Volga Region

Povolzhye, the Volga district (region) — a geographical area in the basin of the Volga, subdivided into the Upper (as far as Kazan), Middle (Kazan – Saratov) and Lower Volga region. In the administrative terms of the Russian Federation, the Volga region belongs to the Volga Federal District, whose capital is Nizhny Novgorod.

The area of the region is 536.4 thousand sq. km, the population is 16 million 787 thousand people.

The average population density is 31 people per 1 km2; Samara Oblast, Tatarstan and Saratov Oblast are particularly densely settled.

In the ethnic structure today, Russians predominate almost everywhere (apart from Kalmykia and Tataria). The share of compactly settled Tatars (16%), Chuvash and Mordvins (2 and 3% respectively) is also significant.

The level of urbanisation in the Volga region is about 73%, with the population concentrated mainly in the capitals of the national republics and in large industrial cities. The district possesses considerable labour resources. Its population is growing, and mainly as a result of a significant influx of migrants.

The essence of the phenomenon

The Volga region stretches in a broad belt along the great Russian river Volga, at the junction of the European and Asian parts of Russia.

The present-day population of the district took shape as a result of the centuries-long and complicated history of the colonisation of the area. The indigenous population is the Chuvash, the Mari and the Mordvins. Later the Bulgars, the Cumans, the Mongols and the Nogais settled here. From the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th centuries, the conquest of the Volga lands was one of the principal aims of the Russian, and later the Imperial Russian, state. Many of the district's largest cities (Volgograd, Samara, Saratov) arose as fortresses on the natural frontier (the Volga) that shielded Rus from the nomadic tribes.

Only the territories immediately adjoining the Volga River are regarded as the historical Volga region. In the modern administrative sense, the Volga region is taken to mean the oblasts and republics of Russia situated on the middle and lower reaches: Astrakhan, Volgograd, Penza, Samara, Saratov and Ulyanovsk oblasts, the republics of Tatarstan and Kalmykia.

Location

The Volga district extends for almost 1.5 thousand km along the Volga, from the point where its left tributary the Kama flows into it as far as the Caspian Sea.

The advantages of the district's economic and geographical position stem from the fact that the Volga region borders the highly developed Volga-Vyatka, Central Black Earth, Urals and North Caucasus economic districts, as well as Kazakhstan. A dense network of railway, road and river routes ensures close economic links between the Volga region and other districts. A considerable volume of freight traffic falls to the Volga-Kama basin, which is the “transport framework” of the district. Natural conditions favourable for the development of agriculture and rich mineral resources (oil, gas) create the basis for the development of the economic complex.

The dense network of transport routes (railway and road) helps to establish broad inter-district production links. The Volga region is more open to the west and the east, that is, towards the main direction of the country's economic links, and therefore the overwhelming part of freight haulage passes through this territory.

The Volga-Kama river route gives access to the Caspian, Azov, Black, Baltic and White seas. The presence of rich oil and gas deposits and the use of the pipelines that pass through this district (and begin in it — for example, the “Druzhba” oil pipeline) also confirm the advantage of the district's economic and geographical position.

Natural conditions and resources

The Volga region has favourable natural conditions for the residence of the population and for economic activity. The district is rich in land resources (arable land makes up roughly 1/5 of the Russian total) and in water resources. However, in the lower Volga region there are droughts, accompanied by dry winds that are ruinous for the crops.

The district is rich in minerals. Oil, gas, sulphur, table salt and raw materials for the production of building materials are extracted here. Right up until the discovery of the oil fields in Siberia, the Volga region held first place in the country for oil reserves and production. Although at present the district ranks second in the extraction of this type of raw material after the West Siberian one, the oil reserves of the Volga region are heavily depleted. For that reason its share in Russia's oil production amounts to only 11% and is constantly falling. The main oil resources are located in Tatarstan and Samara Oblast, and the gas resources in Saratov and Volgograd oblasts. The prospects for the development of the gas industry are linked to the large Astrakhan gas condensate field (6% of world reserves).

Population

Today the Volga region is one of the most settled and developed districts of Russia. The Population (disambiguation) is 16.9 million people, that is, the district possesses considerable labour resources. The Volga population is growing quite quickly, but mainly not because of a high natural increase (1.2 people), but as a result of significant migration of the population. The average population density is 30 people per 1 km², but it is distributed unevenly. More than half of the population falls to Samara and Saratov oblasts and Tatarstan. In Samara Oblast the population density is the highest — 61 people per 1 km², and in Kalmykia the lowest (4 people per 1 km²).

Although the Volga region is a multi-ethnic region, Russians sharply predominate in the structure of the population (70%). The share of Tatars (16%), Chuvash and Mari is also significant. The population of the Republic of Tatarstan amounts to 3.7 million people (among them Russians are about 40%), and about 320 thousand people live in Kalmykia (the share of Russians is more than 30%).

Before the revolution the Volga Region was a purely agricultural area. Only 14% of the population lived in cities. Today it is one of the most urbanised regions of Russia. Cities and urban-type settlements are home to 73% of all inhabitants. The overwhelming majority of the urban population is concentrated in the regional centres, the capitals of the national republics and the large industrial cities. There are 90 cities in the Volga Region, among them three cities with a population of over a million — Samara, Kazan and Volgograd. At the same time practically all the large cities (with the exception of Penza) are located on the banks of the Volga. The largest city of the Volga Region, Samara, lies within the Samara Bend. Together with the neighbouring towns and settlements it forms a large industrial hub.

Economy

The most important condition for the sustainable and comprehensive development of the Volga Region is the considerable economic and scientific-technical potential built up in recent times.

The industrial base of the region received an impulse for development during the years of the The Great Patriotic War, when more than 300 enterprises were relocated here, and today, by many indicators, the Volga Region is not inferior to such industrially developed neighbouring regions as the Central and the Ural ones.

In terms of total gross output of industry and agriculture, in 1995 the region ranked fourth in Russia (after the Central, the Ural and the West Siberian ones). It accounted for 13,1% of the total gross output of industry and agriculture of Russia. In the future the Volga Region will retain its leading role in the national economic complex of the Russian Federation and will regain the positions it has lost, returning to its former stable place after the Central and Ural regions.

The Volga Region was and remains one of the main agricultural regions of Russia in which export production has been developed to the greatest extent. The volume of export deliveries from the region in 1995 amounted to 20,8 trillion roubles (in domestic prices), i.e. 11,6% of the corresponding figure for the Russian Federation as a whole[1]. It should also be noted that the ratio of exports to imports in the Volga Region is 4:2, while for Russia as a whole it is 3:2.

At the present stage of economic development the national economic complex of the Volga Region has a complicated structure. Despite the fact that industry predominates in it, agriculture is also one of the principal branches of the region's economy. Industry accounts for 70-73% of the total gross output, agriculture for 20-22% and the remaining branches of the economy for 5-10%.

The material basis of their development consists above all of mineral raw materials and fuel and energy resources, agricultural raw materials, and the fish riches of the Caspian Sea and the Volga. At the same time, imported metals and materials of the timber and woodworking industries occupy a place in the region's raw-material balance.

A characteristic feature of the region's industrial production is the close connection, cooperation and combination of its individual links, especially in automobile manufacturing and petrochemistry.

The basis of the territorial organisation of the Volga Region is formed by a number of inter-branch complexes — fuel and energy, machine-building, chemical and petrochemical, agro-industrial, transport, construction and others.

The main branches of specialisation of the region's industry are machine building, the chemical and petrochemical industry, the fuel industry, electric power generation, the food industry, as well as the branches of the building materials industry (glass, cement and others). However, the branch structure of industry in the republics and regions of the Volga Region differs considerably from the Russian and the regional averages. (See Table 1 of the Appendix)

The fuel and energy complex. The Volga Region uses both its own fuel and energy raw materials and imported ones. More than half of the oil and gas extracted in the region is exported. At the same time the thermal power plants (TPP) and combined heat and power plants (CHP) of the region run on steam coals from the Kuznetsk Basin, Karaganda and elsewhere, and on Orenburg gas supplied through a trunk gas pipeline. No substantial changes in the structure of the fuel balance are expected in the future. More active use of the surplus fuel of the eastern regions is anticipated.

In 1995 the Volga Region produced about 100 billion kWh of electricity, ranking fifth in Russia by this indicator. Electric power generation is represented by three types of power plants: hydroelectric, thermal and nuclear. The region's power industry is of national importance. The Volga Region specialises in the production of electricity (more than 10% of all-Russian output), which it also supplies to other regions of Russia.

The basis of the energy economy is formed by the hydroelectric stations of the Volga-Kama cascade (the Volga station near Samara, the Saratov, Nizhnekamsk, Volgograd stations and others). According to preliminary estimates, the total electricity output of all the hydroelectric stations of the Volga Region may amount to more than 30 billion kWh a year. The cost of the energy produced at these stations is the lowest in the European part of the Russian Federation.

The hydroelectric stations of the Volga Region play a major role in covering peak loads in the power system of the European part of the country.

A number of powerful thermal stations operate in the region, located in the centres of large-scale heat and electricity consumption. Thermal power stations account for approximately 3/5 of the total electricity production. One of the largest is the state district power station in the Republic of Tatarstan, which runs on gas.

