The Volga, also known as the Itil, Idel, Yul, Atal, and Ra ("River of Rivers"), is the longest river in Europe. It stretches approximately 3,530 km. Before the construction of reservoirs and hydroelectric stations, the Volga was about 3,690 kilometers long; after their creation, the river was reduced to approximately 3,530 kilometers.[1] The Volga flows through the Nizhny Novgorod Region for about 300 kilometers — from the Nizhny Novgorod Reservoir to Vasilsursk — accounting for roughly 10% of its total length.[2]

For Russia, the Volga is one of the country's most important waterways. It divides the Nizhny Novgorod Region into two naturally distinct parts: the forested Zavolzhye and the elevated forest-steppe Right Bank, which also differ in climate.[2] The river connects the northwest of European Russia with the Caspian Sea and Central Asia.

The Volga is a typical lowland river: along its entire course it descends only 256 meters in elevation. It originates in the Valdai Hills at an altitude of 228 meters above sea level and empties into the Caspian Sea at 28 meters below sea level. The Volga is also the largest river of interior drainage — it does not flow into the world's oceans. The river itself has around 150,000 large and small tributaries across a basin of 1.36 million km².

Nizhny Novgorod is one of the largest cities on the Volga and its most ancient "Volga capital."

The River's Name

From far away, for a long time flows the river… Itil, Idel, Atal, and finally Ra — so the great Russian Volga was called over many centuries by peoples across the world.

Ra — this name comes from the "Geography" of Pliny. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Slavs, living before the Common Era, believed that the Volga was the embodiment of the Sun god, and that where it flowed lay the sacred land of prosperity, Iriy — or, more simply, Paradise.

Idel and Yul was what the Tatars and the Mari called the mother river. Atal was the name used by the Chuvash. And the Russian Volga, according to one theory, derived from the Baltic word "valka," meaning "a flowing stream, a marshy place." If one recalls where Russia's main river has its source, this theory proves quite plausible. It also becomes clear why, at one and the same time, those in the river's upper reaches called it Volga, while the Turkic peoples living farther downstream — unaware of the Volga's source — called it Itil ("the Endless River, the River of Rivers").

Beliefs

In every age, the peoples of the Volga wove legends about their great provider. Some said you could sail along it all the way to the Sun; others that it was the road to eternity; still others feared its guardians — the mysterious inhabitants of the underwater Volga caves.

Yet on one point the beliefs of different peoples agree: the Volga is a protector, the Volga is an intercessor. From the river's current, from the color of its water, our ancestors read the past and the future. The Volga of today is not merely a vast navigable "blue ribbon" — it is an inexhaustible source of knowledge, both manifest and still hidden, a true historical "book" that one simply needs to know how to read.

About the River

The Volga is a living organism. Every day, every year, every century it is new. To grasp its soul — and with it the soul of Russia itself, whose very name derives from the name of the Ra-river (the land of Raseya) — one must go to its headwaters. There the river will open its secret corners, reveal ancient settlements and age-old shrines, from the Iriy garden to the villages and sacred places submerged beneath its waters. In the Upper Volga towns, a documentary chronicle of the modern Volga's formation unfolds. Not only museum and archival exhibits, but the people themselves — and the stories, beliefs, legends, and other folklore they share — bring the Volga closer. It ceases to be merely water; it becomes something native and familiar. One feels the urge to return to it, the urge to speak with it…

Riffles

After the Volga was turned into a cascade of poorly flowing lakes, some riverine stretches have nonetheless survived, and these even include shallows that impede commercial navigation. Across the Volga in Nizhny Novgorod Region there operate one bridge complex (a railway bridge, a two-tier combined rail-and-road bridge, and an automobile bridge that was under construction), a bridge forming part of the dam of the Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station, and a ferry crossing between Lyskovo and Makarevo.[2] The best-known of these stretches are the section from Gorodets to Balakhna and the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain. Within the floodplain, the most problematic obstacles to navigation are the Saralevsky water junction and the Solodnikovsky shoal.

In June 2012, a half-laden passenger vessel ran aground on the Nizhne-Saralevsky shoal.

The Volga in culture

« … The banks of the Volga move slowly toward you — the left bank, bathed entirely in sunlight, stretches away to the rim of the sky like a luxuriant green carpet, while the right bank has flung its forest-clad bluffs toward the heavens and stands frozen in austere repose. Between them the broad-breasted river spreads out majestically; its waters flow soundlessly, solemnly, and without haste …
 »


The Volga has been an inspiration to many writers, poets, and artists. Numerous poems and songs have been dedicated to the great river. Many paintings have been created featuring the river's magnificent scenery.


« To gaze from Nizhny, from the great high hill
Upon the Volga — our dear mother, our provider,
How amid yellow sands and verdant meadows
She embraced her sister, the Oka
from the opera "The Enchantress" by P.I. Tchaikovsky
 »


The width of the Volga in Nizhny Novgorod Region varies from 500 metres near Gorodets to 13–15 kilometres and more in the reservoir areas.[2]

Four cities with a population of over one million stand on the Volga: Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, and Volgograd.[3]

Useful links

See also

Links

Links

Sources

  1. gorbilet.ru — The Volga River: location, length, width, cities (archive)
  2. autotravel-nn.ru — The Volga River in Nizhny Novgorod Region — The Volga flows through the Nizhny Novgorod Region for approximately 300 kilometres (archive)
  3. sputnik8.com — The Volga River in Nizhny Novgorod 🌊 — river cruises, sunsets, sights 🏰 — Four cities with populations of over one million stand on the Volga: Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, and Volgograd. (archive)