Volga

File:Rybinsk Reservoir. Cruise ship Maksim Litvinov P5213234 2200.jpg

File:ISS-60 Volga River flowing into the Caspian Sea.jpg from the International Space Station]]

The Russian hydronym {{transl|ru|Volga}} ({{lang|ru|{{script|Cyrl|Волга}}}}) derives from Proto-Slavic *vòlga 'wetness, moisture', which is preserved in many Slavic languages, {{transl|ru|vlaga}} ({{lang|ru|влага}}) 'moisture', Bulgarian {{transl|bg|vlaga}} ({{lang|bg|{{script|Cyrl|влага}}}}) 'moisture', Czech {{transl|cs|vláha}} 'dampness', Serbo-Croatian: {{lang|sh|vlaga}} ({{lang|sh|{{script|Cyrl|влага}}}}) 'moisture', Slovene {{transl|sl|vlaga}} 'moisture', Polish {{lang|pl|wilgoć}} 'moisture' and Macedonian {{transl|mk|vlaga}} ({{lang|mk|{{script|Cyrl|влага}}}}) 'moisture', among others.See Max Vasmer's dictionary under "{{lang|ru|Волга}}".

The Scythian name for the Volga was {{transl|xsc|Rahā}},{{cite web |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/arang-river |title=ARANG |last=Brunner |first=C. J. |date=1986 |website=Encyclopædia Iranica |publisher= |access-date=13 August 2022 |quote=Middle Persian {{transl|pal|Arang |italics=no}}/{{transl|pal|Arag |italics=no}} renders Avestan {{transl|ae|Raŋhā |italics=no}}, which is cognate with the Scythian name {{transl|grc|Rhâ |italics=no}} ({{transl|xsc|*Rahā |italics=no}}) transmitted by Ptolemy |archive-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812220052/https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/arang-river |url-status=live }} literally meaning 'wetness'. This is related to the Avestan name for a mythical stream, {{transl|ae|Raŋhā}} ({{lang|ae|{{script|Avst|𐬭𐬀𐬢𐬵𐬁}}}}), which means "wet" or "moisture", and was derived from Proto-Indo-European {{PIE|*h₁res-}} or {{PIE|*h₁ers-}}).J.P. Mallory & D.Q. Adams, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, s.v. "dew" (London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997), 158-9. This name can be compared to several Indo-Iranic terms, such as:

• Sogdian {{transl|sog|rʾk}} ({{lang|sog|{{script|Sogd|𐽀𐼰𐼸}}}}) 'vein, blood vessel' (from Old Iranian {{transl|ira|*rahaka}}),Michiel de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italian Languages, s.v. "rōs, rōris" (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 526-7.
• Persian {{lang|fa|رگ}} {{transl|fa|rag}} 'vein,'Nourai, Ali. 2013. An Etymological Dictionary of Persian, English and Other Indo-European Languages. Index of Words in Different Languages, vol. 1, p. 130.
• Vedic Sanskrit {{transl|sa|rasā́}} ({{lang|sa|{{script|Deva|रसा}}}}) 'dew, liquid, juice; mythical river'), which was also the name of a tributary of the Indus river.Lebedynsky, Iaroslav. Les Sarmates: Amazones et lanciers cuirassés entre Oural et Danube. Paris: Editions Errance, 2002.

The Scythian name survives in modern Moksha as {{transl|mdf|Rav}} ({{lang|mdf|{{script|Cyrl|Рав}}}}).{{cite book |last1=Hartley |first1=Janet M. |title=The Volga: A History |date=2021 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-24564-6 |page=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DjoHEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Herrala |first1=Eva |last2=Feoktistov |first2=Aleksandr |year=1998 |title=Mokšalais-Suomalainen sanakirja |url= |location=Turku |publisher=University of Turku |page=54 |isbn=951-29-1244-9}}

The Greek author Herodotus recorded two more ancient Iranic names of the Volga:

• {{transl|en|Oaros}} ({{langx|grc|Οαρος|translit=Oaros}}; {{langx|la|Oarus}}), which was derived from Scythian {{transl|xsc|*Varu}}, meaning "broad".{{sfn|Harmatta|1999|p=129}}
• The Huns' name of the Dnieper river, {{transliteration|xhc|Var}}, was also derived from Scythian {{transl|xsc|*Varu}}.{{sfn|Harmatta|1999|p=129}}
• {{transl|en|Araxes}} (Ancient Greek: {{langx|grc|Αραξης|translit=Araxēs}}; {{langx|la|Araxes}}){{cite book |editor-last1=Pstrusińska |editor-first1=Jadwiga |editor-link1=:pl:Jadwiga Pstrusińska |editor-last2=Fear |editor-first2=Andrew |last=Olbrycht |first=Marek Jan |date=2000 |title=Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia |chapter=The Cimmerian Problem Re-Examined: the Evidence of the Classical Sources |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/1509846 |location=Kraków |publisher={{ill|Księgarnia Akademicka|pl|vertical-align=sup}} |isbn=978-8-371-88337-8 |access-date=16 August 2022 |archive-date=13 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220813195535/https://www.academia.edu/1509846 |url-status=live }}{{cite book |editor-last1=Pstrusińska |editor-first1=Jadwiga |editor-link1=:pl:Jadwiga Pstrusińska |editor-last2=Fear |editor-first2=Andrew |last=Olbrycht |first=Marek Jan |date=2000 |title=Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia |chapter=Remarks on the Presence of Iranian Peoples in Europe and Their Asiatic Relations |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/11934986 |pages=101–104 |location=Kraków |publisher={{ill|Księgarnia Akademicka|pl|vertical-align=sup}} |isbn=978-8-371-88337-8 |access-date=16 August 2022 |archive-date=25 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220925135705/https://www.academia.edu/11934986 |url-status=live }}

The Turkic peoples living along the river formerly referred to it as {{transl|trk|Itil}} or Atil. In modern Turkic languages, the Volga is known as {{transl|tt|İdel}} ({{lang|tt|{{script|Cyrl|Идел}}}}) in Tatar, {{transl|cv|Atăl}} ({{lang|cv|{{script|Cyrl|Атӑл}}}}) in Chuvash, {{transl|ba|Iźel}} in Bashkir, {{transl|kk|Edıl}} in Kazakh, and {{transl|tr|İdil}} in Turkish. The Turkic names go back to the ancient Turkic form "{{transl|trk|Etil}}/{{transl|trk|Ertil}}", the origin and meaning of which are not clear. Perhaps this form has a connection with the hydronym Irtesh.Akhmetyanov R. G. Brief Historical and etymological dictionary of the Tatar language. - Kazan: Tat. publishing house, 2001. p. 76. {{ISBN|5-298-01004-0}} (In tatar: Әхмәтьянов Р. Г. Татар теленең кыскача тарихи-этимологик сүзлеге. — Казан: Тат. кит. нәшр., 2001. б. 76. )

The Turkic peoples associated the Itil's origin with the Kama.{{Cite web |title=Kama River {{!}} river, Russia {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Kama-River-Russia |access-date=24 January 2022 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |archive-date=24 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220124125816/https://www.britannica.com/place/Kama-River-Russia |url-status=live }} Thus, a left tributary to the Kama was named the Belaya River (Kama) 'White Itil' which unites with the Ufa River 'Black Itil' at the modern city of Ufa.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} The name {{transl|kbd|Indyl}} ({{transl|kbd|Indɨl}}) is used in the Cherkess language.

In Asia the river was known by its other Turkic name {{transl|trk|Sarı-su}} 'yellow water', but the Oirats also used their own name, {{transl|xal|Ijil mörön}} or 'adaptation river'. Presently the Mari, another Uralic group, call the river {{transl|chm|Jul}} ({{lang|chm|{{script|Cyrl|Юл}}}}), meaning 'way' in Tatar. Formerly, they called the river {{transl|chm|Volgydo}}, a borrowing from Old East Slavic.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

File:Nizhny Novgorod P8132254 2200.jpg

The Volga is the longest river in Europe, and its catchment area is almost entirely inside Russia, though the longest river in Russia is the Ob–Irtysh river system.{{Cite book |title=Natural Wonders of the World |publisher=Reader's Digest Association, Inc |year=1980 |isbn=0-89577-087-3 |editor-last=Scheffel |editor-first=Richard L. |location=United States of America |pages=406 |editor-last2=Wernet |editor-first2=Susan J.}}