The development of oil refining and organic synthesis chemistry in the region required the creation of a powerful heat and power industry.

The oil, gas and chemical complex, which leads the industry of the Volga Region, is the largest in the country in terms of output volumes. It includes the entire technological chain of the successive processing of oil and gas — from their extraction to the production of various chemical products and articles made from them.

The development of this complex was promoted above all by the presence of a powerful raw-material base. Petrochemical production was able to develop at a rapid pace thanks to a good supply of water, fuel and energy resources. In addition, an important role was played by the transport and geographical position of the region, which lies in the immediate vicinity of the consumers of its products.

The oil-extracting industry so far remains one of the main branches of specialisation of the region, although the downward trend in the extraction of this fuel and raw material that has emerged in recent years continues as a result of the depletion of the most productive deposits. The present scale of oil extraction in the region fluctuates within 10-14% of the level of the Russian Federation. To maintain this level, the newest methods of the fullest possible extraction of oil are applied here.

More than half of the oil extraction falls to Tatarstan. The largest centre of oil extraction here is Almetyevsk, which developed on the basis of the Romashkino field, the most powerful in the Volga Region. The Druzhba oil pipeline begins at Almetyevsk. Samara Region also stands out for its oil extraction, its most important centres being the towns of Otradny and Neftegorsk. At present oil extraction is developing in Kalmykia.

The development of the oil- and gas-refining industry is directly connected with the extraction of oil and gas. The oil refineries of the region (Syzran, Samara, Volgograd, Nizhnekamsk, Novokuybyshevsk and others) process not only their own oil but also the oil of Western Siberia. Oil refineries and petrochemistry are closely linked. Along with natural gas, associated gas is extracted and processed, and it is used in the chemical industry. The chemical and petrochemical industry has reached a very high level. The chemical industry of the Volga Region is represented by mining chemistry (extraction of sulphur and common salt), organic synthesis chemistry and the production of polymers.

The largest centres are: Nizhnekamsk, Samara, Kazan, Syzran, Saratov, Volzhsky, Tolyatti. In the industrial hubs of Samara-Tolyatti, Saratov-Engels and Volgograd- Volzhsky, energy and oil-gas-chemical production cycles have taken shape. In them the generation of energy and the production of petroleum products, alcohols, synthetic rubber and plastics are brought together territorially.

In recent times the region accounted for 22,2% of the all-Russian output of all chemical industry products. The resources of hydrocarbon raw materials, the favourable possibilities of water and power supply and the constantly growing needs of the country and of the region itself for the products of this branch have made it possible to site and develop large chemical and petrochemical complexes and enterprises here.

The machine-building complex is one of the largest branches of industry of the Volga Region and one of the most complex in structure. It accounts for no less than 1/3 of all the industrial output of the region. The branch as a whole is characterised by low metal consumption. Machine building works mainly on rolled metal from the neighbouring Urals; a very small part of the demand is covered by its own metallurgy. The machine-building complex unites diverse machine-building production. The machine building of the Volga Region turns out a wide range of machines and equipment: automobiles, machine tools, tractors, equipment for various branches of industry and for agricultural enterprises.

A special place in the complex is occupied by transport machine building, represented by the production of aeroplanes and helicopters, lorries and passenger cars, trolleybuses and others. Aircraft manufacturing is represented in Samara (production of turbojet aircraft) and Saratov (Yak-40 aircraft).

But automobile manufacturing stands out particularly in the Volga Region. The Volga Region has long and rightly been called the country's "automobile shop". All the necessary prerequisites exist for the development of this branch: the region lies in the zone where the main consumers of its products are concentrated, it is well provided with a transport network, and the level of development of its industrial complex makes it possible to organise broad cooperation links.

The Volga Region produces 71% of the passenger cars and 17% of the lorries of Russia. Among the machine-building centres the largest are:

Samara (machine-tool building, production of bearings, aircraft manufacturing, production of automobile and tractor equipment, mill and elevator equipment and others);

Saratov (machine-tool building, production of oil and gas chemical apparatus, diesel engines, bearings and others);

Volgograd (tractor building, shipbuilding, production of equipment for the petrochemical industry and others);

Tolyatti (the complex of enterprises of VAZ — the leader of the country's automobile industry).

Important centres of machine building are Kazan and Penza (precision machine building), Syzran (equipment for the power and petrochemical industries) and Engels (90% of the trolleybus output of the Russian Federation).

The Volga Region is one of the main regions of Russia for the production of aerospace equipment.

The development of the building materials industry in the region is promoted by a fairly rich raw-material base as well as by the growing needs of industrial and housing construction. The Volga Region stands out for the production of cement (10-12% of all-Russian output), which grew rapidly owing to the great need for binding materials (the construction of hydroelectric stations, industrial enterprises, housing stock and others). It is concentrated at several plants in Volsk, Novoulyanovsk and Mikhaylovka. Concrete and reinforced concrete articles, asbestos cement pipes, roofing felt and silicate brick are also produced.

There are several metallurgical works in the region. Ferrous metallurgy, while not a branch of specialisation, partly satisfies the demand of machine building for metal. It is represented by the following works: the Krasny Oktyabr steel processing works in Volgograd, the Beloretsk metallurgical combine, as well as the Volgograd aluminium works and the Samara metallurgical works, which produces light alloys.

Light industry has developed everywhere in the region. In 1995 it accounted for 2,2% of the total volume of industrial production for the region as a whole (for Russia — 2,5%). However, this branch is distributed unevenly across the territory. In Astrakhan Region it accounts for 4,8%, in Ulyanovsk Region — 5,8%, in Penza Region — 4,8%, in Volgograd Region — 2,0%, and in Samara Region only 0,6%, and so on.

The textile industry is concentrated in the region, represented by the production of woollen, broadcloth and cotton fabrics. The woollen industry arose historically on the basis of the serf manufactories in Barysh, Yazykovo, Sursk and elsewhere, while the cotton industry arose in the post-war years, when a large cotton combine was built in Kamyshin (Volgograd Region). In Balashov (Saratov Region) synthetic fabrics made of kapron are produced.

Another important branch of light industry is the production of furs (the largest fur combine is situated in Kazan); the raw materials for this branch come from other regions of the country.

The Agro-Industrial Complex (Agropromyshlennyy kompleks) of the Volga Region is of all-Russian importance both for the production of the most important types of agricultural products and for their processing.

The natural and climatic conditions favour the development of agriculture in the Volga Region, which possesses an extensive natural base for the branches of both crop farming and animal husbandry. In terms of the total area of agricultural land the region ranks first in Russia; its area (40,6 million hectares) makes up 75,6% of the total land area of the region. Arable land occupies 25,7 million hectares, hayfields and pastures — 15,9 million hectares.

The leading branch of agricultural production is grain farming, which accounts for about 70% of all the sown areas of the region. The main grain crop is spring wheat of hard high-protein varieties; the main sown areas are located in Saratov, Volgograd and Samara Regions.

Winter wheat is also cultivated in the Volga Region, but in areas with a milder climate (mild winters are especially important). Such areas in the Volga Region are the right bank of Volgograd and Saratov Regions, as well as Penza and Ulyanovsk Regions. Large areas are also occupied by sowings of rye and groat crops (millet, rice).

The most important industrial crops of the Volga Region are sunflower, sugar beet and mustard. Sowings of mustard, the production of which is concentrated mainly in Vologda Region, make up 90% of the sowings of this crop in Russia.

The Lower Volga Region specialises mainly in vegetable growing and melon growing, the highest yields of which are obtained in the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain, where, alongside vegetable and melon crops, grain (rice) and fodder crops are grown.

The Volga Region is one of the largest livestock-raising regions of Russia. Animal husbandry provides more than half of all the gross agricultural output of the region. It has an extensive natural fodder base. In addition, field crop farming takes part in the production of fodder. About 30% of all the sown areas of the region are given over to the production of fodder, including grain and leguminous crops.

In the agro-industrial complex of the Volga Region, alongside agriculture, there has been broad development of the industry processing agricultural raw materials and of the sphere providing for the procurement, storage and sale of the products of agriculture and of the industry processing agricultural raw materials.

The national economic specialization of the Volga region features branches of the food industry – flour-and-cereal milling, oil-pressing and oil-extraction, meat, fish and canning. Among the branches producing non-food goods are fur, leather-and-footwear, sheepskin-and-fur-coat, and spinning-and-weaving (based on local raw materials – wool and so on). A procurement and marketing network and an infrastructure have also been created here – a network of grain elevators, warehouses, cold stores, and potato, vegetable and fruit storage facilities, among others.

A special place in the Volga region belongs to the fishing industry, which produces high-quality fish products. It is concentrated mainly in the Lower Volga region, especially in Astrakhan Oblast. The Lower Volga region provides the greater part of the sturgeon catch in Russia.

All types of modern transport are developed in the Volga region; in terms of transport provision it surpasses many districts of the Russian Federation. The most important is rail transport. It holds first place in the structure of freight turnover and in the carriage of goods. The length of the railways is about 9,000 km. The Volga region is crossed by latitudinal trunk railways: Moscow – Kazan – Yekaterinburg, Moscow – Syzran – Samara – Kinel – Chelyabinsk. Near Saratov the Volga is crossed by the Rtishchevo – Saratov – Uralsk line, which links the Lower Volga region with the Donbass in Ukraine, the Centre of the Russian Federation, the Urals and Kazakhstan. The line Inza – Ulyanovsk – Melekess – Ufa is of major importance.

