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2 ways the Volga river was used back then

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2 ways the Volga river was used back then

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1. They used the river as a form of trade.
2. In WWII (World War 2) they used the river to get supplies for the war.

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Nowhere is the Volga River more hallowed than in the city named after it: Volgograd, better known to history as Stalingrad.

During World War II, perhaps the bloodiest battle in history took place there. A total of 2 million people were lost on both sides in the fighting from the summer of 1942 to February 1943. Hitler's army, fighting to reach the Volga and seize the country's energy resources to the south in the oil-rich Caucasus, was met by the tenacious Soviet Red Army and a city that would not yield.

Many believe the defeat of the German army in Stalingrad changed the course of the war in Europe.

It was a Soviet victory, but all these years later, the battle of Stalingrad remains an enduring symbol of what Russians can do against all odds. Nearly 70 years ago, the city's residents endured the onslaught of the Nazis. Today, people in Volgograd are still adjusting to the post-Soviet changes that have altered so much of Russia.
Where The 'Land Is Soaked In Blood'
Cruise ships heading down the Volga navigate a huge bend in the river as the approach Volgograd, and a giant statue, "The Motherland Calls," come into view. Passengers grow silent as they stare at the massive figure, 17 stories high, of the Motherland looming over them. As if to defy all who might attack this country, her hand wields a huge sword. Some Russian passengers quietly wipe away tears.

Decades have passed since the war and this city has long since risen from the ashes. Its center is monumental, full of postwar, neo-classical facades so beloved by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

Poorly constructed apartments from the 1960s and '70s fan out for miles along the river bank. The promenade sparkles with expensive new shops, cafes and restaurants.

But it's the vast memorial site on the hard-fought high ground that still dominates and haunts.

Once it celebrated a Soviet victory. Now, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, it belongs to Russia alone.

In September, the Russian government suggested schoolchildren celebrate Russian victories, key among them, this battle for the Volga.

"The feeling of patriotism remains because the city suffered so much," says tour guide Nina Salnikova. "We can't forget what happened. This is a hero city where every piece of land is soaked in blood."
'I Thought The War Was Far From Us'
Tamara Kolbasina, now 79, was a 10-year-old living in Stalingrad when the Germans attacked.

"There was a decision not to evacuate the city because it would sow panic. It would show the Germans we were afraid. We were told the Germans would never reach the city," Kolbasina says.

But on Aug. 19, 1942, a beautiful summer's day, the Nazi bombing campaign began.

"I had gone for bread," Kolbasina recalls. "I thought the war was far from us. Suddenly, there were planes overheard, masses of them."

The city exploded, and the Volga became a ribbon of fire.

For the next 168 days, Kolbasina lived in open trenches, freezing, starving and terrified. Her best friend was killed next to her.

Germans troops entered the city. The outnumbered Soviet forces were only able to hold a tiny sliver along the Volga River. Stalin issued an order that anyone thought to be retreating or deserting be immediately shot.
Looking 'Into The Eyes Of Death'
As a young lieutenant, Gamlet Dallokian was among those sent to defend Stalingrad.

"There was no food. We had no boots. We slept as we walked. The Germans attacked our rear and 42 of my 45 men were killed. They were much stronger, especially in aviation. How we managed to surround the city, I don't know. We were lucky," Dallokian says.

Now 90 and one of the last living survivors of the battle, Dallokian recalls how close the opposing forces were.

"We would smoke and they could see our smoke. That's how close they were. I looked into the eyes of death hundreds of times," he says.

Konstantin Melikhov, also 90, remembers how ill-equipped his unit was. Somehow it held on until the Soviets managed -- miraculously -- to build up their air force.

Melikhov was there when the German troops finally surrendered. His forces shattered, German commander Friedrich Paulus disobeyed Hitler's orders and agreed to give up. On Feb. 2, 1943, what was left of Germany's frozen and hungry troops at Stalingrad surrendered to the Soviets.

"They threw their weapons on the ground. My job was to collect the best of them for the fighting still to come. Then we collected the dead bodies from both sides," Melikhov says.

About 1 million Soviet soldiers and citizens were dead. Some 91,000 Germans were taken prisoner. Many were forced to help rebuild the leveled city.

For these Russians, it was unquestionably a great victory; they still proudly wear their medals.

But they are not proud of what came before -- Stalin's terror -- and what came after.
Losing Their Faith
Tamara Kolbasina's father was declared missing in action. After the German defeat, her family lived in an earthen dugout reinforced with clay and straw. They stayed there for 14 years.

