The Volga region is an economic region and its significance for the country. Middle and lower Volga

The Volga economic region is one of 12 similar regions of Russia. It is one of the largest regions of the country, which is part of the Center-Ural-Volga region axis.

Composition of the district

The Volga region includes 8 subjects of the Central part of the state:

2 republics – Tatarstan and Kalmykia;
6 regions - Penza, Saratov, Samara, Ulyanovsk, Volgograd and Astrakhan.

Rice. 1 Volga region. Map

Location

If you follow the map, then the location of the Volga economic region is as follows:

Middle Volga ;
Lower Volga region ;
Sura river basin (Penza region);
Prikamye (most of Tatarstan).

Its area is about 537.4 thousand km². the central geographical (and economic) axis is the Volga River.

Rice. 2 Volga

The area is bordered by:

Population of the Volga economic region

The population of the district is 17 million people, that is, almost 12% of the total population of the Russian Federation (with a population density of 1 person per 25 square meters). 74% of the population lives in cities, so the share of urbanization is significant. Ethnic composition of the population:

Russians ;
Tatars ;
Kalmyks ;
small ethnos s: Chuvash, Mordovians, Mari and Kazakhs (the latter are most in the Astrakhan region).

Specialization of the Volga region

The Volga region is characterized by a developed industrial and agricultural sector. Industrial specialization:

oil production and refining (Samara region and Tatarstan, Caspian shelves);
gas production (shelves of the Caspian Sea and the Astrakhan region; according to world statistics, the Astrakhan region contains 6% of the world's gas reserves);
chemical industry (extraction and processing of shale, bromine, iodine, manganese salt, native sulfur, glass sand, gypsum, chalk);
salt mining and salt processing (the lakes of the Caspian lowland contain more than 2 million tons of natural salt, which is 80% of all Russia's reserves);
mechanical engineering (in particular, the automotive industry: VAZ in Tolyatti, KAMAZ in Naberezhnye Chelny, UAZ in Ulyanovsk, a trolleybus plant in the city of Engels; shipbuilding: in Volgograd and Astrakhan; aircraft building: Kazan, Penza, Samara).

Figure 3. VAZ in Togliatti

In industrial terms, the Volga region is divided into two large areas (industrial zones):

Volga-Kama (Tatarstan, Samara and Ulyanovsk regions) - center in Kazan;
Nizhnevolzhskaya (Kalmykia, Astrakhan, Penza, Saratov and Volgograd regions) - the center is in Volgograd.

According to statistics, the Volga region ranks fourth in Russia in terms of industrial output, second in oil production and processing, and second in engineering. As for oil refining, it is in the Volga region that such world giants as LUKoil, YUKOS and Gazprom, which develop the northern shelves of the Caspian Sea, have concentrated their main capacities.

Rice. 4 Oil production in the Caspian Sea

Agricultural specialization:

cultivation of oil crops;
growing grain crops;
cultivation of vegetable and gourd crops;
animal husbandry (dairy cattle breeding, sheep breeding, pig breeding);
fishing industry (Volgograd and Astrakhan).

A special role in the agricultural life of the region is played by the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain with powerful river "pumps" that create favorable conditions for the development of all types of agriculture.

The main economic center of the region is the city of Samara.

What have we learned?

The characteristics of the Volga economic region are quite complex. This is due to the fact that it is a link between the center of Russia and its Asian part. The region includes such large and rapidly developing entities as the Republic of Tatarstan (the titular nation in which are the Tatars). The area is developed both industrially and agriculturally. The main transport, economic and geographical axis is the Volga River.

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If you carefully consider the "Volga tree" - a drawing of the network of tributaries of the Volga - it will become clear: the "root system" is the delta of the great river with numerous branches and channels; from the delta rises the "trunk" - the Volga in the lower reaches; to the north, separate "branches" appear - semi-dry (the Yeruslan and Bolshoi Irgiz rivers) or completely fallen away (Big and Maly Uzen). And only somewhere from the upper reaches of the Tereshka River begins a dense interlacing of blue "shoots" - rivers and rivulets. On them, like fruits, cities and villages are "hung". The sprawling "crown" falls on the Middle Volga region - the place where West and East, North and South converge.

Cheboksary, Kazan, Ulyanovsk, Samara - the cities that the Volga scattered here along the stream. None of them became the center of the region. The river did not want to give up the championship to anyone, but it itself is rather not the center, but the core, or rather, the seam, pulling together two "flaps" - the right-bank Volga region and the left-bank Trans-Volga region.

VOLGA

The main thing that determines the landscapes of the Volga region is the Volga Upland, elongated in the meridional direction, one of the largest in the East European Plain.

The northwestern and western slopes of the hill, which face the winds from the far Atlantic, are best moistened. Here falls on average from 400 to 500 mm of precipitation per year; showers are very frequent, capable of "fulfilling" the monthly norm. In general, the conditions of the Volga region are favorable for vegetation. This is one of the most forested areas of the Middle Volga region. The two main forest areas are located in Zasu-rye and Surskaya Shishka.

Life in the Volga region is mostly concentrated on the "mountains" - flat, even and high interfluves. The "upland" part of the Volga region gradually passes into the "foothills" - the valleys of small and medium-sized rivers.

In these areas, there are many large villages and towns located close to each other. Of the cities, the ancient Alatyr on the left bank of the Sura and Buinsk are noteworthy.

As a rule, small towns arose on the site of old factory settlements. They are mainly located within the Surskaya Shishka: Kuznetsk, Nikolsk, Barysh, Inza.