River transport plays a large role in freight haulage in the Volga region. Within the district, the deep-water Volga trunk route carries oil, grain, timber, salt, coal, fish, cement, melons and gourds, motor vehicles, tractors, mineral fertilizers and so on. The Volga links the Volga region with the districts of the Centre and the Urals, and, through the Volga–Don Canal, with the Caucasus and the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. The Volga–Baltic waterway has linked the Volga region with the North-West. In a number of places the Volga is crossed by railways, which promotes the development of mixed rail-and-river haulage.

Pipeline transport is well developed in the district. It moves millions of tons of oil, billions of cubic metres of gas, and the products of their processing. In the Volga region the largest oil pipelines coming from Western Siberia interweave with those laid from the Volga region into the European part of the Russian Federation and into Western Europe (the well-known Druzhba oil pipeline, the Samara – Novorossiysk oil pipeline, the oil pipelines to Moscow and to Ryazan passing through Nizhny Novgorod; the Saratov – Moscow and Saratov – Nizhny Novgorod gas pipelines).

Thus the Volga region is a powerful oil-distribution hub for inter-district and export deliveries.

Road and air transport are well developed in the Volga region.

The environmental situation in the Volga region

In recent years the district has faced serious environmental problems connected with the rapid growth of cities and with the saturation of its territory by industrial enterprises polluting the waters of the Volga, its tributaries and the atmospheric air. Excessive ploughing of land and failure to observe agrotechnical practices have accelerated the development of erosion processes. Overloading of pasture land and unsystematic grazing of livestock in the Lower Volga region (especially in Kalmykia) lead to the destruction of the grass cover and the desertification of pastures.

A serious environmental problem is the rise in the level of the Caspian Sea, which has led to the flooding of extensive areas of the Caspian Lowland and to the underflooding of port facilities, urban and rural settlements, industrial and agricultural enterprises, transport communications and other national economic facilities.

Eliminating or mitigating these negative environmental phenomena requires large investments. However, because of serious economic difficulties many enterprises have no free funds that could be directed to these purposes.

The pollution of Volga water has now become one of the most acute problems not only of the Volga region but of the whole of Russia, since the Volga flows across the vast territory of Central Russia. At many enterprises located in the Greater Volga basin, filtration facilities and treatment plants are either absent or require urgent and radical modernization. In the absence of strict environmental legislation, many enterprises simply do not wish to spend considerable sums on this re-equipment, which in their view is knowingly unprofitable.

To prevent the desertification of land in Kalmykia, a "Federal programme of action to combat the desertification of the territory" has been developed and is being implemented. The first positive results in preventing and forestalling the desertification of land in this region have been obtained.

A "Federal programme for the social, economic and environmental problems connected with the rise in the level of the Caspian Sea" has also been developed and is being implemented.

The Greater Volga problem

One of the main problems of the Volga region is the Greater Volga problem. That was the name once given to the project for transforming the river by creating several dams and reservoirs. It pursued the solution of several main tasks:

• energy

• transport

• irrigation of arid territories

• water supply for industry and the population

In fact, only the energy problem was successfully solved.

Eleven hydroelectric power stations with a total capacity of 13.5 million kW (35% of the capacity of all hydroelectric stations in Russia) have been built on the Volga and the Kama. However, the reservoirs did not increase carrying capacity, one third of them is occupied by shallows, and the fairway runs along the old channel of the Volga.

The rise in the level of ground water in the Volga basin has led to 80% of its territory being in a critical condition. The Volga-side forests are dying.

The supply of water to industry and the population has not only failed to improve but, on the contrary, has become more difficult because of its heavy pollution. The transparency of Volga water has fallen by a factor of tens, and this is not surprising.

Every year the Volga carries into the Caspian Sea 32,000 t of nitrates, 591,000 t of suspended matter, 29,000 t of oil products, 7,300 t of soap foam and 313,000 t of phenols. Dams and heavy water pollution have put the world's largest (90%) stock of sturgeon under threat of extinction.

Over the past 20 years the fish catch here has halved. Only 36% of the waste water discharged passes through treatment facilities. Therefore the annual damage from the loss of sturgeon is estimated at tens of billions of roubles. How many of them perished in total as a result of the implementation of the Greater Volga project is unknown. Add to this the flooding of enormous areas of fertile land and the destruction, relocation or flooding of 96 towns and urban-type settlements, 2,500 villages and hamlets, and thousands of monuments of history and culture.

How can the complex knot of Volga problems be untied? Some propose blowing up all the Volga dams. Perhaps this is reasonable, even taking into account the many billions spent on their construction.

Prospects of the Volga region

The main directions for the development of the national economy of the Volga economic district are:

• overcoming the economic crisis, which led to a sharp reduction in production, a rise in unemployment, mutual non-payments, the disruption of intra-district and inter-district ties, and a decline in the population's standard of living;

• expanding the fuel base, searching for new oil and gas fields, introducing modern methods of field development, and increasing the volumes of oil and gas extraction in order to supply raw materials to the oil-refining and petrochemical industries of the district;

• in the machine-building complex – carrying out a serious reconstruction and modernization of enterprises and strengthening intra-branch ties through cooperation;

• in the agro-industrial complex – raising the level of energy and capital provision of agriculture, the rational use of land, supplying agriculture with the necessary machinery and mineral fertilizers at affordable prices, maintaining irrigation systems in working order and making rational use of irrigated land, creating a solid fodder base for livestock farming, restoring the livestock population to the level of 1990 and increasing its productivity;

• putting land reform into effect, restructuring large agricultural enterprises taking into account the conditions of each region, and creating conditions for the successful development of farm holdings;

• creating a network of small enterprises processing agricultural raw materials in the places where agricultural produce is grown, and, in cities and industrial centres, large processing enterprises for the deeper processing of agricultural produce;

• solving social problems and raising the population's standard of living on the basis of regaining lost positions and the further development of the branches of material production (industry, agriculture, transport, construction and others)

The history of Russian colonization of the Middle Volga region

The history of the Russian colonization of the Middle Volga region still has many "blank spots" up to the present day, which is explained by several causes. First, an enormous number of ancient documents perished in the fire at the former Prikaz of the Kazan Palace at the beginning of the 18th century. Second, a general reason for the poor study of many of Russia's interior regions was the aspiration of 18th- and 19th-century academic science to investigate first of all the newly annexed territories of the growing Russian Empire, whereas the interior districts were studied mainly by regional scholarly societies and various state departments: from the 1830s this was taken up by the provincial statistical committees, from 1845 the Russian Geographical Society and its members in the localities joined the process, from 1884 the provincial scholarly archival commissions began to operate, and then came local-history and natural-history museums and local scholarly societies for the study of one or another region. As a result of such a "pluralism" of approaches, the sources on the history of the settlement of many Russian regions turned out to be scattered among central and provincial archival repositories, where they are concentrated in the most varied collections (both of state and public institutions and of private individuals).

Among other historical documents, old maps have a special significance, since they are able to shed light on questions that cannot be resolved on the basis of textual descriptions alone. However, in working with cartographic archival materials, researchers face a number of additional difficulties, one of which is officials' exaggerated striving for the appearance of "security", often going beyond the bounds of common sense.

Thus, for example, on grounds of "secrecy", large-scale topographic maps of the 19th and early 20th centuries in the collections of many regional archives were for many years closed to free access. Only after a direct appeal to the leadership of Rosarkhiv in 2000 did we manage to obtain permission to declassify an entire collection of cartographic materials of the 18th – early 20th centuries, comprising 256 storage units, in the State Archive of Ulyanovsk Oblast (collection 933). Judging by the inventory, all the materials of the collection were classified on 30 May 1963. It is difficult to explain the logic of the people who transferred this entire collection to secret storage, since materials that could not have represented any threat to the security of the USSR turned out to be inaccessible to most readers for many years.

For example, the following were classified: "A set of geographical schemes between the Alatyr, Buinsk, Simbirsk and Tagai districts of the Simbirsk Vicegerency", established by the commission of 1782 (!) (scale: 7 versts to the inch); "A map of the forests of the Simbirsk appanage estate in Simbirsk and Penza provinces, showing state-owned and privately owned forests. 1885" (scale 1:33600); "A map of the fisheries of the 18th Novodevichye district (in the area of the town of Sengiley) of the Simbirsk appanage estate (between 1836 and 1895)" (scale: 2 versts to the inch); "A map of the average yield of rye (according to the data of Mende (1) of Sengiley Uyezd of Simbirsk Governorate" (scale 1:168000) and so on.

Some materials – such as "A detailed map of the Transvaal and the Orange Republic, 1900" (scale 1:2520000); "A physical map of the Russian Empire" (scale 1:4200000); "A map of the populated places of Europe" (scale 1:4200000) – turned out to be closed merely because they had at one time been entered into an inventory most of whose documents were classified, and therefore the inventory itself became inaccessible to the ordinary reader (without special clearance).

