The Volga River is one of the longest rivers in the world and the longest in Europe. It is 3,530 km (2,193.4 miles) long, with a basin area of 1,360,000 km2. (before construction of dams, it was 3,690 km long.The Volga rises (originates) in the Valdai Hills, at 228 m above sea level and flows through Russian territory into the Caspian Sea. The mouth lies 28 m below sea level. Approximately 200 tributaries flow into this river. The largest tributaries of the Volga are the Oka, on the right side; the Kama, which flows in from the left side; Sura; Vetluga; and Sviiaga river.
The left tributaries of the Volga are more numerous and deeper than the right. The river system of the basin includes 151,000 waterways (rivers, streams, and temporary waterways) with a combined length of 574,000 km. The basin itself occupies approximately one-third of the Eastern European, stretching from the Valdai and Central Russian hills on the west to the Ural Mountains on the east. At the latitude of Saratov the basin becomes very dry, and the river flows from Kamyshin to the Caspian Sea without any tributaries.
The main, feed section of the Volga’s drainage area, from the sources to the cities of Gorky and Kazan’, is located in the forest zone. The center of the basin up to Kuibyshev and Saratov are in the forest-steppe zone; while the lower part is in the steppe region up to Volgograd as the southernmost part is in the semidesert zone. The Volga is usually divided into three parts: the upper, from the source to the mouth of the Oka; the middle, from the confluence of the Oka to the mouth of the Kama; and the lower, from the confluence of the Kama to the mouth.
The source of the Volga is a spring in the village of Volgo-Verkhov’e in Kalinin Oblast. In its upper reaches, the Valdai Hills, the Volga passes through small lakes—Verkhit, Sterzh, Vselug, Peno, and Volgo. At the outflow of Lake Volgo there was a dam built as early as 1843 (Verkhnevolzhskii Beishlot) to regulate the water flow and to maintain navigable depths during low water.
Between Kalinin and Rybinsk the Volga reservoir (the so-called Moscow Sea) was created, with a dam and hydro-electric power station at Ivan’kov; also on the river are the Uglich reservoir (power station at Uglich) and the Rybinsk reservoir (power station at Rybinsk). In the region of Rybinsk-Iaroslavl’ and below Kostroma the river flows through a narrow valley between steep shores, bisecting the Uglich Danilov and Galich-Chukhlom Hills. Further on the Volga flows along the Unzha and Balakhnin plains. At Gorodets, above Gorky, the Volga is blocked off by the dam of the Gorky hydroelectric power station, forming the Gorky reservoir. The main tributaries of the upper Volga are the Selizharovka, Tvertsa, Mologa, Sheksna, and Unzha.
In its middle portion, below the confluence of the Oka, the Volga becomes even deeper, flowing along the northern edge of the Volga Hills. The right bank of the river is steep, and the left bank low. In 1968 construction was begun at Cheboksar on the Cheboksar Hydroelectric Plant, above whose dam is the Cheboksar reservoir.
In its lower reaches, after the confluence of the Kama, the Volga becomes a mighty river. Here it flows along the Volga Hills. The dam of the V. I. Lenin Volga Hydro-electric Power Plant is constructed near Tol’iatti, above the Samar oxbow, formed by the river as it bends around the Zhiguli Hills; the Kuibyshev reservoir stretches above the dam. The dam of the Saratov hydroelectric plant is located on the river near Balakovo. The lower Volga has relatively small tributaries—the Samara, Bol’shoi Irgiz, and Eruslan. Twenty-one km above Volgograd the Akhtuba (537 km long) branches off to the left and flows parallel to the main course of the river. The broad stretch between the Volga and the Akhtuba, which is crossed by numerous channels as well as bayous, is called the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain; floods on this plain formerly reached 20-30 km. The Twenty-second Congress of the CPSU Volgograd Hydroelectric Power Plant is built on the Volga between the beginning of the Akhtuba and Volgograd.
The Volga delta, which begins where its course separates from the Buzan branch (46 km north of Astrakhan), is one of the largest in the USSR. It has up to 500 branches, channels, and small rivers. The main branches are the Bakhtemir, Kamyziak, Staraia Volga, Bolda, Buzan, and Akhtuba, of which only the Bakhtemir is navigable.
The Volga is fed mainly by snow (60 percent of the annual flow), ground waters (30 percent), and rain (10 percent). In the spring there is flooding (April-June), during summer and winter low water, and in autumn rain floods (October). The annual variation in the level of the river before its regulation reached 11 m at Kalinin, 15-17 m below the mouth of the Kama, and 3 m at Astrakhan. After construction of the reservoirs the Volga’s flow was regulated, and variations in the water level were sharply reduced.
The average annual flow of water at the Verkhnevolzhskii Beishlot is 29 m3/sec, at Kalinin 182, at laroslavl’ 1,110, at Gorky 2,970, at Kuibyshev 7,720, and at Volgograd 8,060 m3/sec. Below Volgograd the river loses about 2 percent of its flow to evaporation. Maximum water flow during the high-water season below the confluence of the Kama formerly reached 67,000 m3/sec, while at Volgograd, as a result of spreading over the floodplain, it did not exceed 52,000 m3/sec. In connection with regulation of the flow, maximum flows at high water have been sharply reduced, while the summer and winter low-water flows have been greatly increased. Over a period of several years the average water balance of the Volga basin before Volgograd has been 662 mm or 900 km3 a year of precipitation, 187 mm or 254 km3 a year of river flow, and 475 mm or 646 km3 a year of evaporation.