DOWN THE VOLGA

The Volga within the Middle Volga region is a full-flowing river, reaching its greatest power. The middle course is usually measured from the mouth of the Sura River, which is now flooded by the Cheboksary reservoir. Once in this place there was a fortress Vasilsursk, built before the fall of the Kazan Khanate. The northwestern spurs of the Volga Upland approach here. And in the north, beyond the Volga, there are low-lying plains formed by powerful streams during the melting of the glacier 20-10 thousand years ago.

On these plains, in dense forests, for a long time people have lived, together with the Mordovians, who are part of the group of "Volga Finns" - the Mari, or, as they were called before, the Cheremis. When the Volga was still an insurmountable barrier, they settled in the open spaces along its banks.

Let's mentally make a trip down the Volga, stopping in the largest cities in the region.

Cheboksary. Travelers sailing down the Volga in the 19th century always fixed their eyes on a small town nestled on a steep, low bank. Cheboksary is an ancient city and in the past very rich, famous for the abundance of churches and the ringing of bells. "Churches in half with houses," said the Ukrainian poet Taras Grigoryevich Shevchenko about him. 19th century guidebooks the city was called "the capital of the Chuvash kingdom". Now it is the capital of the Chuvash Republic - the only one in the Volga region, where the indigenous population (Chuvash) is the absolute majority.

According to folk legend, in ancient times there was a village on the site of the city. The Chuvash Shupakshar lived in it, who gave his name to the river that flowed nearby. In Russian pronunciation, the river, and then the city, began to be called Cheboksary. It is based on the Chuvash word "shor" - "swamp, water, mud". During the excavations, not only wooden residential buildings were found, but also tiles, indicating the existence of brick buildings. The urban character of the ancient settlement is also confirmed by the remains of various handicraft industries: blacksmithing, locksmithing, jewelry, leather, shoemaking, and pottery.

The first historically reliable references to Cheboksary in Russian sources date back to 1371. They are associated with a trip to the Horde of Prince Dmitry Donskoy. In 1555, in order to pacify the local peoples, the Russian government laid a fortress on the right bank of the Volga.

In 1781 Cheboksary became a county town. By this time there were more than a thousand merchants and artisans, there was a customs office. However, Cheboksary gradually turned into an ordinary province, unable to withstand competition with its neighbors - Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan. In 1897, not a single plant or factory remained in the city, not a single fair was held.

In Soviet times, having become the capital of the Chuvash Republic, Cheboksary gained a second youth. The city has grown, built up with modern buildings, adorned with monuments (including the hero of the civil war Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev, who comes from the village of Budaiki that has entered the city limits). There are many enterprises in modern Cheboksary, the leading of which are machine-building and textile. The population of the capital of Chuvashia is 444 thousand people.

The first to mention the Chuvash as a separate people was Prince Andrei Kurbsky in 1552. Some scholars believe that the Chuvash language, which stands alone in the Turkic group, is a direct descendant of the Volga Bulgar language. There is no doubt that among the ancestors of the Chuvash there were local Finnish tribes; from them come the current Mari.

In terms of culture and traditions, the Chuvash differ little from their neighbors. In their customs, folklore, beliefs, clothing and way of life, stable ties with the Finno-Ugric peoples can be traced; their language is related to Tatar, and with the Russians, the Chuvash are united by ways of doing business. They were plowmen from ancient times, already in the Middle Ages they used iron plows adopted from the Bulgars. Travelers in the 19th century noted that the Chuvash are hardworking; they were considered good, prosperous owners, and there were almost no beggars among them.

In the schools created by the missionaries, there was an intensive teaching of the Russian language, which made it possible for many talented Chuvash people to continue their education. At the same time, the missionaries persistently converted the Chuvash to Orthodoxy, and this led to a rapid mass Russification and the ousting of the Chuvash language from everyday life.

Kazan. The name of the city of Kazan is interpreted in different ways. Often it is derived from the combination of the words "kaz-gan", which in Tatar means "deep", "dug out". But it is more likely that initially Kazan was called the river, the current Kazanka.

In the XII-XIII centuries. on the site of the city there was a fortress, which, apparently, was erected at the time of the heyday of Volga Bulgaria. However, for this state, such fortifications, consisting of ditches, ramparts and, most importantly, a white stone wall, are unique. Many features of the Kazan Fortress indicate that South Russian craftsmen took part in its construction.

The foundation of the Kazan Khanate is usually attributed to 1445. The disgraced Sarai Khan Olu-Muhammad, who tried to create an independent state in the Crimea a little earlier, took Kazan by storm and made it the capital of a new state on the Middle Volga. Kazan was a mixture of peoples, customs, religions. This was facilitated by the wealth of the khanate, its military power, and a convenient geographical position, which made it possible to conduct lively trade with the whole world. Traditions, although based on the Bulgar culture, have already absorbed everything new, foreign.

October 2, 1552 Kazan fell under the onslaught of Russian troops. The region turned into a province of the Muscovite state, but the city still remained the gate of the East. It became not only the economic, political, cultural center of the Middle Volga region, but also the main outpost in Russia's trade and diplomatic relations with Central Asia and Siberia.

At the beginning of the XIX century. Kazan was a typical left-bank Volga city. Its population was Russian (only 15% of the Tatars). This is not surprising: after joining Russia, the Tatars were evicted from the city three times. And every time the growing Kazan reached the new Tatar settlement and included it within its limits.