In our view, the most interesting maps of this collection are the following:

• Road maps: "A map (plan) of Simbirsk and of the great post roads with the settlements standing on them. 1830" (scale: 4 versts to the inch), "A schematic map of the postal, cattle-droving and commercial roads through Sengiley Uyezd from Simbirsk to Orenburg. 1851" (scale: 500 sazhens to the inch), "A map of the railway, highway and water communication routes of European Russia. Published by the Ministry of Railways, 1899" (scale: 60 versts to the inch), "A special topographic map of the populated places of Simbirsk and Nizhny Novgorod provinces, showing the projected railway line from the town of Simbirsk to Nizhny Novgorod via Alatyr", undated (scale 1:420000);

• "A topographic land-survey atlas of Simbirsk Governorate, 1859. Compiled by officials of the land-survey corps under the direction of General Mende of the General Staff in Moscow" (scale 1:84000 (2)

• Maps of the regions of Russia: "A map of Nizhny Novgorod Governorate with a plan of the city. 1861" (scale 1:64000), "A map of the grass yield of the volosts of Perm Governorate. 1905" (scale: 20 versts to the inch) and others;

• Forest maps: "A geometric map of the ten uyezds of Simbirsk Governorate, showing state-owned forests and those of other owners. 1815" (scale: 8 versts to the inch), "A geometric map of Simbirsk Governorate, showing the settlements of service Tatars and the shipbuilding forests. 1818" (scale: 32 versts to the inch), "A map of the forests of the Ministry of State Property in Simbirsk Governorate" (scale 1:168000) and many others.

• Economic maps: "A map of Syzran, Sengiley and Karsun uyezds of Simbirsk Governorate, showing the mills", "A map of the bazaars of Simbirsk Governorate and their profitability" (scale 1:840000) and the like.

So, let us try to assess the fact that for almost forty years the cartographic materials listed above were withdrawn from the scholarly use of local researchers and local historians. Was the classification of these documents indeed justified from any point of view?

It is obvious that such precautions were ill-considered and, to put it mildly, incompetent. Let us suppose that the authors of the classification order genuinely wanted to close off information about the country's territory to enemy intelligence services. The only result, however, was to restrict local researchers' access to these materials and to withdraw from scholarly circulation the works of dozens and hundreds of predecessors who had gathered this data in order to understand their own country. The official who closed off access to the archival materials was apparently unaware that A.I. Mende's maps of a whole series of governorates had been published back in the middle of the last century and had been freely available in the country's major libraries all those years.

To say nothing of the fact that these printed materials also existed in a number of foreign libraries. Moreover, long before topographic maps were classified in our country, they were already well known abroad (in particular, the large-scale maps of the General Staff of the Red Army, which fell into German hands as war trophies after the capture of Minsk, where the largest cartographic factory was located). Of course, one should not forget that maps created even in the nineteenth century (let alone maps of the eighteenth century) are an order of magnitude inferior in accuracy to maps produced with the help of modern aerial and space technology.

Let us now turn to a survey of the history of the appearance of large-scale maps of the Middle Volga region in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Cartography of the seventeenth century

Although the first geographical maps of the territory of the Volga region appeared in remote antiquity, right up to the seventeenth century these depictions remained imperfect, since many of them (even such well-known ones as the maps of Fra Mauro, Pizzigano and others) used travellers' written descriptions as their basis. It may therefore be asserted that the first instrumental survey of the banks of the Volga was carried out by the German scholar and diplomat Adam Olearius (3), who travelled along the Volga in 1636. It is known that Olearius used surveying instruments — in particular, he determined the latitude of a place with an astrolabe. Indeed, the map of "the course of the river Volga", first presented in the Paris edition of the description of Olearius's journey in 1659, differs from all known maps of that time in its level of detail.

A comparison of Olearius's text with the map, however, raises a number of questions. Thus, for example, Olearius states in his description that the Golden Horde town of "Simbirsk Hill", destroyed by Tamerlane, lay to their right along the course of the Volga. Olearius even sketches the ruins of this town. On the map, meanwhile, the depiction of the town turns out to be on the left side of the river. There are other discrepancies as well between the text and the map, which allow one to doubt that the author of the map given in the Paris edition was Olearius himself. It is possible that Olearius used as his basis some Russian source unknown to us. This supposition is also supported by the fact that the manuscript album of the Swedish investigator Erik Palmquist (4) (published in a small print run in 1898) contains a similar map of the same period, with no indication of its source.

It should be noted that several other maps of European Russia circulated in Europe in the seventeenth century, among which the map of Nicolaes Witsen (5) is widely known. All of them, however, including Witsen's, are inferior in degree of detail to the map of Olearius and Palmquist.

Russian cartography of the late seventeenth century has left us several more maps of the Volga region. The first of them is the "Plan of the towns lying along the rivers Don, Oka and Volga from Moscow to Astrakhan", created in connection with Peter's Azov campaign (6). It is easy to see that this Russian military map, drawn without a scale or a graticule, depicts the channel of the Volga in simplified form. It should be borne in mind, however, that the purposes of this map differ from those of Olearius's map. It may rather be regarded as a military route diagram, indicating the time required for a march: "from Voluyki to Cherkassk by fast travel 7 days", "from Tambov to the Don by Khovansky's route they marched 6 weeks", "from Tambov to Tsaritsyn by fast travel 10 days", and so on.

To this same group of sources on the history of the study of the Middle Volga region may be assigned the maps of the expeditions surveying the forests, whose purpose was to find sites for setting up "potash" camps (7). An example of this is provided by the manuscript multicoloured maps of the Sviyazhsk and Simbirsk districts of Kazan Governorate of 1700, without a coordinate grid (these are two plans, one of which is a copy (8) — "Forests in the Kurmysh, Yadrin, Kozmodemyansk, Tsivilsk, Kokshaysk, Cheboksary, Sviyazhsk, Simbirsk, Alatyr and Saransk districts, along the river Sura and the river Sviyaga, on both sides of those rivers and along other rivers and small streams, which forests were inspected in the past year 1700". Indications are given of the dimensions of the forest tracts "in length" and "across", as well as of the characteristics of the tree species.

Surveys of the Volga region commissioned by A.D. Menshikov

In the first half of the eighteenth century a set of large-scale maps (9) was prepared, created by Aleksey Izvolov in 1717, depicting the stretch of the Volga from Bely Yar (below Simbirsk) to the Samara Bend (maps of Usolye, Sengiley, Yeryklinsk, Maza, Mullovka and Rezanovo are presented here). From a historical point of view, the depiction and explication of numerous details about which little or nothing is known from documents are of interest. In particular, the outlines of the Trans-Kama defensive line — "against the coming of the Bashkirs" (along the river Cheremshan) — are indicated in considerable detail, and its remains are clearly observable to this day; the Sengiley defensive line "against the coming of the Kalmyks" is also marked, the only depiction of which is known solely from this map.

Almost nothing is known about the personality of the cartographer Izvolov. We do not know exactly for what purpose he carried out these surveys, but suppositions may be built on the basis of information about the history of calendars in Peter's time. It turns out that Aleksey Izvolov is the author of the first Russian astronomical calendar, preserved in manuscript form. P. Pekarsky cites the text of A. Izvolov's address to Menshikov of 25 December 1719 concerning the calendar he had compiled: "I, your most humble servant, was in European lands to study various sciences there, and most of all navigation, or seafaring, and astronomy, or the course of the heavens, of which I have testimony in writing as well.

Through which sciences of mine, having now taken up zeal, with my most humble submission, I have dared to write this small offering of mine to your grace, that is, a calendar for the coming year 1720, computed for the meridian and latitude of this reigning Saint Petersburg". It must be borne in mind that at that time the chief shortcoming of Russian translated calendars was their simple copying from Western European ones, which "are composed not for the Saint Petersburg meridian and latitude, but for the degrees of those parts, and for that reason I am moved to think that they are not altogether accurate here". In addition, Izvolov's calendar gives tables of sunrise and sunset for the coming year (that is, for 1721) with an indication of the latitude of the place: "In these tables there are found on every page 9 columns, of which the first shows the elevation of the pole, or the latitude of the place, beginning from the equator and rising to 60 degrees, while the other 8 columns show above the declination of the sun from the equator, beginning at 30 minutes…" (10). The passage cited testifies that Izvolov unquestionably had sufficient experience and knowledge to compile an accurate map of the area in question, despite the fact that neither a scale nor a graticule is indicated on the map itself.

It may be supposed that A.D. Menshikov commissioned this map from Izvolov for his personal purposes, since at the beginning of the eighteenth century he became the owner of extensive lands in the region (in particular, the holdings of the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery in Nadeino Usolye passed to him (11). Indirect evidence of this may also be Menshikov's attempt to organize geological surveys of the territory of Kazan Governorate using local officials and military men in 1717, that is, in the same year in which Izvolov's survey was carried out (12).

