Which countries does the Volga River flow through?

The mapped course of the Volga River lies entirely in Russia.

Where does the Volga River begin and end?

Source: Valdai Hills, Tver Oblast, Russia. Mouth: Caspian Sea (Volga Delta, Astrakhan).

How long is the Volga River?

About 3,530 km (2,193 miles), draining a basin of about 1,360,000 km².

What is the tallest dam on the Volga River?

Kuybyshev Dam (Zhiguli HPP) is the tallest dam recorded on the Volga River, at 52 m (171 ft), completed in 1957.

Which civilizations grew up along the Volga River?

Among them: Scythians, Khazar Khaganate, Volga Bulgaria, Golden Horde and Tsardom of Russia.

3,530 km Total LengthDrainage Basin: 1,360,000 km²

The Volga River (Itil)

Ancient Appellations: Rha (Ancient Greek) • Itil / Atil (Turkic / Khazar) • Idel (Tatar)

The longest river in Europe and historical spine of Eurasian nomadic interaction, connecting Baltic trade routes directly with the Caspian Sea and Baghdad.

Hydrological Influence & Ancient Statecraft

Flowing through European Russia into the landlocked Caspian Sea, the Volga has connected northern forests with southern steppes for millenia. In the 9th and 10th centuries, Viking Rus merchants navigated the Volga trade route carrying furs, amber, and swords southward, trading with Khazar Atil and the Abbasid Caliphate for Arabic silver dirhams. Later, it served as the core corridor for the Golden Horde capital of Sarai.

Agricultural Surplus & Flood Pulse Ecology

Extensive grain production in the black-earth (Chernozem) steppe belt along the lower river bends.

Hydrological Anatomy

✓The longest and largest river in Europe by discharge and drainage area
✓Enters the landlocked Caspian Sea rather than an open ocean
✓Massive 160-km wide delta with over 500 channels and unique lotus blossom fields
✓Historic Volga-Don portage linking Caspian trade with Black Sea shipping

About the Volga

The Volga (Russian: Волга, pronounced [ˈvolɡə] ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of 3,531 km (2,194 mi), and a catchment area of 1,360,000 km2 (530,000 sq mi). It is also Europe's largest river in terms of average discharge at delta – between 8,000 and 8,500 cubic metres (280,000 and 300,000 ft3) per second – and of drainage basin. It is widely regarded as the national river of Russia. The hypothetical old Russian state, the Rus' Khaganate, arose along the Volga c. 830 AD. Historically, the river served as an important meeting place of various Eurasian civilizations.

The river flows in Russia through forests, forest steppes and steppes. Five of the ten largest cities of Russia, including the nation's capital, Moscow, are located in the Volga's drainage basin. Because the Volga drains into the Caspian Sea, which is an endorheic body of water, the Volga does not naturally connect to any of the world's oceans.

Some of the largest reservoirs in the world are located along the Volga River.

Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Volga (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Volga in Depth

Description

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 225 m (738 ft) above sea level northwest of Moscow and about 320 km (200 mi) 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 28 m (92 ft) below sea level.

Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Volga (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Volga: Key Facts

Key facts about Volga
Average discharge	8,060 m³/s
Drainage system	Volga Basin
Tributaries	Vetluga, Kama, Oka, Sura, Bezdna, Unzha, Samara, Kazanka

Facts from Wikidata Q626 (CC0).

Dams of the Volga River

2 dams of the Volga River, ordered by structural height, with their reservoirs and generating capacity.

Dams of the Volga River
Dam	Height	Capacity	Completed
Kuybyshev Dam (Zhiguli HPP)	52 m	2,488 MW	1957
Volgograd Dam (Volzhskaya HPP)	44 m	2,671 MW	1961

Kuybyshev Dam (Zhiguli HPP)

Concrete Gravity / Earth-fill dam · Samara Oblast, Russia

Kuybyshev Dam (Zhiguli HPP) is a concrete gravity / earth-fill dam on the Volga in Samara Oblast, Russia, standing 52 m (171 ft) high and completed in 1957. It carries an installed hydroelectric capacity of 2,488 MW. The structure impounds Samara Reservoir, about 5,757 km² on the map.

The Zhiguli Hydroelectric Station or Zhigulyovskaya Hydroelectric Station (Russian: Жигулёвская ГЭС, romanized: Zhigulyovskaya GES), formerly known as Kuybyshev Hydroelectric Station (Kuybyshev GES) is a large dam and hydroelectric station on the Volga River, located near Zhigulyovsk and Tolyatti in Samara Oblast of Russia. It is the sixth stage of the Volga-Kama Cascade of dams, and the second largest of them by installed power generating capacity.

Adapted from Wikipedia: Zhiguli Hydroelectric Station (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Dam type: Concrete Gravity / Earth-fill
Structural height: 52 m (171 ft)
Installed capacity: 2,488 MW
Impounded river: Volga
Reservoir: Samara Reservoir
Location: Samara Oblast, Russia
Year completed: 1957
Height rank: #86 of 115 indexed
Output rank: #25 of 102 indexed
Coordinates: 53.4266°, 49.4793°

Notable: Impounds Europe's largest reservoir by surface area (6,450 km²).

Among the 115 dams indexed in YearMaps, Kuybyshev Dam (Zhiguli HPP) ranks #86 by structural height, behind Jinping-I Dam (305 m). By installed generating capacity it ranks #25, behind Three Gorges Dam (22,500 MW).

Impounded reservoir: Samara Reservoir (5,757 km², impounded 1955).

Nearest cities: Tolyatti (7 km), Novokuybishevsk (45 km), Samara (51 km).