It belongs to the closed basin of the Caspian Sea, being the longest river to flow into a closed basin. The source of the Volga lies in the village of Volgoverkhov'e in Tver Oblast. Rising in the Valdai Hills {{convert|225|m|ft|abbr=on}} above sea level northwest of Moscow and about {{convert|320|km|mi|abbr=on}} southeast of Saint Petersburg, the Volga heads east past Lake Sterzh, Tver, Dubna, Rybinsk, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, and Kazan. From there it turns south, flows past Ulyanovsk, Tolyatti, Samara, Saratov and Volgograd, and discharges into the Caspian Sea below Astrakhan at {{convert|28|m|ft|abbr=on}} below sea level.

File:Саратовский мост.jpeg by night, Saratov Oblast]]

File:Staritsa.jpg, 1912]]

The Volga has many tributaries, most importantly the Kama, the Oka, the Vetluga, and the Sura. The Volga and its tributaries form the Volga river system, which flows through an area of about {{convert|1350000|km2|0|abbr=on}} in the most heavily populated part of Russia. The Volga Delta has a length of about {{convert|160|km|0|abbr=on}} and includes as many as 500 channels and smaller rivers. The largest estuary in Europe, it is the only place in Russia where pelicans, flamingos, and lotuses may be found.{{citation needed|date=July 2016}} The Volga freezes for most of its length for three months each year.

The Volga drains most of Western Russia. Its many large reservoirs provide irrigation and hydroelectric power. The Moscow Canal, the Volga–Don Canal, and the Volga–Baltic Waterway form navigable waterways connecting Moscow to the White Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. High levels of chemical pollution have adversely affected the river and its habitats.

The fertile river valley provides large quantities of wheat and other agricultural produce, and also has many mineral riches. A substantial petroleum industry centers on the Volga valley. Other resources include natural gas, salt, and potash. The Volga Delta and the Caspian Sea are fishing grounds.

File:Tver dusk 3.jpg|alt=]]

File:Volga Hydroelectric Station 002 (cropped).JPG]]

{{colbegin}}

• Akhtuba (near Volzhsky), a distributary
• Bolshoy Irgiz (near Volsk)
• Samara (in Samara)
• Kama (south of Kazan)
• Kazanka (in Kazan)
• Sviyaga (west of Kazan)
• Vetluga (near Kozmodemyansk)
• Sura (in Vasilsursk)
• Kerzhenets (near Lyskovo)
• Oka (in Nizhny Novgorod)
• Uzola (near Balakhna)
• Unzha (near Yuryevets)
• Kostroma (in Kostroma)
• Kotorosl (in Yaroslavl)
• Sheksna (in Cherepovets)
• Mologa (near Vesyegonsk)
• Kashinka (near Kalyazin)
• Nerl (near Kalyazin)
• Medveditsa (near Kimry)
• Dubna (in Dubna)
• Shosha (near Konakovo)
• Tvertsa (in Tver)
• Vazuza (in Zubtsov)
• Selizharovka (in Selizharovo)

{{colend}}

A number of large hydroelectric reservoirs were constructed on the Volga during the Soviet era. They are:

• Volgograd Reservoir
• Saratov Reservoir
• Kuybyshev Reservoir{{spaced ndash}} the largest in Europe by surface
• Cheboksary Reservoir
• Gorky Reservoir
• Rybinsk Reservoir
• Uglich Reservoir
• Ivankovo Reservoir

• Kazan
• Nizhny Novgorod
• Samara
• Volgograd
• Saratov
• Tolyatti
• Yaroslavl
• Astrakhan
• Ulyanovsk
• Cheboksary
• Tver

• Kostroma rail bridge

File:Volga River. Tolga Monastery P5212881 2200.jpg shrines and monasteries are located along the banks of the Volga]]

The Volga–Oka region has been occupied for at least 9,000 years and supported a bone and antler industry for producing bone arrowheads, spearheads, lanceheads, daggers, hunters knives, and awls. The makers also used local quartz and imported flints.Zhilin, M. (2015). Early Mesolithic bone arrowheads from the Volga-Oka interfluve, central Russia. 32. 35-54.

