by night,
Saratov Oblast , 1912 from the
International Space Station 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. 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 above sea level northwest of
Moscow and about 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 below sea level. 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. 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,
Khazars) in the
first millennium AD, replacing the
Scythians. 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. 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. 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. Buzhan (; 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.
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.
20th-century conflicts Marines charge the Volga
river bank. 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. 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. 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. 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. ==Ethnic groups==