The Kazan Kremlin supposedly began to be built in 1555 from the Spasskaya Tower, named after the Church of the Image of the Savior, which was located in it. The interior arrangement of the Kremlin is typical of all such structures in Russia.

The tower of Khanshi Syuyumbeki rises above the whole ensemble; due to its antiquity, beauty, originality of style and abundance of legends associated with it, this is one of the main attractions of Kazan.

After the October Revolution, the city was rebuilt in accordance with the trends of the times. Not only did most of the churches and mosques disappear, but also some of the names of the places. Today Kazan - with a population of more than a million people - is the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan. Many branches of modern industry are developed in the city, primarily metalworking, mechanical engineering, petrochemistry, and light industry. The city is rightfully proud of its cultural and scientific traditions, in particular the famous Kazan University.

Ulyanovsk (Simbirsk). Downstream of the Volga, the right bank gradually rises. The mountains Lobach, Dolgie Polyany and then the city of Ulyanovsk (681 thousand inhabitants) appear. Only this city in the Middle Volga region is located on both banks of the river. No one else dared to step over the Volga, especially through the many kilometers long Kuibyshev reservoir, which was filled in 1957 with water.

The first mention of Simbirsk, in all likelihood, refers to 1551. Once there were two villages here - Tatar and Mordovian. The lands in the district belonged to the Tatar murza Sinbir. Hence the name of the area. The Russian fortress, founded in 1648, at first was also called Sinbirsk, and then turned into Simbirsk.

The chosen place was very successful: from the side of the Volga, from a swampy and difficult floodplain, a high bank rose - a ravine. From the north, deep ravines passed, along the edge of which earthen ramparts were additionally poured. From the west, the town was protected by the Sviyaga River. At the very top of the Yar - the Crown - a Kremlin was built. The Simbirsk fortress played an exceptionally important role in the development of the region. It was erected to protect against the steppes, and also "so that all sorts of military people and thieves-Cossacks would not penetrate Russia by deceit and do no harm," as stated in the prescription of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. In 1648-1654. Simbirsko-Karsunskaya notch line (line of defensive structures) was drawn from the city.

However, the convenient position of the fortress turned out to be a loss for Simbirsk in trade and economic terms: the development of the city was hindered by inaccessibility from the Volga, remoteness from the main grain regions. As a result, Simbirsk could not compete with such centers of industry and trade as Kazan and Samara.

Nevertheless, he happened to become a city of big names. Philosopher Vasily Vasilyevich Rozanov considered the city to be his spiritual homeland. A native of Simbirsk was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov-Lenin, after whom the city was named Ulyanovsk.

The "noble city" was located on the Crown. In this part there were cathedrals, provincial and city institutions, educational institutions, a theater, public gardens and boulevards, and the best hotels. The slopes of the mountain, descending to the Sviyaga and the Volga, were occupied by petty-bourgeois settlements.

In Soviet times, the city began to grow in the lowlands. The Zasviyazhye region is spread over the floodplain and along the low terraces of the Sviyaga.

Samara. After the Falcon Mountains, the Volga valley expands sharply, its banks become lower. Samara (over 1 million inhabitants) begins on the left bank almost directly from the water.

Samara is one of the oldest Russian cities in the Middle Volga region, founded in 1588. There is a legend that back in the 14th century there was a settlement of Russian hermits in these places. They were allegedly visited by the famous statesman Metropolitan Alexy on one of his trips to the Golden Horde and predicted the emergence of a large city.

Unlike other Middle Volga cities, the Samara fortress stood in close proximity to the steppe. The border position was the main reason for the creation of customs here. This strengthened the role of the city after the creation of a ferry across the Volga. In 1688 Samara received the title of a city. Of considerable importance in the transformation of a nondescript provincial town into one of the most important shopping centers in Russia was the railway through Samara, which connected the central regions of Russia with the southeastern ones.

In Soviet times, Samara, in 1935 renamed in honor of one of the leaders of the state in Kuibyshev, became the largest industrial center of the Volga region. The manufacturing giants acted as magnets around which urban areas were formed. The center remained of the old buildings; of the enterprises here, only a brewery (where the famous Zhigulevskoye brand of beer came from) and the Rossiya confectionery factory.

In the northern part of Samara, there is a plant for automotive and tractor electrical equipment (KATEK) - the brainchild of the first five-year plan (1928-1933). Oktyabrsky district of the city grew up around the plant on the high bank of the Volga. In another district, Krasnoglinsky, construction materials are produced from local raw materials. The eastern districts of the city were formed during the war years, when many industrial enterprises, including metallurgical and aviation ones, were evacuated from the western regions of the country to Kuibyshev. The southern quarters of Samara are united around the oil refinery.

ZAVOLZHIE

Washing away the steep right bank and moving west, the Volga leaves behind a low-lying plain in the east - the so-called Low Trans-Volga. Before the arrival of the Russians, it was one of the most densely populated regions of both Volga Bulgaria and the Kazan Khanate. The Russians were moving here from the west. And today, Russian villages are located along the Volga, and Tatar ones are at a distance from it. In addition, there are many Chuvash and Mordovian villages in the east of the Low Trans-Volga region. They were founded by settlers from the Volga region, who fled from serfdom. The Low Trans-Volga region is a pronounced agricultural province. The villages, evenly distributed throughout the territory, grow in breadth, occasionally stretching along small valleys, highways and railways. One of the large settlements gave rise to the only city here, Melekess, later renamed Dimitrov-grad. Its industry is mainly focused on the processing of agricultural raw materials. However, the city is also known as one of the centers of nuclear research.