During classical antiquity, the Volga formed the boundary between the territories of the Cimmerians in the Caucasian Steppe and the Scythians in the Caspian Steppe. After the Scythians migrated to the west and displaced the Cimmerians, the Volga became the boundary between the territories of the Scythians in the Pontic and Caspian Steppes and the Massagetae in the Caspian and Transcaspian steppes.

Between the 6th and the 8th centuries, the Alans settled in the Middle Volga region and in the steppes of Russia's southern region in the Pontic–Caspian steppe.{{Cite web |url=https://www.slm.uni-hamburg.de/ifuu/download/helimski/ural-vorgeschichte.pdf |title=VORGESCHICHE DER URALISCHEN SPRACHFAMILIE, GESCHICHTE DER KLEINEREN URALISCHEN SPRACHEN: CHRONOLOGIE |access-date=30 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190530052002/https://www.slm.uni-hamburg.de/ifuu/download/helimski/ural-vorgeschichte.pdf |archive-date=30 May 2019 |url-status=live}}

The area around the Volga was inhabited by the Slavic tribes of Vyatichs and Buzhans, by Finno-Ugric, Scandinavian, Baltic, Hunnic and Turkic peoples (Tatars, Kipchaks) in the first millennium AD, replacing the Scythians.{{Cite thesis |url=http://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/katona_csete.pdf |title=Co-operation between the Viking Rus' and the Turkic nomads of the steppe in the ninth-eleventh centuries |last=Katona |first=Cseste |type=MA thesis |publisher=Central European University |date=2018 |access-date=4 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190418221818/http://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/katona_csete.pdf |archive-date=18 April 2019 |url-status=live}}{{Unreliable source?|date=October 2024|reason=Source is a Master's thesis}} Furthermore, the river played a vital role in the commerce of the Byzantine people. The ancient scholar Ptolemy of Alexandria mentions the lower Volga in his Geography (Book 5, Chapter 8, 2nd Map of Asia). He calls it the Rha, which was the Scythian name for the river. Ptolemy believed the Don and the Volga shared the same upper branch, which flowed from the Hyperborean Mountains. Between 2nd and 5th centuries Baltic people were very widespread in today's European Russia. Baltic people were widespread from Sozh River till today's Moscow and covered much of today's Central Russia and intermingled with the East Slavs.{{Cite web |url=http://www.lituanus.org/1964/64_2_08_BR1.html |title=Marija Gimbutas. "A Survey Study of the Ancient Balts - Reviewed by Jonas Puzinas |website=www.lituanus.org |access-date=30 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190804192233/http://www.lituanus.org/1964/64_2_08_BR1.html |archive-date=4 August 2019 |url-status=live}} The Russian ethnicity in Western Russia and around the Volga river evolved to a very large extent, next to other tribes, out of the East Slavic tribe of the Buzhans and Vyatichis. The Vyatichis were originally concentrated on the Oka River.{{Cite book |title=The Khazars: a Judeo-Turkish Empire on the Steppes, 7th-11th Centuries AD. |last=Zhirohov, Mikhail. |date=2019 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing Plc |others=Nicolle, David., Hook, Christa. |isbn=9781472830104 |location=London |pages=47 |oclc=1076253515}} Furthermore, several localities in Russia are connected to the Slavic Buzhan tribe, like for example Sredniy Buzhan in the Orenburg Oblast, Buzan and the Buzan River in the Astrakhan Oblast.{{Cite web |url=http://study.com/academy/lesson/early-east-slavic-tribes-in-russia.html |title=Early East Slavic Tribes in Russia |website=Study.com |language=en |access-date=16 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328092408/https://study.com/academy/lesson/early-east-slavic-tribes-in-russia.html |archive-date=28 March 2019 |url-status=live}} Buzhan ({{langx|fa|بوژان{{lrm}}|Būzhān}}; also known as Būzān) is also a village in Nishapur, Iran. In late 8th century the Russian state Russkiy Kaganate is recorded in different Northern and Oriental sources. The Volga was one of the main rivers of the Rus' Khaganates culture.

