Lenin Volga–Don Shipping Canal (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: Волго-Донской судоходный канал имени, ''В. И. Ленина, Volga-Donskoy sudokhodniy kanal imeni V. I. Lenina'', abbreviated ВДСК, ''VDSK'') is a ship

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It connects the

Volga The Volga (, ) 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 , and a catchment ...

and the Don at their closest points. Opened in 1952, its length is , of which is through

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

s and

reservoirs A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of water, interrup ...

. The canal forms a part of the Unified Deep Water System of European Russia. Together with the lower Volga and the lower Don, the canal provides the shortest navigable connection between the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

and the world's oceans via the

Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov is an inland Continental shelf#Shelf seas, shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, and sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded by Ru ...

, the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

, and the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

History

There has been a trade and military route between the

and Don rivers since early human history. The presence of the fortified settlement Tanais in the Don River delta since the time of the

Bosporan Kingdom The Bosporan Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus (; ), was an ancient Greco-Scythians, Scythian state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, centered in the present-day ...

, 438 BC– 370 AD, strongly suggests the route was sufficiently notable to be fortified for over two thousand years. The Sarkel fortress on the

left bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrain alongsid ...

of the lower Don was the main control of this

Volga trade route In the Middle Ages, the Volga trade route connected Northern Europe and Northwestern Russia with the Caspian Sea and the Sasanian Empire, via the Volga River. The Rus' (people), Rus used this route to trade with Muslim history#The Umayyad Calipha ...

. The Don–Volga portage got its name from its trade importance 1000 years ago. There were several attempts to build a canal to replace the portage after 1500, first by the Ottomans during the 16th century, then by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

in the 17th and 18th centuries, and finally, more successfully, by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in the 20th. In 1569, the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

attempted to connect the Volga and Don rivers via a canal. The Ottomans wanted to create a maritime link to

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

(especially the cities of

Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...

Khwarazm Khwarazm (; ; , ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the east by the Kyzylkum Desert, on the south by th ...

and

Samarkand Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central As ...

) to facilitate trade. Together with a proposed

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

, the Volga–Don canal would also allow Central Asian Muslims to perform

pilgrimage to Mecca Hajj (; ; also spelled Hadj, Haj or Haji) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for capable Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetim ...

. According to most historians, the Ottomans managed to dig one-third of the canal before work was abandoned because of adverse weather. Other historians argue that the Ottomans merely leveled the ground so they could haul ships between the two rivers. In the end, the Ottomans retreated from the area and Russia promised to respect trade and pilgrimage routes to Central Asia.

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

ordered the earliest Russian attempts to connect the Volga and Don rivers. After capturing

Azov Azov (, ), previously known as Azak ( Turki/ Kypchak: ), is a town in Rostov Oblast, Russia, situated on the Don River just from the Sea of Azov, which derives its name from the town. The population is History Early settlements in the vici ...

in 1696, he decided to build a canal — later named — on the Ilovlya River (a left tributary of the Don) and the Kamyshinka river (right tributary of the Volga). It was much shorter than the modern canal, connecting a gap of just 4 kilometers (2.5 mi), but was abandoned in 1701 because of a lack of resources and other problems. He initiated a second attempt, the so-called Ivanovsky Canal between

Yepifan Yepifan () is an urban locality (a work settlement) in Kimovsky District of Tula Oblast, Russia, located on the left bank of the Don River about southeast of Kimovsk and southeast of Tula, in the proximity of the Kulikovo Field. Populati ...

and Ivan-Ozero, under the administration of

Knyaz A , also , ''knjaz'' or (), is a historical Slavs, Slavic title, used both as a royal and noble title in different times. It is usually translated into English language, English as 'prince', 'king' or 'duke', depending on specific historical c ...

Matvey Gagarin. However it was too shallow, as it linked the upper Don and the upper Volga via the tributaries

Oka River The Oka (, ; ) is a river in central Russia, the largest right tributary of the Volga. It flows through the regions of Oryol, Tula, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod and is navigable over a large part of its total length, ...

, Upa River, and Shat River in present-day

Tula Oblast Tula Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an Oblasts of Russia, oblast) of Russia. It is geographically located in European Russia and is administratively part of the Central Federal District, covering an area of . It has a ...

. Between 1702 and 1707, twenty-four

lock Lock(s) or Locked may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainme ...

s were constructed, and in 1707, about 300 ships passed through with difficulty. In 1709 owing to financial difficulties from the

Great Northern War In the Great Northern War (1700–1721) a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern Europe, Northern, Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the ant ...