The Middle Volga region is one of those few regions of the Russian Federation in which the positive aspects of the market reforms of the last decade of the 20th century were clearly manifested. In the new economic conditions, the largest enterprises managed to confirm their competitiveness, and the population began to actively and quite successfully look for points of application for the initiative. Perhaps this is due to the relative youth of the region, which was settled relatively late and has not lost its dynamism.

and St. Petersburg). The Kazan Kremlin is included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

“Sarafan”, “brake”, “attic”, “closet”, “pencil”, “lighthouse”, “hard labor”, “money” - these words came into Russian from Tatar.

In modern Tatarstan, there are two equal languages - Russian and Tatar. Until 1927, the Tatar script was built on the basis of the Arabic script, from 1927 to 1939 it developed on the basis of the Latin script, and from 1939 to the present, on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet. There are three dialects in the Tatar language - western (Mishar), middle (Kazan-Tatar) and eastern (Siberian-Tatar).

According to the results of the 1897 census, the Tatars turned out to be one of the most literate peoples of the Russian Empire - this is due to the ability to read and write in their native language and, often, in Arabic or Turkish.

The modern cities of Tatarstan - Kazan and Yelabuga were founded as border fortresses.

Catherine II presented Sviyazhsk with her gilded carriage. After some time, the carriage was taken for restoration, but never returned.

In 1926, Tatarstan had such a long and snowy winter that the snow began to melt only in May, the Volga overflowed its banks, and a flood began. It went on for almost a month. Kazan turned into Venice, people moved around the city exclusively by boat.

According to the Constitution of the Republic of Tatarstan, each of its residents has the right to obtain a passport of a Russian citizen with an insert in the Tatar language and with the image of the state emblem of Tatarstan.

In the 1930s, some churches and monasteries in Sviyazhsk were destroyed. One of them was used as a branch of the Gulag, and after the death of I.V. Stalin, his buildings became a psychiatric hospital.

Kazan holds the record for the number of victories won in team sport competitions.

Karboz (Kar - snow, boz - ice) - this is the name of the well-known berry - Watermelon (distorted name). The Tatars were the first to bring watermelon to the territory of present-day Russia in the 13th-14th centuries and began to grow this delicious berry.

In 1552, Kazan was taken by storm after a seven-week siege by the troops of Ivan the Terrible. In the second half of the 16th century, Kazan turned into a Russian city.

Volga Bulgaria was the first in Europe to start smelting cast iron.

The brightest Tatar holiday - Sabantuy - the holiday of the plow, which is celebrated in June. The most spectacular events at this celebration are the national wrestling (koresh) and horse racing.

QIP (ICQ) was created by Tatar Ilkham Zyulkorneev from Kazan in 2004.

Kazan bears the title "Third Capital of Russia". This title is not named, but official. Kazan received this title for its cultural heritage and not only.

The total damage caused to the Republic of Tatarstan as a result of the harmful effects of the waters of the Nizhnekamsk reservoir (washout and destruction of the banks) is more than 400 million rubles a year.

In the Raifa section of the Volga-Kama Reserve, the age of trees in pine forests can reach 210 years, while their height is 38 meters and their width is 76 cm.

Gabdulla Tukay is a Tatar folk poet, literary critic, publicist and translator. For Tatar
he is as important to the people as Pushkin is to the Russian people.

The Kazan Gunpowder Factory sent more than a million charges for Katyushas to the front.

In penitential collections of the 14th century, a kiss with an open mouth and the use of tongue was called Tatar. And only in the XVIII century such kisses began to be called already French.

In the waters of the Kuibyshev and Nizhnekamsk reservoirs, on the territory of the Republic of Tatarstan, there are 124 sunken and abandoned ships.

Interesting facts about the Ulyanovsk region

The Ulyanovsk region got its name in 1943, in honor of its most famous resident - Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov - Lenin.

On the runway of the airport named after N.M. Karamzin (former "Ulyanovsk-Central") in the summer of 1973, an episode was filmed from Eldar Ryazanov's comedy "The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia" - an airplane landing on a highway.

Ulyanovsk is one of three cities in the world where a huge musical instrument is installed on the streets - a 7-meter wind organ.

One of the largest aircraft manufacturing plants in Europe, Aviastar, is located in Ulyanovsk. It produces AN-124 Ruslan cargo-lifting aircraft and TU-204 passenger aircraft. The Ulyanovsk region ranks first in Russia in the production of civil aircraft and fifth in the production of cars.

The "Lower Terrace" is the only place in Russia that is below the water level of a nearby reservoir. At one time, this area was supposed to fall into the flood zone of the future Kuibyshev reservoir on the Volga. Therefore, a dam was built and now a whole area with 40,000 inhabitants lives 6-10 meters below the Volga level.

In the Northern Hemisphere, due to the tilt of the Earth's axis, all rivers wash away their right bank. The Volga flows from north to south, and the Sviyaga flows from south to north, therefore, their banks are washed away to meet each other. Rivers converge at a rate of 4 mm per year. The minimum distance between the rivers is now 2 km, so they will meet only after millions of years.

Ulyanovsk is the most multinational city in the Volga region. Representatives of more than 80 nationalities live here.

In the basement of the Ulyanovsk Drama Theatre, under the small stage, from October 1 to October 25, 1774, Emelyan Pugachev was imprisoned.

Ulyanovsk is the city of seven winds. Despite the high development of industry, the air in the city is always clean.