Subsequently, the river basin played an important role in the movements of peoples from Asia to Europe. A powerful polity of Volga Bulgaria once flourished where the Kama joins the Volga, while Khazaria controlled the lower stretches of the river. Such Volga cities as Atil, Saqsin, or Sarai were among the largest in the medieval world. The river served as an important trade route connecting Scandinavia, Finnic areas with the various Slavic tribes and Turkic, Germanic, Finnic and other people in Old Rus', and Volga Bulgaria with Khazaria, Persia and the Arab world.

File:Ilia Efimovich Repin (1844-1930) - Volga Boatmen (1870-1873).jpg's 1870-1873 painting Barge Haulers on the Volga]]

Khazars were replaced by Kipchaks, Kimeks and Mongols, who founded the Golden Horde in the lower reaches of the Volga. Later their empire divided into the Khanate of Kazan and Khanate of Astrakhan, both of which were conquered by the Russians in the course of the 16th century Russo-Kazan Wars. The Russian people's deep feeling for the Volga echoes in national culture and literature, starting from the 12th century Lay of Igor's Campaign.{{cite web |url=http://www.volgawriter.com/VW%20Volga%20River.htm |title=The Volga |publisher=www.volgawriter.com |access-date=11 June 2010 |format=Microsoft FrontPage 12.0 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620141913/http://www.volgawriter.com/VW%20Volga%20River.htm |archive-date=20 June 2010 |url-status=dead}} The Volga Boatman's Song is one of many songs devoted to the national river of Russia.

Construction of Soviet Union-era dams often involved enforced resettlement of huge numbers of people, as well as destruction of their historical heritage. For instance, the town of Mologa was flooded for the purpose of constructing the Rybinsk Reservoir (then the largest artificial lake in the world). The construction of the Uglich Reservoir caused the flooding of several monasteries with buildings dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. In such cases the ecological and cultural damage often outbalanced any economic advantage."In all, Soviet dams flooded 2,600 villages and 165 cities, almost 78,000 sq. km. – the area of Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts, and New Jersey combined – including nearly 31,000 sq. km. of agricultural land and 31,000 sq. km. of forestland". Quoted from: Paul R. Josephson. Industrialized Nature: Brute Force Technology and the Transformation of the Natural World. Island Press, 2002. {{ISBN|1-55963-777-3}}. Page 31.

File:Soviet marines-in the battle of stalingrad volga banks.jpg Marines charge the Volga river bank.]]

{{Main|Battle of Stalingrad|Kazan Operation}}

During the Russian Civil War, both sides fielded warships on the Volga. In 1918, the Red Volga Flotilla participated in driving the Whites eastward, from the Middle Volga at Kazan to the Kama and eventually to Ufa on the Belaya.Brian Pearce, [http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/red-army/1918/raskolnikov/ilyin/index.htm Introduction] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080203140800/http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/red-army/1918/raskolnikov/ilyin/index.htm |date=3 February 2008 }} to Fyodor Raskolnikov

s "Tales of Sub-lieutenant Ilyin."

During the Civil War, Joseph Stalin ordered the imprisonment of several military specialists on a barge in the Volga and the sinking of a floating prison in which the officers perished.{{cite book |last1=Brackman |first1=Roman |title=The Secret File of Joseph Stalin: A Hidden Life |date=23 November 2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-75840-0 |page=129 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PY2RAgAAQBAJ&dq=stalin+trotsky+military+specialist&pg=PA129 |language=en |access-date=30 October 2023 |archive-date=3 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231003000731/https://books.google.com/books?id=PY2RAgAAQBAJ&dq=stalin+trotsky+military+specialist&pg=PA129 |url-status=live }}{{cite book |last1=Sebag Montefiore |first1=Simon |title=Stalin : the court of the red tsar |date=2004 |publisher=Grown House |location=London |isbn=978-0-7538-1766-7 |page=34 |url=https://archive.org/details/stalincourtofred0000seba/page/34/mode/1up?q=Enmity}}