View on the live map

More about Kuybyshev Dam (Zhiguli HPP)

History

The idea of hydroelectric station on the Volga near Samara Bend was proposed by Gleb Krzhizhanovsky in 1910. Ten years later K. V. Bogoyavlensky proposed a hydroelectric station near Perevoloki, utilizing naturally existing water level difference. The disrupted economic system of the time did not allow this project to be realized.

In the early 1930s the Volga near Samara Bend and Yaroslavl was surveyed, and some dam projects were proposed. In 1937 the project of a dam near the villages of Perevoloki and Krasnaya Glinka was approved. Forced labour from Kuybyshev Camp was used (up to 40,000 people). In the autumn of 1940, oil fields were found near the construction site, causing a halt in construction.

Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Zhiguli Hydroelectric Station (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Kuybyshev Dam (Zhiguli HPP): Key Facts

Key facts about Kuybyshev Dam (Zhiguli HPP)
Crest length	2,800 m

Facts from Wikidata Q1965688 (CC0).

Volgograd Dam (Volzhskaya HPP)

Concrete Gravity / Earth-fill dam · Volgograd, Russia

Volgograd Dam (Volzhskaya HPP) is a concrete gravity / earth-fill dam on the Volga in Volgograd, Russia, standing 44 m (144 ft) high and completed in 1961. It carries an installed hydroelectric capacity of 2,671 MW. The structure impounds Volgograd Reservoir.

The Volga Hydroelectric Station or Volga GES (Russian: Волжская ГЭС) also known as the 22nd Congress of the CPSU Stalingrad/Volgograd Hydroelectric Power Station (Russian: Сталинградская/Волгоградская ГЭС имени XXII съезда КПСС), is the largest hydroelectric station in Europe, and the last of the Volga-Kama Cascade of dams, immediately before the Volga River flows into the Caspian Sea. It was the largest powerstation in the world between 1960 and 1963. Today, it is operated by the partly government-owned electricity company RusHydro.

Adapted from Wikipedia: Volga Hydroelectric Station (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Dam type: Concrete Gravity / Earth-fill
Structural height: 44 m (144 ft)
Installed capacity: 2,671 MW
Impounded river: Volga
Reservoir: Volgograd Reservoir
Location: Volgograd, Russia
Year completed: 1961
Height rank: #98 of 115 indexed
Output rank: #23 of 102 indexed
Coordinates: 48.8261°, 44.6719°

Notable: Once the largest power station in Europe; forms the 3,117 km² Volgograd Reservoir on the Lower Volga.

Among the 115 dams indexed in YearMaps, Volgograd Dam (Volzhskaya HPP) ranks #98 by structural height, behind Jinping-I Dam (305 m). By installed generating capacity it ranks #23, behind Three Gorges Dam (22,500 MW).

Nearest cities: Volzhskiy (8 km), Volgograd (18 km), Akhtubinsk (126 km).

View on the live map

More about Volgograd Dam (Volzhskaya HPP)

History

Built as part of a massive postwar effort known as the Great Construction Projects of Communism, it was authorized by Joseph Stalin signing the Council of Ministers of the USSR order #3555 on 6 August 1950. The plan called for building a station north of the city of Stalingrad (modern Volgograd) with a minimum storage capacity of 1.7 million kWh.

Ten thousand youths from the Komsomol league participated in the construction, and the city of Volzhsky was formed on the left bank of the river to provide housing. Machinery was sent from all corners of the country; Moscow, Tashkent, Chelyabinsk and Kharkov, and forestry from Karelia. New electrical equipment came from Zaporozhye and Sverdlovsk. The turbines and generators were built in Leningrad.

Ecology

One of the most negative results that the dam caused was that it destroyed the traditional path of Caspian fish migration to their breeding grounds. The most affected became the beluga sturgeon, crucial to the Black Caviar industry. The fishery canal turned out to be inefficient, and from 1962 to 1967 the annual production rate was 15 percent of that before the dam.

The other major effect of the dam is that it formed one of the largest reservoirs, which amounts for a behemoth volume 31.5 cubic kilometres of water and stretches 540 km long, and up to 17 km wide with a massive 3,117 square kilometre surface area. As a result, numerous settlements and fertile lands were lost.

Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Volga Hydroelectric Station (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Volgograd Dam (Volzhskaya HPP): Key Facts

Key facts about Volgograd Dam (Volzhskaya HPP)
Officially opened	1958

Facts from Wikidata Q1743883 (CC0).

Volga River: Quick Answers

Which countries does the Volga River flow through?: The mapped course of the Volga River lies entirely in Russia.
Where does the Volga River begin and end?: Source: Valdai Hills, Tver Oblast, Russia. Mouth: Caspian Sea (Volga Delta, Astrakhan).
How long is the Volga River?: About 3,530 km (2,193 miles), draining a basin of about 1,360,000 km².
What is the tallest dam on the Volga River?: Kuybyshev Dam (Zhiguli HPP) is the tallest dam recorded on the Volga River, at 52 m (171 ft), completed in 1957.
Which civilizations grew up along the Volga River?: Among them: Scythians, Khazar Khaganate, Volga Bulgaria, Golden Horde and Tsardom of Russia.

Countries Along the River

The main stream from source to mouth, then any country only a tributary or delta branch reaches.

1Russia

Historic Cities on the Banks

Novgorod / TverYaroslavlNizhny NovgorodKazanSamaraVolgograd (Stalingrad)Astrakhan

Nearest River Dossiers

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Basin: 0.32M km²

The Danube River (Danuvius)2,850 km

Basin: 0.80M km²

Tigris & Euphrates Basin2,800 km

Basin: 0.88M km²

The Rhine River (Rhenus)1,230 km

Basin: 0.18M km²