In Sviyazhsky Bay, 165 species and varieties of algae feel great, including representatives of all major groups of freshwater algae.

In Ulyanovsk there is an unusual monument - "Oblomov's Sofa".

The Kuibyshev reservoir, according to many scientists, brought more trouble and loss than good. The water quality in the Volga, with the advent of the reservoir, has deteriorated and continues to deteriorate, the banks of the mighty Russian river have been subjected to erosion and landslides, the balance of natural systems has been disturbed, fish are dying, sliding banks are destroying buildings and residential buildings. After the creation of the reservoir, the Volga, in this area, began to freeze almost a week earlier and freed from ice later. The growth conditions of coastal and aquatic vegetation, habitats of birds and fish have changed. Today, at the bottom of the Kuibyshev reservoir, a huge amount of bottom sediments containing heavy metals and oil products has accumulated, which poses a serious threat to the Volga ecology.

Ulyanovsk is a port of five seas: along the Volga and canals you can get to the Caspian, Azov, Black, Baltic and White seas.

The most remote place in the region is located on the border with Chuvashia, 10 kilometers northwest of Bolshoy Kuvay. Bears constantly come to this area, therefore, it can be safely called the bear corner of the region.

The Volzhanka confectionery factory occupies the 6th place in Russia in the production of confectionery products, producing more than 140 products - caramel, sweets, chocolate, cookies, waffles, marmalade.

275 million years ago, the territory of modern Ulyanovsk was flooded by a warm tropical sea.

The capacity of the Volga HPP named after V.I. Lenin, whose dam forms the Kuibyshev reservoir, is 2315 MW; average annual output - 10.5 billion kWh.

The largest beluga caught within the city of Ulyanovsk was 5 meters long and weighed 1,400 kg.

Interesting facts about the Samara region

The Samara region is not one of the seismically hazardous zones, but spring earthquakes in Togliatti are now often spoken about. During the spring flood, the Volzhskaya HPP begins to discharge large volumes of water from the upstream to the downstream. The flow falling from almost 40 meters height causes a large wave that destroys the shore, and micro-earthquakes occur in the territories adjacent to the hydroelectric power station.

Who has not heard of the famous Zhiguli beer? The brewery, built in 1881 in Samara by the Austrian nobleman Alfred von Vakano, is still working and is one of the symbols of the city.
Those who wish can still admire the old buildings built in the style of the German Renaissance, buy beer-themed souvenirs in the factory building and, of course, try the freshest Zhigulevskoye.

The name of the revolutionary Valerian Kuibyshev during the years of Soviet power was given to several cities at once: Samara, Kainsk in the Novosibirsk region, Spassk in Tataria. Kuibyshevka was called Belogorsk in the Amur region. The vast reservoir in the north-west of the Samara region, on the banks of which Togliatti is located, also became Kuibyshevsky.

Blue Lake, located in the Sergievsky district of the Samara region, has been known since antiquity. From the bottom beats a powerful hydrogen sulfide source. There is no life in the lake, this explains its transparency.The beauty of the lake is fascinating, you want to look at its transparent depth (about 17 meters) again and again. But, most of all, those who can dive are lucky. According to divers, if you dive and look up, then, as in the picture, you can see clouds floating across the sky, trees growing on the shore, and comrades waiting for you.The locals believe in the healing power of the lake and associate many legends with it. They say that in the old days a horse with a cart fell into the lake, allegedly they were not found, and also that sometimes tarred boards with mysterious writings float to the surface ...

In 1859, traveling along the Volga, Samara was visited by the French writer A. Dumas, upon his return to his homeland, he published the book “From Paris to Astrakhan”, in which he devoted pages to the Samara province.

In the middle of the 19th century, Samara became the first city in the world where a koumiss clinic was opened for the treatment of consumptive patients. Nestor Postnikov, while practicing medicine, noticed that sour mare's milk helps in the treatment of tuberculosis. After that, the doctor in 1858, with his own money, six miles from Samara, built a koumiss clinic. Very soon, the Samara koumiss clinic gained great popularity. The institution was visited by members of the royal family, people from England came for treatment, Germany, France , Italy, Portugal. For his service to medicine, Nestor Postnikov was awarded the Order of St. Anna of two degrees and the Order of St. Vladimir. In addition, Postnikov became a nobleman, and his name was entered in the Noble Genealogy Book. Now the Samara Regional Clinical Antituberculosis Dispensary named after Postnikov is located in the former koumiss clinic.

Samara embankment is a cascade of beautiful terraces descending to the Volga beaches. In summer, the embankment becomes a favorite vacation spot for citizens; numerous city holidays and festivals are held here. Fountains, flower beds, sports grounds and playgrounds for creativity, cafes, attractions, rental of rollers and bicycles - everyone will find something to their liking!

Samara has the tallest railway station building in Europe. The total height of the station, together with the dome and spire, reaches 101 meters. The railway station has an observation deck. This is a large balcony around the dome of the station complex. The site is located at an altitude of 95 meters. This is equivalent to the level of the 18th floor. On the 2nd floor in the building of the Samara railway station there is a historical museum of the Kuibyshev highway.

On the night of July 21-22, 2005, circles mysteriously appeared on a buckwheat field near Tolyatti,
about 200 meters in diameter. Various theories of the appearance of these circles were expressed: from the landing of aliens to the PR action of the city administration.

The city-forming enterprise of Togliatti is AvtoVAZ, because of which the city is often called the "automobile capital of Russia", as well as the "Russian Detroit". Ecologists refer Togliatti to the regions of the third of four possible pollution classes. The main source of pollution is motor transport and factories.