During World War II, the city on the big bend of the Volga, currently known as Volgograd, witnessed the Battle of Stalingrad, possibly the bloodiest battle in human history, in which the Soviet Union and the German forces were deadlocked in a stalemate battle for access to the river. The Volga was (and still is) a vital transport route between central Russia and the Caspian Sea, which provides access to the oil fields of the Absheron Peninsula. Hitler planned to use access to the oil fields of Azerbaijan to fuel future German conquests. Apart from that, whoever held both sides of the river could move forces across the river, to defeat the enemy's fortifications beyond the river.{{cite web |url=http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_stalingrad.htm |title=::The Battle of Stalingrad |publisher=Historylearningsite.co.uk |access-date=11 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150530123434/http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_stalingrad.htm |archive-date=30 May 2015 |url-status=live}} By taking the river, Hitler's Germany would have been able to move supplies, guns, and men into the northern part of Russia. At the same time, Germany could permanently deny this transport route by the Soviet Union, hampering its access to oil and to supplies via the Persian Corridor.

For this reason, many amphibious military assaults were brought about in an attempt to remove the other side from the banks of the river. In these battles, the Soviet Union was the main offensive side, while the German troops used a more defensive stance, though much of the fighting was close quarters combat, with no clear offensive or defensive side.

File:Молодецкий курган осенью.jpg.]]

Many different ethnicities lived on the Volga river. Numerous were the Eastern Slavic Vyatchi tribes which took a decisive role in the development of modern Russians.{{Cite news |url=https://study.com/academy/lesson/early-east-slavic-tribes-in-russia.html |title=Early East Slavic Tribes in Russia {{!}} Study.com |work=Study.com |access-date=13 October 2018 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180826183019/https://study.com/academy/lesson/early-east-slavic-tribes-in-russia.html |archive-date=26 August 2018 |url-status=live}}{{Cite book |title=The Khazars: a Judeo-Turkish Empire on the Steppes, 7th-11th Centuries AD. |last=Mikhail. |first=Zhirohov |date=2019 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing Plc |others=Nicolle, David., Hook, Christa. |isbn=9781472830104 |location=London |pages=47 |oclc=1076253515}} Among the first recorded people along the upper Volga were also the Finnic Mari (Мари) and Merya (Мäрӹ) people. Where the Volga flows through the steppes the area was also inhabited by the Iranian people of the Sarmatians from 200 BC.{{Cite web |url=https://www.slavorum.org/noble-sarmatian-grave-discovered-in-russia/ |title=Noble Sarmatian Grave Discovered In Russia |last=Bašić |first=Marko |date=14 May 2015 |website=Slavorum |language=en-US |access-date=28 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328082047/https://www.slavorum.org/noble-sarmatian-grave-discovered-in-russia/ |archive-date=28 March 2019 |url-status=live}}{{Cite book |title=The Volga river |last=Tim. |first=McNeese |date=2005 |publisher=Chelsea House Publishers |isbn=0791082474 |location=Philadelphia |pages=14 |oclc=56535045}} Since ancient times, even before Rus' states developed, the Volga river was an important trade route where not only Slavic, Turkic and Finnic peoples lived, but also Arab world of the Middle East met the Varangian people of the Nordic countries through trading.{{Cite web |url=https://www.thenational.ae/world/when-the-arabs-met-the-vikings-new-discovery-suggests-ancient-links-1.125718 |title=When the Arabs met the Vikings: New discovery suggests ancient links |website=The National |date=6 May 2015 |language=en |access-date=25 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525021237/https://www.thenational.ae/world/when-the-arabs-met-the-vikings-new-discovery-suggests-ancient-links-1.125718 |archive-date=25 May 2019 |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/the-volga-trade-route/ |title=The Volga Trade Route |website=www.pbs.org |date=7 February 2013 |language=en-US |access-date=25 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190523220533/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/the-volga-trade-route/ |archive-date=23 May 2019 |url-status=live}} In the 8th and 9th centuries colonization also began from Kievan Rus'. Slavs from Kievan Rus' brought Christianity to the upper Volga, and a portion of non-Slavic local people adopted Christianity and gradually became East Slavs. The remainder of the Mari people migrated to the east far inland. In the course of several centuries the Slavs assimilated the indigenous Finnic populations, such as the Merya and Meshchera peoples. The surviving peoples of Volga Finnic ethnicity include the Maris, Erzyas and Mokshas of the middle Volga. Also Khazar and Bulgar peoples inhabited the upper, middle and lower of the Volga River basin.{{Cite news |url=http://learnrussianlanguage.net/unique-history-of-volga-river-that-you-need-to-know |title=Unique History of Volga River That You Need to Know - Learn Russian Language |date=30 June 2018 |work=Learn Russian Language |access-date=13 October 2018 |language=en-US |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181013211616/http://learnrussianlanguage.net/unique-history-of-volga-river-that-you-need-to-know |archive-date=13 October 2018 |url-status=live}}