Her sister survived typhus; her mother, weakened by malaria, died young. Nonetheless, Kolbasina received an education and became a loyal member of the Communist Party.

But four years ago, Kolbasina got a call from Russia's security services, the heir to the KGB. Her father was not missing in action as she had thought, but was one of Stalin's victims.

"As he watched the bombing, he was overheard complimenting German technology. For this he was sentenced to 10 years. But there are no prison records. We can only assume he was shot," she says.

Kolbasina says she has lost faith in her country.

"Why were so many innocent people like my father killed? And now, everything we built is in private hands, in the hands of millionaires and billionaires," she says.

The family of Gamlet Dallokian, the soldier, became Stalin's victims, too.

Nonetheless, Dallokian still believes Stalin was a good wartime commander.

"I cannot forgive Stalin's brutal repressions. But this city should still bear his name. It was the battle of Stalingrad, not Volgograd," he says.
'Why Do We Live Worse?'
Originally called Tsaritsyn, the city was renamed Stalingrad in 1925 in honor of the Soviet leader. The name was changed to Volgograd in 1961 as part of Nikita Khrushchev's program to expunge the cult of personality and brutal policies of Stalin from the Soviet system.

And now in a post-Soviet system of strong central control by the Kremlin with vast wealth among some Russians while others struggle, Dallokian wrestles with the current state of Russia.

"Why can the Germans we defeated live 40 times better than us? When this is such a rich country, why do we live worse?" he asks.

Konstantin Melikhov became a doctor. Now nearly blind from wounds he received, he, too, isn't happy with today's Russia.

"Terrible things are happening," he says. "Then and now."
Friday: Where the Volga meets the Caspian Sea, Russia's fortunes are reflected in its "black gold" -- highly prized, but increasingly rare, caviar.

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Battle Of The Volga Alive In Russian Memory

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Nowhere is the Volga River more hallowed than in the city named after it: Volgograd, better known as Stalingrad, site of one of World War II's most important, and bloodiest, battles. Today, Volgograd residents are still adjusting to the post-Soviet changes that have altered Russia.

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1. For Trade
2. Provide irrigation
3.Provides hydroelectric
4. Drains out western Europe
5. For fishing

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Table of Contents

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Volga River, Russian Volga, ancient (Greek) Ra or (Tatar) Itil or Etil, river of Europe, the continent's longest, and the principal waterway of western Russia and the historic cradle of the Russian state. Its basin, sprawling across about two-fifths of the European part of Russia, contains almost half of the entire population of the Russian Republic. The Volga's immense economic, cultural, and historic importance-along with the sheer size of the river and its basin-ranks it among the world's great rivers.

Rising in the Valdai Hills northwest of Moscow, the Volga discharges into the Caspian Sea, some 2,193 miles (3,530 kilometres) to the south. It drops slowly and majestically from its source 748 feet (228 metres) above sea level to its mouth 92 feet below sea level. In the process the Volga receives the water of some 200 tributaries, the majority of which join the river on its left bank. Its river system, comprising 151,000 rivers and permanent and intermittent streams, has a total length of about 357,000 miles.

Physical features

The river basin drains some 533,000 square miles (1,380,000 square kilometres), stretching from the Valdai Hills and Central Russian Upland in the west to the Ural Mountains in the east and narrowing sharply at Saratov in the south. From Kamyshin the river flows to its mouth uninterrupted by tributaries for some 400 miles. Four geographic zones lie within the Volga basin: the dense, marshy forest, which extends from the river's upper reaches to Nizhny Novgorod (formerly Gorky) and Kazan; the forest steppe extending from there to Samara (formerly Kuybyshev) and Saratov; the steppe from there to Volgograd; and semidesert lowlands southeast to the Caspian Sea.