There is much that is strange about this "military-administrative" geological expedition. In the first place, material was collected indiscriminately; in the second, there is no mention whatever that "ore prospectors", that is, specialists in mineral exploration, were to take part in the expedition. In other words, whoever collected the samples might have had no notion at all of what the material was, what its useful properties were, and so on. And yet a considerable quantity of various geological rock samples was collected on this expedition — "25 sacks". One can only guess what criteria the soldiers of the town garrisons were guided by in collecting the required geological material. The order was carried out, however: through the efforts of the military, several cartloads of stones were collected along various rivers ("pebbles and shells" from Cheboksary, Saratov, Syzran, Simbirsk, Samara, Ufa and Urzhum) and sent to the capital: "And those pebbles and shells in 25 sacks with inscribed labels have been sent from Kazan to Saint Petersburg… Pyotr Saltykov, 24 July 1717".

On 11 October a special courier, Kuzma Yefimov, reported that "those pebbles and shells he has brought from Kazan" and delivered them to their destination (13). What became of these 25 sacks of stones afterwards? What was the nature of the samples in question? Alas, there is no answer, for the traces of this first "military-geological expedition" are lost after the sacks of "pebbles" were unloaded in the courtyard of the governor of Saint Petersburg.

Perhaps the explanation of this unusual geological expedition lies in the shortage of specialists in geology, and it was therefore decided to collect field material on the spot, "at random", so that later, in the capital, everything could be sorted out competently. But another explanation is also possible. Evidently the aim of the expedition, organized on A.D. Menshikov's personal initiative, was to take an "inventory" and make a rough assessment of the natural riches of the Volga region. By that time Menshikov was already a major landowner and continued to acquire new territories in the same region. In that case Menshikov's initiative anticipated another one — the creation of the state Berg-Collegium (opened the following year, 1718), which was to gather information about mineral resources throughout the territory of Russia.

Following the establishment of the Collegium, a law on mining privileges was issued in 1719. Under the law, owners of lands where anything useful to the state was found had no right to hinder the prospecting work of other persons, of whom the law spoke thus: "leave is given to everyone, of whatever rank or dignity he may be, in all places, both on his own lands and on those of others, to search for, smelt, boil and refine all manner of metals, to wit: gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, iron, and likewise minerals, such as saltpetre, sulphur, vitriol, alum, and earths and stones needed for all manner of dyes".

Persons who concealed the discovery of deposits were liable to severe punishment. In this connection it may be supposed that Menshikov, by virtue of his position in the government, could have been familiar with the draft law "on mining privileges". And that means he could have tried to make use of his rights as an owner before the law came into force, so as to know which lands were worth keeping and which could be sold. And for that reason he did not wish, for the time being, to make the results of the survey public.

If this is so and our supposition is correct, then it is a typical example of how the private initiative of an industrialist and landholder with access to power led to the carrying out of scientific research. The chief drawback of research of this kind was and remains that the results obtained, being known to a limited circle of persons (the commissioner), are as a rule not introduced into scholarly circulation. And that means that the need to carry out scientific research on one region or another persists, as though nothing had been done before. And since there was almost no exchange of data between different departments, it is hardly surprising that after a relatively short interval exactly the same research had to be carried out anew.

The absurdity of the situation was noted only by scholars. Thus, as early as the end of the eighteenth century, Ludwig Bacmeister concluded with bitterness: "And it is no wonder that the Russian Empire does not yet have its own geography, that is, an exact, detailed and above all complete description of itself" (14). And such "breaks" in scholarly continuity are encountered rather often in Russian culture, when the very same research is either carried out by different departments in parallel with one another, or simply remains inaccessible to the wider scholarly community, compelling the scientific community once again to seek out and expend far from abundant material resources in order to eliminate the "blank spots" on the map of the country.

Surveys of the Volga region under the direction of I. Kirilov and V. Tatishchev

Close in time of creation to Izvolov's map is the map of the stretch of the Volga from Simbirsk to Saratov, dating to the first quarter of the eighteenth century. This map was mentioned by Ivan Kirilov in the "Register of maps forwarded to the Academy of Sciences for the compilation of an atlas of the Russian Empire" of 24 December 1726 under No. 56, "Provincial maps of Astrakhan Governorate — Simbirsk and Saratov" (15). The original of the map and a later copy of it are kept in the manuscript department of the Library of the Academy of Sciences. One of the first descriptions of it is found in an article by Boris Vladimirovich Aleksandrov, who headed the Department of the Manuscript Book of the Library of the Academy of Sciences before the war.(16)

"284. 'Territoire de Simbirsck et de Saratow'. Map of the Simbirsk and Saratov districts. First half of the eighteenth century. The Volga basin from Saratov to the village of Sosnovka is given (17). Shown are: the Volga and the larger tributaries with observance of scale and accuracy in the meanders, the remaining tributaries arbitrarily; roads by a dotted line, forests by little trees, settlements by two symbols; scale: 12 versts to 1 inch (1:504,000), graticule every 10'; longitude from a conventional meridian passing 37 degrees 25' west of Saratov; conical projection, relief by hillocks. On the reverse, 'Partie du Kasan et de la province de Symbirsk, de meme que le Territoire d'Astrachan' (18). 285. 'Territoire de Simbirsk'. Copy of map No. 284" (19).

The next large-scale maps of this territory in chronological order are, in all likelihood, the maps that were prepared on the instructions of V.N. Tatishchev. It is known that Tatishchev entrusted the English officer Elton with compiling a detailed map of the Volga on the stretch from Tsaritsyn to Simbirsk, but the Englishman managed to complete surveys only as far as Syzran, where he fell ill. For that reason Russian surveyors continued work on the map the following year. This is how Tatishchev himself describes the situation in a letter to the Academy of Sciences of 16 October 1737:

"Memorandum from Privy Councillor Tatishchev to the Imperial Academy of Sciences.

By the decree sent to me by Her Imperial Majesty from the Supreme Cabinet I have collected here all the land maps of the Russian provinces that have been compiled, and the surveyors' journals, of which there are 18 maps and 4 journals, but not a single one is properly made; the local one especially — though much labour was spent upon it, this came not from want of diligence but from a lack of instruments, and still more because they had no orderly and detailed instructions suited to their insufficient skill. In particular the bend of the Volga opposite this place, which by its great size is most worthy of note — that from the village of Naydenno Usolye of Simbirsk uyezd to the village of Perevoloki of Syzran uyezd it is 18 versts by land, but more than 200 versts by water along the Volga — and many other circumstances have gone unnoticed or have been set down wrongly in their measure.

For that reason I dispatched Captain Elton, that he might accurately observe the river Volga from Tsaritsyn upward to Simbirsk and lay it upon a map; he returned as far as Syzran and there fell gravely ill. And although I intended now to send out to the provinces all the surveyors to be found, no detailed instruction has been composed for that, and the necessary instruments are lacking. Judging that the labour and the expense would be in vain, I sent only five men to Siberia, and three to the Kazan, Simbirsk and Vyatka provinces.

Therefore I respectfully submit to the Academy of Sciences that it be graciously ordered: 1) that a general and sufficient instruction be composed for surveyors, in which the professors Delisle and Farquharson may do the most, for it is needful to enter into it all the circumstances necessary to note in observations of latitude and longitude and in measuring upon the ground, and together with that tables of declination, refraction and the rest, with ample explanations for their use. And as for the drawing of land maps upon paper, and still more concerning the boundaries of a uyezd, the hills, forests, rivers and so forth — to describe all this to them plainly and to have it printed.

And what I have written briefly for memory's sake upon that matter, and likewise for the description of the peoples of foreign tongue, I herewith communicate. 1) Instruments are needed now without delay: one telescope of 12 feet, another of six or seven feet, and 2 pendulums of good workmanship; one quadrant, not too small, with a sight, so that its turns and all its movements be upon endless screws, as Mr. Bradley made for me after the model of Count Bruce; and hereafter such instruments for determining longitude, tubes and the like, at least one to a guberniya, and the rest; and for determining latitude, quadrants of the kind described above, one to each province, or one for two provinces. And it seems best to order these from England or Holland» (20).

All these maps, created under the direction of V. Tatishchev, are kept in the manuscript department of the Library of the Academy of Sciences. Let us give extracts from B.V. Aleksandrov's description of these maps:

«697. “ Cours de la riviere de Volga depuis Sisran jusqu ' a Zaricin, dresse par mons. le capitaine Elton en 1737”. Map of the course of the river Volga from Syzran to Tsaritsyn. Compiled by Captain Elton in 1737. The tributaries of the Volga, the uplands along the right bank and the settlements lying by its channel are shown. Scale [1:1 260 000]; without a graticule; relief shown by hillocks. Writing paper; size 32 X 36 (34 X 35); 1 sheet; outlined in ink.

698. “Land map of the hilly side of the river Volga from the village of Rozhdestvenskoye to the village of Mardovo, with the villages and hamlets adjoining, as is set out on this land map. Compiled by the surveyor Ivan Shishkov in the year 1738”. Against a number of hamlets of the Savvino-Storozhevsky monastery a question mark has been placed, with the addition: «which formerly belonged to the late Prince Menshikov». Scale 3 versts to 1 inch, 1:126 000; graticule every 15', longitude from the town of Samara; cylindrical projection; relief shown by hillocks. Writing paper, mounted on heavy paper; size 48 X 64 ( S 2 X 69); I sheet; in 3 colours. See also nos. 699, 700 and 701, which are copies of this map.