Apart from the Huns, the earliest Turkic tribes arrived in the 7th century and assimilated some Finno-Ugric and Indo-European population on the middle and lower Volga. The Turkic Christian Chuvash and Muslim Volga Tatars are descendants of the population of medieval Volga Bulgaria. Another Turkic group, the Nogais, formerly inhabited the lower Volga steppes.

The Volga region is home to a German minority group, the Volga Germans. Catherine the Great had issued a manifesto in 1763 inviting all foreigners to come and populate the region, offering them numerous incentives to do so.{{Cite web |title=Catherine's Manifesto 1763 |url=https://www.norkarussia.info/catherines-manifesto-1763.html |access-date=18 March 2021 |website=NORKA |language=en |archive-date=4 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304221905/https://www.norkarussia.info/catherines-manifesto-1763.html |url-status=live }} This was partly to develop the region but also to provide a buffer zone between the Russians and the Mongols to the east.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}{{Cite book |last=Egan |first=Timothy |title=The Worst Hard Time |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |year=2006 |isbn=9780618346974 |pages=63}} Because of conditions in German territories, Germans responded in the largest numbers. Under the Soviet Union a slice of the region was turned into the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

{{Empty section|date=October 2022}}

File:Volgograd. River Station P8080529 2200.jpg

File:Utes step raz2.jpg

The Volga, widened for navigation purposes with construction of huge dams during the years of Joseph Stalin's industrialization, is of great importance to inland shipping and transport in Russia: all the dams in the river have been equipped with large (double) ship locks, so that vessels of considerable dimensions can travel from the Caspian Sea almost to the upstream end of the river.

Connections with the river Don and the Black Sea are possible through the Volga–Don Canal. Connections with the lakes of the North (Lake Ladoga, Lake Onega), Saint Petersburg and the Baltic Sea are possible through the Volga–Baltic Waterway; and commerce with Moscow has been realised by the Moscow Canal connecting the Volga and the Moskva River.

This infrastructure has been designed for vessels of a relatively large scale (lock dimensions of {{convert|290|×|30|m|ft}} on the Volga, slightly smaller on some of the other rivers and canals) and it spans many thousands of kilometers. A number of formerly state-run, now mostly privatized, companies operate passenger and cargo vessels on the river; Volgotanker, with over 200 petroleum tankers, is one of them.

In the later Soviet era, up to the modern times, grain and oil have been among the largest cargo exports transported on the Volga.

{{Cite journal |doi=10.1016/S1353-2561(01)00050-0 |title=Prediction of the Dispersal of Oil Transport in the Caspian Sea Resulting from a Continuous Release |year=2000 |last1=Korotenko |first1=K. A. |last2=Mamedov |first2=R. M. |last3=Mooers |first3=C. N. K. |journal=Spill Science & Technology Bulletin |volume=6 |issue=5–6 |pages=323}} Until recently access to the Russian waterways was granted to foreign vessels on a very limited scale. The increasing contacts between the European Union and Russia have led to new policies with regard to the access to the Russian inland waterways.{{cite web |url=http://www.noordersoft.com/indexen.html |title=NoorderSoft Waterways Database |publisher=Noordersoft.com |access-date=11 June 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051109123915/http://www.noordersoft.com/indexen.html |archive-date=9 November 2005}}

File:Volgograd 44.67670E 48.66724N.jpg|View of the river and Volgograd from space.