, the project was halted. In 1711 Russia left Azov under the terms of the

Treaty of the Pruth The Treaty of the Pruth was signed on the banks of the river Prut between the Ottoman Empire and the Tsardom of Russia on 23 July 1711 ending the Russo-Turkish War of 1710–1713 with the assistance of Peter Shafirov. The treaty was a politic ...

, and Peter the Great lost all interest in the canal, which was abandoned and fell into ruin. Over time, other projects for connecting the two rivers were proposed, but none were attempted. However, the horse-drawn Dubovsko-Kachalinsky railway and the Volga–Don railway — now part of the South Eastern Railway — were built in 1846 and 1852, respectively, to link the Volga and the Don at the shortest distance. They were 68km and 73km long respectively. The construction of today's Volga–Don Canal, designed by Sergey Zhuk's Hydroproject Institute, began prior to the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, which interrupted the process. In late 1948, the Volga–Don Canal was among the first projects to partake in the reform of the Soviet

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

system, notably alongside

Dalstroy Dalstroy (, ), also known as Far North Construction Trust, was an organization set up in 1931 in order to manage road construction and the mining of gold in the Russian Far East, including the Magadan Region, Chukotka, parts of Yakutia and parts ...

. After these projects introduced a wage for prisoners and other measures to stimulate

productivity Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proce ...

, they managed to become fully self-financing. Construction works continued from 1948 to 1952 and the canal was opened on 1 June 1952. The canal and its facilities were built by about 900,000 workers including some 100,000 German POWs and 100,000

gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

prisoners. A day spent at the construction yard was counted as three days in prison, which spurred the prisoners to work. Several convicts were even awarded the

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

upon their release. Upon completion, the Volga–Don Canal became an important link in the Unified Deep Water Transportation System of the

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an part of the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Operation

The canal begins at the Volga's Sarepta backwater (, the location of Lock No. 1 and the gateway arch), south of

Volgograd Volgograd,. formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area of , with a population ...

. It ends in the Tsimlyansk Reservoir of the Don at the town of

Kalach-na-Donu Kalach-na-Donu (), or Kalach-on-the-Don, is a town and the administrative center of Kalachyovsky District in Volgograd Oblast, Russia, located on the Don River, west of Volgograd, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: The tow ...

. The canal's highest elevation is the Varverovskoye (Barbarian) Reservoir between locks 9 and 10, above the Volga and above the Don river. It uses nine single-chamber

canal lock A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a chamber in a permanently fixed position i ...

s on the Volga slope to raise and lower ships , and four canal locks of the same kind on the Don slope that raise/lower ships from river height. The locks are smaller overall than those on the Volga River, but can handle ships of up to 5,000

tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

cargo capacity. The smallest locks are long, wide, and deep. The maximum allowed vessel is length, beam, and draught (the ''Volgo–Don Max Class''). The canal is filled from the Don, with three powerful

pumping station Pumping stations, also called pumphouses, are public utility buildings containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are critical in a variety of infrastructure systems, such as water supply, Land reclamation, ...

s to maintain water levels. Water is also taken from the canal for irrigation. Cargo transported from the Don region to the Volga includes coal from Donetsk in Ukraine, minerals, building materials, and grain. From the Volga to the Don, cargo includes

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

pyrite The mineral pyrite ( ), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue ...

s, and petroleum products (carried mostly by

Volgotanker Volgotanker (, '"Volgotanker" Volga Oil Tanker Shipping Joint Stock Company, JSC') is a Russian company engaged in the business of tank storage and transporting oil and oil products by Oil tanker, tanker along the inland waterways and coastal sea ...

boats). Tourist cruisers travel in both directions. Krasnoameyskiy_district_of_Volgograd_002

The canal and the Tsimlyansky water-engineering system (whose chief architect was Leonid Polyakov), form part of an architectural ensemble dedicated to the battles for Tsaritsyn during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

and for

Stalingrad Volgograd,. geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area o ...

during the

German-Soviet War The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II ...

. The Russian classical composer

Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''. , group=n ( – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who l ...

wrote the

tone poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement (music), movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. T ...