In Samara, the childhood and youthful years of the writer Alexei Tolstoy passed, Maxim Gorky began his literary career here, working in the Samara Newspaper, I.E. lived in this city. Repin, V.I. Surikov, I.K. Aivazovsky.

Ancient adits in the village of Shiryaevo are considered one of the most mysterious and full of secrets tourist sites in the Samara region, where not only Russian but also foreign tourists seek to get. This is a real underground city with galleries of tunnels, through which a double-decker bus can easily pass. Until now, in the caves you can see traces of narrow-gauge sleepers, there are even miraculously surviving pieces of rails. Stones of various sizes come across underfoot, sometimes whole mountains of harvested limestone. Some heaps of such blocks appeared as a result of collapses, therefore, walking through the dungeons, although interesting, is not safe.

Samara has been the capital twice. In 1918, from June to October, it was the capital of the Russian Democratic Federative Republic. The Russian Republic was one of the short-lived "white" states that were created on the territory of the country shortly after the October Revolution. And also, in October 1941, Kuibyshev (as Samara was called in the period from 1935 to 1991) became the reserve capital of the USSR for almost two years. Due to the difficult situation at the front, part of the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Party, a number of people's commissariats, embassies, military and diplomatic missions of 22 states, many industrial enterprises, and the troupe of the Bolshoi Theater were evacuated here. The writer Vasily Grossman called this period of the city's life "a mixture of the state bulk with the evacuation bohemia."

Kuibyshev Square in Samara is the largest square in Europe. It occupies an area of 17.4 hectares. There are only four central squares larger than Samara's in territory - in Cairo, Havana, Beijing and Pyongyang.

The Big Irgiz is considered one of the most winding rivers in the world. In some sections, the distance between points along the channel is three or even five times greater than along a straight line.

"Stalin's Bunker" is one of the most interesting and mysterious museums in Samara. It was built specifically for the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the USSR, Joseph Stalin, in case Moscow was occupied by the Nazis during World War II and the capital would have to be moved to Kuibyshev. The bunker is located at a depth of 37 meters. Built in 1942, declassified in 1990. At the moment, the structure is one of the largest bunkers in the world. It maintains a constant microclimate. The air temperature is constant and equals +19°C. The bunker contains Stalin's personal office, which has many false doors and secret exits. According to Samarans who explore the dungeons, this is not the only bunker in Samara.

Interesting facts about the Penza region

Residents of Penza are called Penzas or Penzyaks, residents of Penza are called Penzas or Penzyaks.

The Penza Circus is the birthplace of the Russian circus, founded by the Nikitin brothers on December 25, 1873. Initially, the Nikitin Brothers built a circus in Penza on the banks of the Sura River, the performances took place on ice. One of the main features of this circus was that only Russian circus performers performed in it.

The Penza Planetarium is the only wooden planetarium in the world, there are no others like it.

In Penza, the parents of V.I. Lenin met and got married: Ulyanov and Blank.

Interesting facts about the Saratov region

In 1903 - 1906, P.A. was the governor of Saratov. Stolypin. At that time it was one of the largest and most revolutionized provinces in Russia. Here Stolypin could show his tough temper and ability to pacify the turmoil. For the suppression of a peasant uprising in the province in 1905, he even received the gratitude of Emperor Nicholas II.

Yuri Gagarin landed on Saratov land after his legendary flight into space. The second person who visited the near-Earth orbit, German Titov, was also met by Saratov region upon his return.

In Saratov, the outstanding geneticist and botanist Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov tragically ended his life in a prison hospital.

Saratov is an old theater city. The first fortress theater appeared here in 1803. There are currently nine theaters in the city.

In 1901, "platinum water" was discovered in the vicinity of Rtishchev. Since 1907, water has been supplied to the royal court. The water was considered medicinal and had anti-cancer properties. The entire process of bottling and delivering water was classified. After the revolution of 1917, the source was lost.

Throughout its history, the city has repeatedly moved from one place to another. The settlement, founded somewhat higher up the Volga than modern Saratov, completely burned down in the winter of 1613-1614, and the garrison that made up its population went to Samara. In 1617, Saratov was rebuilt again, but already on the left bank of the Volga - at the confluence of the Saratovka River into the Volozhka.

Until 1992, Saratov was a city closed to foreigners, since several large defense industry enterprises worked here.

Saratov became the third city in Russia to start using telephone communications.

In the second half of the 18th century, Empress Catherine II invited residents of European countries to move to Russia and settle on the banks of the Volga. Thousands of residents from European countries responded to the invitation, but most of all from the German states: Gössen, Baden, Saxony, Mainz and others. In 1764 - 1768, after the invitation of the Empress, 106 German colonies were formed in the territories of modern Saratov and Volgograd regions, in which 25,600 people settled. The German colonists turned the settlement into a large point of storage, processing and trade in bread.

Engels is the birthplace of the famous composer Alfred Schnittke. He is the author of music written for more than 60 films.

On August 15, 1670, Stepan Razin entered Saratov with an army, the inhabitants greeted him with bread and salt. From that moment until July 1671, Saratov became one of the centers of the Peasant War on the Lower Volga.

The only Russian Nobel Prize winner in chemistry and the third of the Russian scientists who were awarded the Nobel Prize, Nikolai Nikolaevich Semyonov, was born and studied in Saratov.

