Volga River

The river Volga, in Russian "Волга" is found in Russia. The Volga start off its life in the Valdia Hills, in the Tver Oblast and travels for three thousand six hundred and ninety two kilometres before finishing at the Caspian Sea. The Volga river is the largest river in Europe in terms of length.

The Volga is a very important river in Russia and has eleven of Russias largest cities in its basin, these cities include Astrakhan, Samara, Kazan, Ulyanovsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Yaroslavl and the infamous city of Stalingrad (now called Volgograd).

In history the Volga was very important and many of the large cities that are situated in its basin are there because ancient settlers stayed close to the banks of the Volga and flourished by using it for fishing, irrigation for farming and travel.

The Volga is still very important today with many of Europes largest reservoirs being supplied water from the Volga giving water to households, providing irrigation to farmland and also producing hydroelectric power.

The Volga is most famous not only to Russian but to the whole world for the Battle of Stalingrad of 1942 to 1943 where the Russians and Germans ended up in a stalemate during World War Two creating one of the most bloody battles in history. The Russians were having to transport fresh troops and bring back wounded civillians across the Volga in boats during the battle.