is 5 meters. which is the northernmost point of the Volga, has a depth of 5.6 m. Behind it, the river changes its direction from northeast to southeast.

The depth of the Volga and other indicators in the middle and lower sections

The section of the Middle Volga begins at the point where the Oka, the largest right tributary of the river, flows into it. On this place stands Nizhny Novgorod - one of the largest settlements in Russia. The width and depth of the Volga are as follows:

• the channel width is from 600 m to 2 km;
• maximum depth - about 2 m.

After the confluence with the Oka, the Volga becomes more and more wide. Near Cheboksary, the great river meets an obstacle - the Cheboksary hydroelectric power station. The length of the Cheboksary reservoir is 341 m, the width is about 16 km. Its greatest depth is 35 m, the average - 6 m. And the river becomes even larger and more powerful when the Kama River flows into it.

From this point begins a section of the Lower Volga, and now it flows into the Caspian Sea. Even further upstream, after the Volga goes around the Togliatti mountains, the largest of all its reservoirs, the Kuibyshevskoye, is located. Its length is 500 m, width - 40 km, and depth - 8 m.

What is the depth of the Volga in its delta? Features of the great river delta

The length of the delta near the Caspian Sea is about 160 km. Width - about 40 km. About 500 canals and small rivers are included in the delta. It is believed that the mouth of the Volga is the largest in all of Europe. Here you can meet unique representatives of the animal and plant world - pelicans, flamingos, and even see a lotus. Here it is already difficult to talk about such a parameter as the depth of the Volga. The maximum depth of the river in its delta is, according to various estimates, up to 2.5 m. The minimum is 1-1.7 m.

In size, this section of the Volga surpasses even the deltas of such rivers as the Terek, Kuban, Rhine and Maas. He, like the river itself, played a very important role in the formation of the first settlements in these territories. There were trade routes that connected the Lower Volga with Persia and other Arab countries. The tribes of the Khazars and Polovtsy settled here. Presumably in the 13th century. here for the first time appeared a Tatar settlement called Ashtarkhan, which eventually became the beginning of Astrakhan.

What is unusual about the Volga Delta

The peculiarity of the Volga delta is that, unlike other deltas, it is not a sea, but a lake. After all, the Caspian Sea is essentially a large lake, since it is not connected with the oceans. The Caspian is called the sea only because of its impressive size, which makes it look like a sea.

The Volga flows through the territory of 15 subjects Russian Federation and is one of the most important water arteries for industry, shipping, energy and other important areas of the state.

The Volga is a sacred river for Russia. She is sung in numerous songs and feature films, generously described in stories and novels, depicted on hundreds of canvases. Among other things, it is also the largest watercourse in Europe and the largest in the world among those that flow into endorheic reservoirs. It is this river that our short article will be devoted to. What is the place of the Volga on the map of Russia? And where does it start? Let's find out!

Volga River: 8 Interesting Facts

• There are 4 million-plus cities on the Volga: Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara and Volgograd.
• Eight powerful power plants were built on this river during the 20th century.
• Geographers are still arguing about which river should be considered the main one - the Volga or the Kama. After all, the second at the point of confluence carries almost one and a half times more water.
• The river was first mentioned by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. In his writings, he calls her Oar. However, at Herodotus, for some reason, it flows into Meotida (now the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov).
• One of the oldest cities in Russia, Uglich, is located on the Volga. It was founded back in 937.
• The water content of the river is 60% provided by spring snowmelt.
• Many modern hydrologists no longer consider the Volga a river, due to the huge number of reservoirs that appeared on it in the 20th century. In their opinion, the Volga should be called a large flowing lake.
• It was on the banks of the Volga that the profession of barge haulers was born. Yes, and the most famous picture with the image of this river is connected precisely with them. This is a painting by Ilya Repin "Barge Haulers on the Volga". By the way, the idea of ​​its creation was born by the artist on the banks of the Neva.

The Volga River on the country map

The route of the largest European river is bizarre! Originating in the expanses of the Valdai Upland, it smoothly carries its waters to the east, directly to the Ural Mountains. But near Kazan, the Volga suddenly abruptly changes its direction and flows straight to the south. Having taken in her sister-Kama and made a dizzying loop in the Samara region, the river rushes to the Caspian Sea with a powerful water flow.

You can see the exact location of the Volga on the map of Russia (as well as its largest tributaries) on the following map.

The total length of the river is 3530 kilometers, the catchment area is about 1360 thousand square meters. km. The Volga river basin occupies almost a third of the territory of European Russia. At the same time, it is completely located within the Russian Federation. Only a small part of the river delta belongs to Kazakhstan.

Sources of the Volga

The source of the great Russian river is located in the Tver region, near the village of Volgoverkhovye, which no longer exists today. It is located in the middle of swamps at an altitude of 228 meters above sea level. The river flows from several springs, marked on the ground by a chapel. The first bridge across the Volga from the source is also located here. Its parameters are modest - only two meters in length.

The water in the stream near the source is distinguished by a reddish-brown tint. In the summer heat, this stream often dries up. Today, the source of the Volga, as an important natural monument, is protected by the state. Every year this place is visited by a considerable number of tourists.