Near the city of Balakovo is the Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant, built in 1977-1985. Today it is the largest electricity producer in Russia. It generates about 30 billion kWh of electricity annually, which is more than any other power plant in the country. Balakovo NPP is a recognized leader in the nuclear power industry in Russia; it has repeatedly been awarded the title of "The Best NPP in Russia".

Interesting facts about the Volgograd region

In the north of the Volgograd region, there is the Medveditskaya ridge, where hills 200 - 380 meters high stretch along the Medveditsa River. The entire territory of the ridge is riddled with underground tunnels. No one knows who and when they were dug. Eyewitnesses say that real miracles happen here: springs with radioactive and distilled water beat, and fireballs break out of the ground, which fly daily along the same “routes”. And in the sky above the ridge, according to the stories of local residents, luminous objects of a triangular shape often appear. They hover over the entrance to the tunnels, and then move away from north to south.

The Khoper River, which flows through the territory of the Volgograd region, is one of the cleanest in Europe, and, according to UNESCO, the cleanest among the small rivers of Europe. Its age exceeds 10,000 years.

The Tsimlyansk reservoir is called the sea, because its area is huge and is about 3,000 km². The Tsimlyansk reservoir is very elongated in length, but its width is also significant and, on average, is 38 km - the opposite bank is not visible or barely visible in many places, and the sky seems to dissolve in the Tsimlyansk waves. The water of the Tsimlyansk reservoir is quite clean, its quality, according to experts, ranges from II to III classes. This fact is especially impressive if we remember that Baikal water has been assigned class II, and Baikal is recognized as the cleanest lake in Russia. In addition, the Tsimlyansk reservoir is the most productive reservoir for catching fish in Russia: bream, blue bream, pike, carp, and silver bream are caught here. In order to maintain this honorary status, in recent decades, active measures have been taken to replenish the fish wealth of the reservoir. Numerous bays of the man-made sea are the most important spawning grounds for valuable fish species listed in the Red Book.

The well-known sculpture “The Motherland is Calling!”, which rises on Mamaev Kurgan, is included in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest statue in the world. Its height reaches 52 meters, and the length of the sword that the Motherland holds is 29 meters, the total height is 85 meters. Its construction lasted 8 years. In its design, there are direct analogies with the battle. The number of steps from the foot to the upper platform is 200, the Battle of Stalingrad continued for the same number of days. The silhouette of the monumental Motherland is taken as the basis for images on the emblem and flag of the Volgograd region. For comparison, other world-famous giant statues: the Statue of Liberty (New York, USA ) is 46 meters high, and the statue of Christ the Redeemer (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ) - 38 meters.

The Tsimlyansk hydroelectric power station, together with the builders, was erected by prisoners of the Gulag (Tsimlyansk labor camp).

The Tsimlyansk reservoir poses a serious danger to residents of coastal areas.
Strong winds, rearing the waters of the artificial sea, fall on the shore and flood thousands of hectares of land. The waters of the artificial sea flooded many villages, including the village of Tsimlyanskaya, which gave the reservoir its name. The rise in the water level leads to a gradual erosion of the coast, and strong northerly winds also contribute to this. During the year, the reservoir captures up to 12 meters of land. To protect the coast, measures are being taken to strengthen them.

The pride of the natural park, which is located on the banks of the Tsimlyansk reservoir, are the herds of mustangs that have found shelter and well-fed food in these protected areas.

Volgograd has the largest length among the cities of Russia. It is located along the Volga at a length of 100 km. Sometimes residents from one end of the city never visit the other end of Volgograd in their entire lives.

In the Krasnoarmeisky district of Volgograd, at the entrance to the Volga-Don shipping canal, a giant monument to the leader of the October Revolution, V. I. Lenin, was erected; its height is as much as 27 meters, plus the height of the pedestal is 30 meters. So this Ilyich waved 57 meters! The monument is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest monument erected to a real person.

E.Ya. was born in Uryupinsk. Dzhugashvili, grandson of I.V. Stalin. Also, the city is the birthplace of oil geologist D.V. Golubyatnikov.

Uryupinsk is famous for the unique breed of the Lon silver goat. Its durable fluff up to 10 cm long has a shade of gray with a blue steel tint. Outwardly, Uryupin shawls and shawls look like fur sable capes. Scarves made of straight fleece are especially valued.

The Volgograd metro has its own peculiarity. In the 70s, the construction of the metro became a necessity, but according to the status, Volgograd was not a “millionaire” city, which means that the status of the metro was not supposed. The city government gave the order to dig 3 underground stations and launched a "high-speed tram" through them under the busiest transport network, and the tram ran on ordinary rails, both above ground and underground. It is still called "metrotram".

Mamaev Kurgan is a mass grave of the defenders of the city who fell in battle. 11,000 Soviet soldiers and commanders are buried here. After the end of the Great Patriotic War, more than 1,000 fragments of shells and mines were found on every square meter of land on Mamaev Kurgan. For more than 10 years after the war, even grass did not grow on the mound.

The Volgograd Reservoir is the longest of all artificial seas on the Volga; it stretches for more than half a thousand kilometers from Saratov to Volgograd. This is a great place for fishing. Bream, pike perch, carp and fish coming from the Caspian are found here.

One of the largest fish elevators in Russia is operated in the dam of the Volga hydroelectric power station, that is, a special gateway, as it were, a fish elevator that lifts the “passengers” accumulated in it at certain intervals - valuable species of fish from the Caspian Sea, which in the spring tend up the Volga and its tributaries to their traditional spawning grounds.

Streets with the name "Stalingrad" exist in many cities of the world. There is also a metro station "Stalingrad" in Paris.