File:Volga-river-delta-terra-modis-2010-07-17-750-UTC.jpg|Volga river delta, Terra/MODIS 2010-07-17.

File:Volga.A2002137.0745.250m.jpg|Terra/MODIS, 2002-05-17.

File:Volga.250m.jpg|Terra/MODIS, 2001-10-10.

• Without a Dowry, The Storm – dramas by the Russian playwright Aleksandr Ostrovsky
• In the Forests, On the Hills – novels by Pavel Melnikov
• Yegor Bulychov and Others, Dostigayev and Others – plays by Maxim Gorky
• "Distance After Distance" – poem by Aleksandr Tvardovsky
• "On the Volga" – a poem by Nikolay Nekrasov
• "Volga and Vazuza" – a poem by Samuil Marshak
• The Precipice – a novel by Ivan Goncharov
• Volga Se Ganga - a novel by Hindi language writer Rahul Sankrityayan

• Volga-Volga (1938) – a Soviet film comedy directed by Grigori Aleksandrov
• Ekaterina Voronina (1957) – Soviet drama film directed by Isidor Annensky
• The Bridge Is Built (1965) – a Soviet film about the construction of a road bridge across the Volga in Saratov by Oleg Efremov and Gavriil Egiazarov
• A Cruel Romance (1984) – romantic drama directed by Eldar Ryazanov
• Election Day (2007) – Russian comedy film directed by Oleg Fomin

• The Song of the Volga Boatmen

• Metro Exodus – Volga is one of main levels of the game

• Caspian Depression
• List of rivers of Russia

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |editor-first1=Olivier |editor-last1=Reverdin |editor-link1=:fr:Olivier Reverdin |editor-first2=Giuseppe |editor-last2=Nenci |editor-link2=:it:Giuseppe Nenci |last=Harmatta |first=János |author-link=János Harmatta |date=1999 |title=Hérodote et les Peuples Non Grecs |trans-title=Herodotus and the Non-Greek Peoples |chapter=Herodotus, Historian of the Cimmerians and the Scythians |url=https://archive.org/details/herodoteetlespeu0035unse |chapter-url=https://www.e-periodica.ch/cntmng?pid=oac-001%3A1990%3A35%3A%3A381 |language=fr |location=Vandœuvres, Switzerland |publisher={{ill|Fondation Hardt pour l'étude de l'Antiquité classique|fr|Fondation Hardt|vertical-align=sup}} |pages=115–130 |isbn=978-3-774-92415-4}}

{{refend}}

• Hartley, J. M. (2021). [https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300266412/the-volga/ The Volga: A History]. New Haven: Yale University Press.{{cite journal |jstor=10.5699/slaveasteurorev2.99.4.0761 |last1=Sunderland |first1=Willard |title=Reviewed work: The Volga: A History of Russia's Greatest River, Hartley, Janet M |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review |year=2021 |volume=99 |issue=4 |pages=761–763 |doi=10.1353/see.2021.0094 |s2cid=259804772}}

{{Commons category|Volga}}

• {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Volga |volume= 28 |last1= Kropotkin |first1= Peter Alexeivitch |author1-link=Peter Kropotkin|last2= Bealby |first2=John Thomas| pages = 193–195 |short= 1}}
• [http://earthfromspace.photoglobe.info/spc_volga_delta.html Volga Delta from Space]
• [http://as-volga.com Photos of the Volga coasts]
• {{osmrelation-inline|1730417}}
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la1gakAbIgw Video about the source of the Volga]

{{Rivers of Russia}}

{{Volga River}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Rivers of Kostroma Oblast

Category:Rivers of Moscow Oblast

Category:Rivers of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast

Category:Rivers of Astrakhan Oblast

Category:Rivers of Chuvashia

Category:Rivers of Kalmykia

Category:Rivers of Samara Oblast

Category:Rivers of Saratov Oblast

Category:Rivers of Tatarstan

Category:Rivers of Tver Oblast

Category:Rivers of Volgograd Oblast

Category:Rivers of Yaroslavl Oblast

Category:Tributaries of the Caspian Sea

Category:Braided rivers in Russia