702–703. "Land map of the river Volga from Simbirsk to Syzran and of the rivers Cheremshan, Kandurcha, Sok and of the whole Trans-Kama line and the river Usa. Compiled at Samara on 3 January of the year 1739. On the original, the surveyor Fedor Arinkin. Copied by the student Semen Starkov". Scale 1 : 420 000; graticule every 30', longitude from Samara; conical projection; relief shown by hillocks. Writing paper ; size 44 X 49 (47 X 54); 1 sheet; in 3 colours. On the reverse: "La riviere de Volga depuis Sinbirsk jusqu' a Sysran, faite par le geod. Fed. Arinkin a Samara, copie par l' etud. Kowrin. Territoire de Samara, copie de Tatischeffj" (21).

A copy of the same original is also known, under the title "Land map of the river Volga from Simbirsk to Syzran and of the river Cheremshan, Kandurcha and Sok and of the whole Trans-Kama line and the river Usa. Compiled at Samara in January of the year 1739. On the original, the surveyor Fedor Arinkin. Enlarged by the p[upil] S. Borodulin", 1st half of the 18th century.

Given: the channel of the Volga and its basin along this stretch; settlements and lines of fortifications are shown. Scale 10 versts to 1 inch [1:420 000]; graticule every 30', longitude from Samara; conical projection; relief shown by hillocks. Alexandria paper; size 42 X 63 (54 X 75); 1 sheet», outlined in ink (22).

704. “Land map of the course of the river Volga near the town of Samara”. 2nd quarter of the 18th century. Scale 1 verst to 1 inch [1: 42000]; without a graticule; in rectangular coordinates. Alexandria paper ; size 48 X 71 (50 X 74); 1 sheet; in 2 colours. On the reverse: “ Cours de la riviere de Volga aux environs de Samara”».

Land-survey maps

A serious contribution to the development of large-scale cartography of the various regions of Russia was made by the work of the General Land Survey, undertaken by decree of Catherine II (1766). Many of these survey maps are kept in the regional archives. Thus, for example, the holdings of the State Archive of Ulyanovsk Oblast contain several coloured plans of the Volga shore of that period. The earliest of them, showing the channel of the Volga and of the Atruba, dates to 1780: «Plan of the village of Arkhangelskoye, also called Mordovo. Scale of the plan: one hundred sazhens to the English inch» (23). Another survey map shows the territory of the right bank of the Volga (between the villages of Klyuchishchi and Burtasy of Sviyazhsk uyezd) over a stretch of about 40 km: «Geometrical reduced plan of the Kazan vicegerency, Sviyazhsk district, the village of Tenkovka with the villages named Shelanga, Tashevka, Klyuchishchi and others» of 1792 (scale: 1 verst to 1 inch (24).

Each of these maps is an important source not only of physical-geographical but also of historical data. Thus the last map gives, in its explication, information about the owners of all the villages («are in the possession of the widow Maria Pavlovna, spouse of the late General-in-Chief, actual state chamberlain and knight of divers orders Semen Kirilovich Naryshkin»), about the surveyors («of the survey carried out in the year 1789 on the 22nd day of October … by the land surveyor, ensign Semen Shestakov») and about the peasants («and in all the villages and hamlets together 1445 households, in them of the male sex 3991, of the female 4589 souls»).

On the third map (1794), compiled by the same Semen Shestakov, we can also trace the professional advancement of the map's maker, who by that time had already received the rank of «first-class Land Surveyor and sub-lieutenant». This map likewise shows the territory of the right bank of the Volga, only now belonging to the Simbirsk vicegerency, «of the same district, the village of Bogorodskoye, also called Bedenga, with all the lands appertaining to it, which are in the possession of Brigadier Nikolay Sergeyevich Safonov» (25).

It should be noted that on all the survey maps listed the azimuths are given at every turn of the boundary of the plot being measured, and along places awkward for direct measurement (for example, along a bluff) profiles are drawn with an exact indication of the distance from the profile to the bluff. As a rule, the survey maps carry the names and signatures both of witnesses from the neighbouring villages and of all the heads of the local survey department. Moreover, in the case of a discrepancy between the number of inhabitants and the data of the last revision, the necessary correction is given. Thus, in the plan of the holdings of the village of Bedenga it is stated: «by the latest returns of the 4th revision there are 116 households, in them of the male sex 317 souls, of the female 293 souls, but at present there are in fact of the male sex 344, of the female 404». Thus maps can serve as an important historical source.

The expedition of A.I. Svechin

In the second half of the 18th century, beginning with the reign of Catherine II, the study of the Middle Volga region intensified. In large measure this was connected with the young empress's interest in her country, which she sought to enlighten in accordance with European ideas. It is to her that we owe the organisation of the physical expeditions of the Academy of Sciences under the direction of P.S. Pallas, I.I. Lepekhin and I.P. Falck, which explored the Middle Volga region in 1768–1769. But besides these widely known expeditions (whose reports have long since become bibliographic rarities (26), there were several others as well. The results of these expeditions are little known; thus, for instance, the diaries and manuscripts of Traugott Gerber, director of the botanical garden in Moscow, who made a botanical expedition to the Volga region in 1741–1742 (27), have never once been published; while the descriptions made by Colonel A.I. Svechin, sent to compile an inventory of the ship timber and the inhabited places of the Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan and Orenburg gubernias in 1763–1766, have been published only in part (28).

The Svechin expedition left a considerable mark on the history of the study of the Middle Volga region. At first (November 1762) it was supposed that this expedition «for the inspection and description of the oak forests in the Kazan guberniya» would be headed by State Councillor Schwebs; Schwebs, however, for unknown reasons declined the commission, and in February 1763 there appeared a decree on «the sending to the Kazan guberniya, in place of State Councillor Schwebs, of the unemployed lieutenant colonel Svechin, and on giving him an instruction from the Senate, and likewise on the Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Orenburg gubernias and the Kazan Admiralty office rendering him, at his demand, full compliance and assistance, and on the Kazan Admiralty office supplying clerical servants, travelling money, papers and other materials» (29).

In the course of the expedition Svechin repeatedly ran into the most unexpected difficulties. Thus, at the Kazan chancellery, where he applied with a request for maps of the ship timber, he was told that they had the latest inventories of timber fit for shipbuilding only for the year 1729, notwithstanding that «…with regard to the damage to the forests it was ordered by the general instruction of the year 1732 … that, besides the waldmeisters (that is, the foresters – V.G.) who were in place, the governors and voivodes should keep watch… and these, replacing one another and having plans, submitted joint reports» (30). It is unknown on what the reports of the governors and voivodes were based, since it turned out that as early as 1742 a team of surveyors had been sent to Kazan to compile new inventories and plans, yet twenty years later «those inventories have not been made by them even to this day» (31).

It is not surprising that in the places where the waldmeisters were to have awaited Svechin, in order to accompany him through the forests of their districts, hardly any foresters were to be found. So it was at Alatyr, where the waldmeister Yakov Burtsov was to have awaited him, but he pleaded illness, and as Svechin reports «it is by no means possible for him to attend the showing of the forests, and moreover he has no plans or inventories of the oak forests». At Penza he was shown the forests up the Sura for 100 versts, but «in the other districts not one of those waldmeisters appeared». Therefore in most cases Svechin carried out the inspection in person, and it turned out that «where forests had been declared fit, in those forests they proved unfit, while in others there proved to be no forests at all, but there are steppe places, so that, beyond expectation, in some places, for want of forests, I was obliged to travel making my way not only over fields but over the very steppes» (32).

In the course of the expedition a set of forest maps was prepared, which we discovered as part of a manuscript atlas (33) among the materials of the Admiralty drafting office. This set opens with a general map: «Land Map of the Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Orenburg gubernias, containing part of the river Volga and the river Sura flowing into it, in which are marked the cleared oak groves and other wild forests, and how many young oaks are found by count in each grove under various numbers, as is set out in the explication. Composed by Mr. Lieutenant Colonel Aleksandr Svechin and the surveying captain Kushnikov in the year 765» (34).

This is a manuscript multicoloured map on a single sheet, size 95 x 95 cm, scale: 1 cm – 4.44 km. Laid down on the map are the territories: «of the Kokshaysk, Tsivilsk, Kozmodemyansk, Cheboksary, Sviyazhsk, Kurmysh, Alatyr, Saransk, Penza, Petrushinsk (the town of Petrovsk) and Simbirsk uyezds», where the points of the forest tracts surveyed by the Svechin expedition are marked in red ink. Unfortunately, this map that was found is not the original but a copy, made when the atlas in question was being compiled (this is shown both by the copyist's numerous errors in the geographical names and by the watermarks of the firm J Hoonig @ Zoonen, dating to the 1780s).

Further on in the atlas (fols. 35–42) come large-scale maps of the forest plots most important for shipbuilding (nos. 1–16, 18, 20, 22–50), executed at a scale of 1: 25400. Of great interest are the depictions of the plans and the explications (fol. 43) of those oak groves which arose from sown acorns. In particular, under no. 9 there is shown the plan of such a grove «in Sviyazhsk uyezd near the village of Arkhangelskoye (also called Togayevo)», where the explication states:

«By the registers of the Kazan Admiralty office and from the forstmeister Selivanov it is shown that acorns were sown in the year 751 (possibly the year 1731 is meant – V.G.)