Physiography

The course of the Volga is divided into three parts: the upper Volga (from its source to the confluence of the Oka), the middle Volga (from the confluence of the Oka to that of the Kama), and the lower Volga (from the confluence of the Kama to the mouth of the Volga itself). The Volga is a small stream in its upper course through the Valdai Hills, becoming a true river only after the entrance of several of its tributaries. It then passes through a chain of small lakes, receives the waters of the Selizharovka River, and then flows southeast through a terraced trench. Past the town of Rzhev, the Volga turns northeastward, is swelled by the inflow of the Vazuza and Tvertsa rivers at Tver (formerly Kalinin), and then continues to flow northeastward through the Rybinsk Reservoir, into which other rivers, such as the Mologa and the Sheksna, flow. From the reservoir the river proceeds southeastward through a narrow, tree-lined valley between the Uglich Highlands to the south and the Danilov Upland and the Galich-Chukhlom Lowland to the north, continuing its course along the Unzha and the Balakhna lowlands to Nizhny Novgorod. (Within this stretch the Kostroma, Unzha, and Oka rivers enter the Volga.) On its east-southeastward course from the confluence of the Oka to Kazan, the Volga doubles in size, receiving waters from the Sura and Sviyaga on its right bank and the Kerzhenets and Vetluga on its left. At Kazan the river turns south into the reservoir at Samara, where it is joined from the left by its major tributary, the Kama. From this point the Volga becomes a mighty river, which, save for a sharp loop at the Samara Bend, flows southwestward along the foot of the Volga Hills in the direction of Volgograd. (Between the Samara Bend and Volgograd it receives only the relatively small left-bank tributaries of the Samara, Bolshoy Irgiz, and Yeruslan.) Above Volgograd the Volga's main distributary, the Akhtuba, branches southeastward to the Caspian Sea, running parallel to the main course of the river, which also turns southeast. A floodplain, characterized by numerous interconnecting channels and old cutoff courses and loops, lies between the Volga and the Akhtuba. Above Astrakhan a second distributary, the Buzan, marks the beginning of the Volga delta, which, with an area of more than 7,330 square miles, is the largest in Russia. Other main branches of the Volga delta are the Bakhtemir, Kamyzyak, Staraya (Old) Volga, and Bolda.

Hydrology

The Volga is fed by snow (which accounts for 60 percent of its annual discharge), underground water (30 percent), and rainwater (10 percent). The natural, untamed regime of the river was characterized by high spring floods ( polovodye). Before it was regulated by reservoirs, annual fluctuations in level ranged from 23 to 36 feet on the upper Volga, from 39 to 46 feet on the middle Volga, and from 10 to 49 feet on the lower Volga. At Tver the average annual rate of river flow is about 6,400 cubic feet (180 cubic metres) per second, at Yaroslavl 39,000 cubic feet per second, at Samara 272,500 cubic feet per second, and at the river's mouth 284,500 cubic feet per second. Below Volgograd the river loses about 2 percent of its waters in evaporation. More than 90 percent of annual runoff occurs above the confluence of the Kama.

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Volga River | Map, Definition, Economy, & Facts

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Volga River, Russian Volga, ancient (Greek) Ra or (Tatar) Itil or Etil, river of Europe, the continent's longest, and the principal waterway of western Russia and the historic cradle of the Russian state. Its basin, sprawling across about two-fifths of the European part of Russia, contains almost half of the entire population of the Russian Republic.

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volgograd, sararov, kazan, astrakhan,

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Russia

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Why Set Sail along Volga River

"Every country has its national river and Russia has the Volga - the longest river in Europe, the Queen of rivers - and I was one of the many who went to bow to her Majesty River Volga" - the famous French author Alexandre Dumas once wrote.

No Russian can hear the word "Volga" without picturing the river's wide, plangent waters, gracious ships, and hovering ivory gulls. Mother Volga's place in every Russian heart is assured and celebrated in the famous song of the Volga boatmen, "Mighty stream so deep and wide, Volga, Volga, our pride".

History & Facts

7000 years ago, the river's lower reaches were the cradle of Indo-European culture. Since then the Volga has played a central role in Russian history and folklore. The great bend in the river around Samara was the haunt of the colorful 17th century Kazak bandit Stenka Razin, while the lower plains were the scene of the Pughachev rebellion, romanticized in Pushkin's novel "The Captain's Daughter".

Today almost 50 million people live in the Volga basin, one-third of Russia's population, and many of Russia's greatest cities call its banks home. It remains a key transportation route, navigable with the help of giant locks and canals.

Volga River Length

Rising from a small spring in the Valdai Hills northwest of Moscow, the river flows southeast in a great arc over 3690 km before spilling into the Caspian Sea. Although industrialization has marred its traditional clarity, much of its length is covered in a matchless wild beauty. The Volga Delta is a must-see for anyone interested in wildlife. Its marshland climate has become a refuge for beavers, otters, and countless birds from herons to the great bald eagle. Another must for nature-lovers is the Samara Bend National Park, famous for its woodland hikes and stunning views of the Volga.

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Volga River, Russia - Russia Travel Guide

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"Every country has its national river and Russia has the Volga - the longest river in Europe, the Queen of rivers - and I was one of the many who went to bow to her Majesty River Volga" - the famous French author Alexandre Dumas once wrote.