Before the creation of reservoirs, the Volga carried to its mouth about 25 million tons of alluvial matter and 40-50 million tons of dissolved minerals annually. The temperature of the water reaches 20-25° C in the middle of the summer (July). The ice in the river near Astrakhan breaks up in mid-March, and in the first half of April the breakup occurs on the upper Volga and below Kamyshin; the rest of the river opens up in mid-April. The upper and middle reaches of the Volga freeze at the end of November, and the lower reaches freeze at the beginning of December; the river is ice-free for about 200 days, 260 days near Astrakhan. The reservoirs have changed the temperature of the river; the duration of ice on the headwaters has been increased, but on the lower reaches it has been decreased.
Historical and economic-geographical sketch. The geographical location of the Volga and its large tributaries gave it great importance even in the eighth century as a commercial route between East and West. Fabrics and metals were brought from the East and traded for furs, wax, and mead from the Slavic lands. Centers such as Itil, Bolgar, Novgorod, Rostov, Suzdal’, and Murom played an important role in trade of the ninth-tenth centuries. Trade began to decline in the llth century; in the 13th century the Mongol Tatar invasion destroyed the economic links, except in the basin of the upper Volga, where Novgorod, Tver’, and the cities of Vladimir-Suzdal’ Rus’ played an active role. In the 14th century the importance of the trade route was renewed, and centers such as Kazan’, Nizhny Novgorod, and Astrakhan grew in importance. Ivan IV the Terrible subdued the Kazan’ and Astrakhan khanates in the middle of the 16th century; this led to the incorporation of the entire Volga river system within the embrace of Russia, facilitating the flourishing of Volga trade in the 17th century. New large cities such as Samara, Saratov, and Tsaritsyn arose, and laroslavl’, Kostroma, and Nizhny Novgorod played large roles. Large caravans of up to 500 ships sailed along the Volga. In the 18th century the main trade route shifted to the west, while the economic development of the lower Volga was checked by sparse population and the incursions of nomads. In the 17th and 18th centuries the Volga basin was the main area for the activities of rebellious peasants and Cossacks during the peasant uprisings led by S. T. Razin and E. I. Pugachev.
In the 19th century the Volga trade route grew considerably after the connection of the Mariinsk River system with the basins of the Volga and Neva (1808); a large river fleet arose (the first steamship in 1820), and a huge army of barge haulers (up to 300,000 men) began to work on the Volga. The river was used for large-scale transport of bread, salt, fish, and later petroleum and cotton. The Nizhegorod market took on great economic significance.
During the Civil War of 1918-20 there were large-scale military actions on the Volga (struggle with the White Czechs and troops of the constituent assembly governments in 1918 and with Kolchak’s and Denikin’s forces in 1919), and it acquired important military-strategic significance. During the years of socialist construction the significance of the Volga route grew in conjunction with the industrialization of the entire country. At the end of the 1930’s the Volga was first used as a source of hydroelectric power. During World War II, the great Battle of Stalingrad took place on the Volga.
In the postwar period the economic role of the Volga increased significantly, especially after the creation of a series of large reservoirs and hydroelectric power plants. After completion of the Volga Kama Cascade Hydroelectric Plant the total output of hydro-electric energy will reach 40-45 billion kvolt/hour a year. The reservoir surface area is about 38,000 km2, the full volume is 288 km3, and the useful volume is 90 km3. The left bank of the Volga, which has 4 million hectares of land suitable for irrigation, is supplied with water from the Kuibyshev and Volgograd reservoirs. Work will be carried out on the flooding of 9 million hectares and the irrigation of 1 million hectares between the Volga and Ural rivers. Construction began in 1971 on the Volga-Ural Canal, 425 km long with a water flow of about 400 m3/sec. The river system includes more than 41,000 km of floatable and about 14,000 km of navigable waterways.
The Volga is linked with the Baltic Sea by the V. I. Lenin Volga-Baltic Waterway and the Vyshnevolotsk and Tikhva systems; with the White Sea by the Sever-Dvina system and the Belomor-Baltic Canal; and with the Black Sea and Sea of Azov by the V. I. Lenin Volga-Don Canal.
Natural Resources and Fish
In the basin of the upper Volga there are large forests, and in the middle and partially in the lower Volga regions there are large areas given over to grain and industrial crops. Viticulture and horticulture are well developed. The Volga-Ural region has rich deposits of oil and gas. Near Solikamsk there are large deposits of potassium salts. In the lower Volga region (Baskunchak and El’ton lakes) there is table salt. About 70 species offish, 40 of which are commercially important (the most important include the Caspian roach, herring, bream, pike perch, sazan, sheatfish, pike, sturgeon, and sterlet) inhabit the Volga.