• two and a half chetverts, from which there came up out of the ground oaks – 3000;

• by the present inspection there proved to be – 7182

• in all, against the register there appeared in excess – 4182

• in circumference around them – 233 sazhens

• land beneath them – 1599 sq. sazhens,

• at a distance from the Volga – 5 versts 470 sazhens».

Under no. 10 there is shown the plan of a similar grove

• «near the hamlet of B. Sobachkina of Kokshaysk uyezd; by the register of the Kazan Admiralty office and from the forstmeister Selivanov, acorns were sown in the year 731, three chetverts, from which there came up young oaks – 1500

• And transplanted in the year 735 in the Cheboksary and Kokshaysk uyezds, young oaklings – 248, only in that very place this is not indicated, and by the forstmeister Selivanov acorns were sown in the same year 731 – 3500

• And transplanted in the year 735 from naturally growing ones – 248

• By the present inspection there proved to be, including the transplanted ones – 5036

• And so against the register there appeared in excess – 1288, which, as is evident, are not all from the sowing, but growing of themselves and standing in a great thicket

• Among them, of natural growth – 246

• In circumference around them – 1 verst 48 sazhens

• Land beneath them – 3 desyatinas 1267 sq. sazhens

• These oaklings grow at 3 versts 250 sazhens from the river Volga».

Here too are shown the plans of similar plantings under nos. 35-36, with the explication «of young oaklings transplanted from naturally growing ones, situated in Cheboksary uyezd near the hamlet of Chandoreva».

The planting of oak groves became active at that time, since many forests had been destroyed. In particular, as early as 1727 Captain-Commander Kozlov reported to the Admiralty Board: «The ship-timber oak forests which, upon inspection, were marked from Simbirsk up the Volga and along the other rivers as far as Nizhny Novgorod Uyezd, over a distance of 480 versts in length and 50 versts and more to the sides, have been used up, and no further hope of them can be had …». The government, alarmed by the state of affairs, convened a special session of the Admiralty Board, where it was decided to use for shipbuilding not only oak and pine but also spruce: «by common judgement with the ship masters, owing to the diminution of oak timber, to use in the building of ships from the lowest ranks up to the 50th rank spruce knees, and to sheathe those ships and galleys, in the places that will be under water, with pine planks» (emphasis mine – V.G.).

The Svechin expedition rendered one more very important service to history: with the aid of a camera obscura Svechin recorded views of many provincial Russian towns (35). Later these drawings formed the basis of a series of engravings by the well-known St Petersburg artist and engraver M. Makhaev. Moreover, thanks to some members of the Svechin expedition, some of the first detailed Russian maps of the Volga appeared.

The Russian State Archive of the Navy holds maps and an atlas of the Volga River (39 plans) «from the town of Tver down its course to the town of Astrakhan and from Astrakhan through the strait to the Caspian Sea or to the 4-hillock island, with the position of all the towns and villages lying on both sides of the Volga». This is a set of large-scale (one-verst) colour maps, executed with great care, with detailed marks of the depth of the Volga fairway. In searching for the author of these maps we return once again to the Svechin expedition.

On 25 August 1765 the following was entered in the protocol of the Admiralty Board:

«The said Board ordered that a decree be sent by special messenger to the Kazan Admiralty Office – to order, for information indispensably needed, that upon receipt of that decree, without the least delay, one competent man from among the navigators or under-navigators sent to survey the forests, and if because of their duties it is impossible to obtain them soon, then of necessity whoever suitable for this is to be found in Kazan, be dispatched in a fitting vessel down the Volga River to Astrakhan. And to order him to describe the condition of that river, and where, according to the report of the inhabitants, there are shoals, having sounded those shallow places … and what dwellings, likewise according to the accounts of the inhabitants, there are along the banks of that Volga River, whose precisely and how large and at what distance, if only approximately, between them … and upon completion to send all that to the Board by special messenger without delay» (36).

«On 3 February 1766, in the State Admiralty Board, the navigator of the Naval Ship Fleet Vasily Kipriyanov (36)stated that in the past year of [1]763, on 8 August, by decree of the Board I was detached with others for the survey of the protected oak forests in the Kazan, Orenburg and Nizhny Novgorod governorates, among six men, navigators and under-navigators. And upon arrival at Kazan in September of the same year … by decree of the Kazan office I was assigned from the month of November to Colonel Svechin for the drawing up of plans of the cleared oak groves and of other forests.

In 1764 I was in the same detachment, upon the instructions of Colonel Svechin, at the survey of those same groves in the Sviyazhsk province until 10 March [1]765, and from that time I was at the Kazan Admiralty Office for the drawing up of plans of those groves as well, until 11 May; and on that date I was detached with the Captain of Geodesy Kushnikov for the survey of the protected forests in that same Sviyazhsk province, and we were there until 10 September. And we surveyed the Sviyazhsk, Cheboksary and Tsivilsk, Kuzmodemyansk and Kokshaisk uyezds. And on 10 September of that year, by decree of the Board, I was detached for the survey and measurement of the Volga River, which survey and sounding was carried out together with maps, and with it I was dispatched from the Kazan Admiralty Office to St Petersburg, while the other navigators and under-navigators are at that survey to this day. Navigator Vasily Kipriyanov» (37)

The principal task for which the navigator was sent precisely at that time becomes clear from subsequent events. In 1767 a journey of the Empress along the principal river of the Empire was planned, and therefore it was urgently necessary to find out what the river itself and the people living along its banks were like. That is exactly why the order arose to detach without delay a specialist from the detachment of Colonel Svechin, which had already for several years been engaged in describing the forests of the Volga region, although every specialist there was extremely valuable.

It is precisely the circumstance that these and many other documents came into being not for scholarly but for narrowly practical purposes that led to their never being brought into scholarly circulation and safely “drowning” in the depths of the archives. Meanwhile, they are of undoubted interest both for the modern history of science and for reconstructing the history of the exploitation of the natural riches of the great river in the period preceding systematic scientific research of this region.

It is obvious that science, unlike other forms of human activity, can be built only on the basis of the experience obtained by preceding generations. At the same time, even small examples from the history of the cartography of a single region show that the course of development of research in Russian science was almost always influenced by factors external to science. But in that case the efforts of one generation of scholars, not included in the common information space of science, by no means always reach subsequent researchers. In this connection one recalls the remark of K. M. Baer, who, when asked by the Minister of Public Education I. D. Delyanov what had surprised him most during his travels through Russia, answered that in Russia «they only sow, but gather no harvest» (38). One can only hope that this situation will change some day, in the future.

Notes

• 1. Major General A.I. Mende (1800 – 1868) directed topographic surveys over the greater part of the territory of European Russia during 1848 – 1866. In doing so, the Tver, Ryazan, Tambov and Vladimir governorates were mapped at a scale of 1 verst to the inch, Yaroslavl – 2 versts to the inch, Simbirsk and Nizhny Novgorod – 3 versts to the inch, and Penza governorate – at a scale of 8 versts to the inch. See on this: N ovokshanova-Sokolovskaya Z.K. Kartograficheskie i geodezicheskie raboty v Rossii v XIX - nachale XX vv. M., 1967. P. 44; Postnikov A.V. Razvitie krupnomasshtabnoi kartografii v Rossii. M., 1989. The details of the topographic surveys are of interest: they were carried out by the method of triangulation, in which measurements were made through a network of trigonometric points established every 10 versts. Besides this, the creation of «astropoints» was planned, i.e. points at which the coordinates were measured exclusively by the stars – in all uyezd centres, and also every 50 versts. In the «Nastavlenie dlya proizvodstva polevykh rabot po sostavleniyu atlasa Rossii», compiled by A.I. Mende, it was prescribed to plot: «streets in settlements, kitchen gardens, cemeteries, isolated burial mounds, mills … postal stations, ferries, bridges, small bridges, fords, towpaths, isolated inns, chapels. Churches, the number of households must be indicated, and manorial estates labelled seltso ». See: Postnikov A.V. Razvitie krupnomasshtabnoi kartografii v Rossii. M., 1989. P.152. Besides this, attention is drawn to the fact that the topographic surveys under Mende's direction were conceived as a comprehensive study, in which the carrying out of statistical descriptions of the settlements of the said territories was planned as an independent task. In particular, the result of such painstaking study of the territory of Simbirsk governorate was the well-known book by Colonel Lipinsky «Materialy dlya geografii i statistiki Rossii, sobrannye ofitserami General'nogo shtaba. Simbirskaya guberniya». (SPb., 1868).

• 2. See in detail on this: Postnikov A.V. K istorii izucheniya i kartografirovaniya reki Volgi v period do 1917 goda // Istochniki po istorii izucheniya prirodnykh resursov basseina reki Volgi. M., 2001. P. 26-48.

• 3. Relation du voyage d' Adam Olearius en Moscovie, Tartarie et Perse. T. 1. A Paris. MDCLIX.