''The Meeting of the Volga and the Don'' to celebrate its completion. According to the Maritime Board (''Morskaya Kollegiya'') of the Russian government, 10.9 million tonnes of cargo were carried over the Volga–Don Canal in 2004. An alternative source claims 8.05 million tonnes of cargo was transported through the canal in 2006. Most of the cargo was moved from the east to the west: 7.20 million tonnes, and only 0.85 million tonnes the other way. Just over half of all cargo was oil or oil products (4.14 million tonnes), predominantly shipped from the Caspian region. It was reported in 2007 that in the first 55 years of the canal's operations 450,000 vessels had passed through carrying 336 million tonnes of cargo. Recent cargo volume stood at 12 million tonnes per year. In 2016, the core of Belarusian nuclear power plant

VVER-1200 The water-water energetic reactor (WWER), or VVER (from ) is a series of pressurized water reactor designs originally developed in the Soviet Union, and now Russia, by OKB Gidropress. The idea of such a reactor was proposed at the Kurchatov Insti ...

, which weighed 330 tonnes, was 13 meters high, and 4.5 meters in diameter, was transferred to its destination by exploiting Tsimlyansk Reservoir, the Volga–Don Canal, the

Volga–Baltic Waterway The Volga–Baltic Waterway (), formerly known as the Mariinsk Canal System (), is a series of canals and rivers in Russia which link the Volga with the Baltic Sea via the Neva. Like the Volga–Don Canal, it is part of the Unified Deep Water ...

, and two other connections.

Stamp gallery

File:Stamp of USSR Волго-Донской канал. Шлюз 13. 1723.jpg, USSR stamp, 1953: Lock No. 13 File:Volgo-Don-Stalingrad.jpg, USSR stamp, 1951 File:USSR stamp 1952 CPA 1697.jpg, USSR stamp, 1952 File:Stamp Russia 2008 Volgogradskay oblast.jpg, Russia Stamp 2008 File:The Soviet Union 1953 CPA 1721-1726 stamps (Lenin Volga-Don Shipping Canal) small resolution.jpg, USSR collection File:TeploxodStalina1953.jpg, Illustration of a

on the Volga–Don Canal (1953) () File:Tsimlanskaya GES-1953.jpg, Tsimlyansk hydroelectric power plant (1953)

Future options

In the 1980s, construction started on a second canal between the rivers. The new canal, dubbed Volga–Don 2 (; ) was to have started from the township of Yerzovka on the

Volgograd Reservoir The Volgograd Reservoir () is a reservoir on the Volga river in the Russian oblasts of Volgograd and Saratov. The reservoir's water level is maintained by the dam of the Volga Hydroelectric Station, built from 1958 to 1961. Named after the cit ...

, north (upstream) of the Volga Dam, as opposed to the existing Volga–Don Canal that starts south (downstream) of the dam.Петр ГОДЛЕВСКИЙ
«ВОЛГО-ДОН 2» — ШАГ В БУДУЩЕЕ
. «Торговая газета», номер 4-5(434—435) от 23.01.2008 This would have reduced the number of locks traversed by ships coming from the Volgograd Reservoir, or from other Volga or

Kama ''Kama'' (Sanskrit: काम, ) is the concept of pleasure, enjoyment and desire in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. It can also refer to "desire, wish, longing" in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh literature.Monier Williamsका� ...

ports farther north, on their way to the Don. The project was abruptly cancelled to cut expenditure on 1 August 1990, by which time more than 40 percent of its funds had already been spent. Since then most of the stone and metal in the abandoned canal and locks has been looted. As of 2007–2008, Russian authorities were considering two options for increasing the

throughput Network throughput (or just throughput, when in context) refers to the rate of message delivery over a communication channel in a communication network, such as Ethernet or packet radio. The data that these messages contain may be delivered ov ...

of navigable waterways between the Caspian basin and the Black Sea. One option, which reuses the name "Volga–Don 2", is to build a second parallel channel ("second thread") of the Volga–Don Canal, equipped with larger locks long. This approach would have allowed for an increase in the canal's annual cargo throughput from 16.5 million tonnes to 30 million tonnes. The other option—which had greater support from

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

, which would be either canal's major customer—was to build the so-called

Eurasia Canal The Eurasia Canal (, ''Kanal "Evraziya"'') is a proposed 700-kilometre-long (430 mi) canal connecting the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea along the Kuma-Manych Depression. Currently, a chain of lakes and reservoirs and the shallow irrigation K ...

along a more southerly route in the

Kuma–Manych Depression The Kuma–Manych depression () is a depression (geology), geological depression in southwestern Russia that separates the East European Plain, Russian Plain to the north from North Caucasus, Ciscaucasia to the south. It is named after the Kuma ...

, some of which is the much-shallower but existing Manych Ship Canal. The southern route would require less earthwork than the first option and would provide a speedier connection between the Caspian and the Sea of Azov. It would also require fewer locks than the Volga–Don, as elevation differences to be engineered in the Kuma–Manych Depression are smaller.

References

External links