• 4. The artillery engineer-captain Erik Palmquist (1650–1676) was a member of the Swedish embassy of 1673– 1674, performing the functions of a military attaché. After his return from Russia he compiled «Some Remarks on Russia, its Roads, Fortifications and Borders», concerned above all with the organisation of military affairs: Palmguist E. Nagre widh Sidste Kongl : Ambassaden till Tzaren Muscou giorde observationer ofwer Russlandh. Stockholm, 1674 [1898]. Only some extracts were translated into Russian: Shubinsky S.N. Shvedskoe posol'stvo v Rossii v 1674 g.: izvlecheniya iz dnevnika voennogo agenta E. Pal'mkvista // Istoricheskii vestnik. 1882. Vol. 7. No. 3; Gautier Yu.V. Izvestie Pal'mkvista o Rossii // Arkheologicheskie izvestiya i zametki. 1899. No. 3, 4.

• 5. Witsen, Nicolaas. Nieuwe lantkaarte van het noorder en ooster deel van Asia en Europe strekkende van Nova Zemla tot China. [ n. p.] 1687.

• 6. See Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA). F.192. Op.1. D. 7. On the copy of this map kept in the BAN there are inscriptions in French: « Carte de la marche de l'armee russienne vers Asow, sur la quelle on trouve les rivieres d'Occa, Wolga, le Don ». On the reverse: « Carte de Ia mer Noir pres d ' Asow ». The map shows the Belgorod–Simbirsk defensive line, along which stand the fortresses: Saransk, Kerensk, Tambov, Kozlov. On the Don – the Russian strongpoints Voronezh and Donkov. Three lines show three routes; 1) Valuiki – Cherkassky gorodok, 2) Tambov – Don, 3) Tambov – Tsaritsyn. There are inscriptions «from Tsaritsyn to Panshin 50 versts», «from Tsaritsyn to the Don, by the steppe the journey to Cherkassky – 10 days» and others. Aleksandrov B.V. Opisanie rukopisnykh kart XVIII v., khranyashchikhsya v otdele rukopisnoi knigi Biblioteki Akademii nauk SSSR // Gnucheva V.F. Geograficheskii departament Akademii nauk XVIII veka. M.-L., 1946. p.348.

• 7. Budnye stany – i.e. places where forest was burned (in special furnaces or pits) in order then to obtain potash from the ashes.

• 8. RGADA F.192. Op.1. D. 2, part 1.

• 9. RGADA F.192. Op.1, D. 3.

• 10. Pekarsky P. Vvedenie v istoriyu prosveshcheniya v Rossii XVIII stoletiya. SPb, 1862. P.314-315.

• 11. «From the votchinas of the Savvin Storozhevsky Monastery in the Kazan Uyezd – Nadeinskoye Usolye with its villages and hamlets, and from the votchinas of the Novospassky Monastery… with the peasants, and with the bobyli, and with the arable land, with the forests, and with the hay meadows, and with the salt-works, and with the fisheries, and with the mills, and with all manner of works… into eternal possession by him and his wife and his children, free of charge… and those votchinas were made over to him, the Most Serene Prince of the Roman and Russian states Alexander Danilovich Menshikov, from the Monastery Prikaz». RGADA. F. 248. Bk.105. L.267 – 286.

• 12. The case concerning the dispatch to St Petersburg of shells and river stones from the Volga region: «In the present (1)717 year, on 30 January, in the Decree of the great sovereign sent from the chancellery of the Governing Senate to Kazan it was written and ordered that, at the request of the Most Serene Prince of the Roman and Russian states … A.D. Menshikov, for testing, shells and small multicoloured stones of all the rivers … be tied with labels bearing a description and sent to St Petersburg to him, the Most Serene Prince». RGADA. F.248. Bk.104. L.187.

• 13. Ibid. L. 189.

• 14. Khabakov A.V. Ocherki po istorii geologorazvedochnykh znanii v Rossii. Part 1. M.,1950. P. 56. Topograficheskie izvestiya, sluzhashchie dlya polnogo geograficheskogo opisaniya Rossiiskoi imperii. SPb.,1769. Preface.

• 15. Svenske K. Materialy dlya istorii sostavleniya Atlasa Rossiiskoi Imperii, izdannogo Imperatorskoyu Akademieyu Nauk v 1745 godu // Zapiski Imperatorskoi Akademii Nauk. Supplement to Vol. IX. No. 2. Spb., 1866. P. 62.

• 16. Aleksandrov B.V. Opisanie rukopisnykh kart XVIII v., khranyashchikhsya v otdele rukopisnoi knigi Biblioteki Akademii nauk SSSR // Gnucheva V.F. Geograficheskii departament Akademii nauk XVIII veka. M.-L., 1946. p. 324-325. It should be noted that B.V. Aleksandrov perished in Leningrad in January 1942, and Vera Fyodorovna Gnucheva died after a long stay in besieged Leningrad.

• 17. Sosnovka – a village, now flooded, was situated on the left bank of the Volga a few kilometres above Simbirsk.

• 18. In the modern inventory (the main one) it stands under No. 521. On the reverse XXXI. Portfolio No. 4 (pencil. 5). No. 3660/521.

• 19. In the modern inventory it is listed under No. 522. Saratov, Samara, Simbirsk, Petrovsk, Sursk (the Sura fort) and others are indicated. «Copied by student Semyon Starikov, April 1741». On the reverse – (546) No.3664/522. XXXI. Portfolio No. 2.

• 20. Tatishchev V.N. Zapiski. Pis'ma 1717 – 1750 gg. M., 1990. P. 261 – 262. 21. In the modern catalogue this map appears in the main inventory under No. 126.

• 22. In the modern catalogue – No. 127.

• 23. GAUO. F. 928. Op.7. D.1.

• 24. GAUO. F. 928. Op.7. D.3.

• 25. GAUO. F. 928. Op.7. D.4.

• 26. Thus, for example, the «Dnevnye zapiski» of I. Lepekhin were published for the last time in 1821: «Polnoe sobranie uchenykh puteshestvii. SPb, 1821. vol. I II.

• 27. Gnucheva V.F. Materialy dlya istorii ekspeditsii AN v XVIII i XIX vekakh // Trudy Arkhiva AN SSSR, issue 4. M.-L., 1940. P. 72-73.

• 28. On the Svechin expedition see: Gnucheva V.F. Materialy dlya istorii … P. 93-95; and also, A.N. Zertsalov. Kratkii istoriko-geograficheskii ocherk Simbirska, Syzrani i Kashpira vo vtoroi polovine XVIII veka. Simbirsk, 1896; Svechin A.A. Opisanie razvalin g. Bolgara v 1765 godu. Kazan, 1898 (Offprint from Izvestiya Obshchestva arkheologii, istorii i etnografii. Vol. XIV, issue 5); Gurkin V.A. Simbirskaya cherta. M.- Ulyanovsk, 2000. P.145-154. And also the materials of the Svechin expedition in the «Dela Senata» (RGADA F. 248. Bk. 3419, parts 1-2) and in the St Petersburg branch of the Archive of the Academy of Sciences (materials of the Svechin expedition) F.3. Op.10. D.140.

• 29. RGADA. F.248. Bk.3419.

• 30. RGADA. F.248. Bk.3419. L.753.

• 31. Ibid.

• 32. Ibid.

• 33. «Generalnyi Atlas, sochinennoi iz imeyushchikhsya pri Admiralteistve chertezhnoi raznykh godov opisei vsyakogo roda lesam 1782 goda». The atlas presents maps of the forests of the Petersburg, Vyborg, Reval, Riga, Novgorod, Smolensk, Belgorod, Kiev, Arkhangelsk, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, Voronezh and Orenburg governorates. Manuscript Department of the Russian National Library (OR RNB). Hermitage collection. No. 610.

• 34. Ibid. L. 34 – 43.

• 35. RGADA. F.248. D. 588, l.258.

• 36. Kazan, Vladimir, Sviyazhsk, Sinbirsk, Kokshaisk, Menzelinsk, Cheboksary, Penza, Saransk, Syzran, Staroshcheshminsk, Kashpir. St Petersburg branch of the Archive of the RAS, F. 3, op. 1, No. 290, ll. 288-290. RGA VMF. F.1331. Op.4. D.749, D.543. RGA VMF. F.212. 1765. D.9 «Naryad o opisanii reki Volgi i vpadavshikh v kupe rek i beregov, i o prisylke v kollegiyu karty 1765 godu». L.1.

• 37. In 1768 – 1771 he is recorded as a navigator with a salary of 138 roubles as part of the expedition of Chr. L. Euler. It may be supposed that Vasily Kipriyanov was the son of Vasily Vasilyevich Kipriyanov, an engraver and publisher who worked in Moscow in the middle of the century, and the grandson of the surveyor Vasily Osipovich Kipriyanov. RGA VMF (Russian State Archive of the Navy). F.212. 1765. D.9. L.32.

• 38. E. L. Radlov. Essays on the History of Russian Philosophy. Cited from: Vvedensky A. I., Losev A. F., Radlov E. L., Shpet G. G. Essays on the History of Russian Philosophy / Compiled, with an introductory article and notes by B. V. Emelyanov and K. N. Lyubutin. - Sverdlovsk, UGU, 1991. Pp. 100 - 101. These words echo the Gospel words "the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few"

V. A. Gurkin

See also

• Zavolzhye

• Nizhny Novgorod Region

• Nizhny Novgorod Woodpecker

• The Founding of Nizhny Novgorod

• Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Power Plant

• The Gorky Sea

• Privolzhye

• Volga Federal District

• The Caspian Sea