To this day, in Volgograd, the military and volunteers discover several dozen unexploded bombs and hundreds of shells that have survived in the city and its environs from the time of fierce battles with the German invaders. Such is the heavy legacy of the legendary Battle of Stalingrad.

Water exchange in the Volgograd reservoir occurs 4 to 10 times a year.

In 2003, the city of Volzhsky was declared the winner in one of the nominations of the competition "The most comfortable city in Russia."

In Volzhsky, there is a double numbering of houses and repeating street names in different microdistricts. And on Pushkin Street there is a single house with double numbering of apartments.

The Second Longitudinal Highway (or simply known to the townspeople as the Second Longitudinal) is recognized as the longest street in Russia. Its total length is more than 50 km! However, for convenience, this giant highway was divided into 16 streets and avenues, which received various names.

Many of our compatriots are in a hurry to go to Israel to see the famous Dead Sea, not even suspecting that its analogue is located on the territory of Russia. Lake Elton is the largest salt lake in Europe, with its healing properties surpassing the waters of the Dead Sea and Essentuki. It can rightly be called one of the wonders of Russia.

Lake Elton is an elite balneological resort. The bottom sediments of the lake are represented by layers of salt, alternating with deposits of clay, silt and mud. This mud is highly radioactive. It contains impurities of iodine, iron salts, hydrogen sulfide, hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide and amine bases. The mud of Lake Elton has therapeutic and cosmetic properties. It has a complex effect on the functions and systems of the body. Salts with water make up a saturated saline solution, called brine, containing elements of bromine, sodium, magnesium and other macro- and microelements. The mineralization of brine ranges from 200 (spring and autumn) to 400 (summer) g/l.

Pelotherapy (mud therapy), in addition to thermal effects, has a chemical effect on the body, irritating the thermo- and chemoreceptors embedded in the skin. As a result of the penetration of certain chemicals through the skin, mud enhances the blood supply to the skin, enhances metabolism, regenerative and reparative processes, and has an analgesic, resolving and relaxing effect.

Many are convinced that the Dead Sea mud is the best on earth in terms of quality and effectiveness.
However, having studied the healing properties of Lake Elton, Russian scientists came to the conclusion that its mud and brine significantly exceed all analogues in terms of the content of iron sulfides, water-soluble salts, bischofite, boric acid, humic acids and their salts, lipids, various vitamins, minerals, enzymes. and hormones. The air of Prieltonye also has healing qualities. Its ionization concentration is much higher than in most flat forest resorts in Russia.

Not far from the lake is the Elton sanatorium, which offers various types of medical services. Here you can take mud baths and swim in the salty waters of the lake. The sanatorium receives 260 patients per visit. And in half a year, up to 2,000 people are cured on the shores of the lake. There is a legend that once, at the sanatorium, there was a museum of "Abandoned crutches". Allegedly, people who came there on crutches, after a month or two, they no longer needed them and left them in a sanatorium. Soon, so many crutches accumulated that it was decided to liquidate the museum. One of the inhabitants of the village made a fence for his garden out of these crutches.

Even in ancient times, people noticed the healing properties of Lake Elton. The first therapeutic baths were dug in the coastal layers of soil, where the patient lay down and covered himself with mud. After an hour, he plunged into the lake. After several such procedures, the disease receded.

Lake Elton is called by the Tatars and Kalmyks Altan-Nor (which translates as "gold mine") - from the purple-red color of its water. The Polovtsian khans considered the lake sacred and worshiped it, and the Cossacks believed that at sunset the heavenly lord descends into the waters of Elton and prolongs the life of all bathers. And they were partly right, because the waters of the lake really have an extraordinary healing power.

The Volga is the fifth longest river in Russia and the largest river in Europe. This is the most important and most Russian river. It connects Central Russia with the Volga region, the Urals and the Caspian. The Volga basin is extremely diverse in terms of physical and geographical conditions: taiga and mixed forests in the north, forest-steppe and steppe in the center, semi-desert and desert in the south. The Volga is connected to the Baltic Sea by the Volga-Baltic waterway; with the White Sea - the White Sea-Baltic Canal; through the Volga-Don Canal - with the Azov and Black Seas. Bread, timber, machine tools, oil, salt are the main types of transportation on the Volga.

Every second near Volgograd, the Volga carries 8,130 m³ of water. Below Volgograd, the flow of water in the river decreases, since it does not receive tributaries in the semi-desert and desert, it loses a lot of water to evaporation.

During the spring flood, the amplitude of the water level fluctuation in the Volga reached 17 meters (at the mouth of the Kama). With the construction of the Kuibyshev reservoir, the flow of the Volga began to be regulated, and fluctuations in the water level decreased.

The Panama Canal (81 km long) took 34 years to build, the Suez Canal (161 km long) took 11 years, and the Volga-Don Canal (101 km long) took 4.5 years.

During the construction of the Volga-Don Canal, 150 million m³ of earth was excavated, 3 million m³ of concrete was poured, 14,000 tons of metal structures were assembled, and 8,000 machines and mechanisms were used. In 1950, a group of engineers received the Stalin Prize for the development of the project for the construction of the Volga-Don Canal.

If you start moving along the Volga-Don Canal from Volgograd, then the ships must first go up 88 meters along the Volga lock stairs, then go down 44 meters along the Don lock stairs. For the whole journey, you will have to go through 13 locks: 9 on the Volga slope and 4 on the Don.

The architecture of the structure of the Volga-Don Canal is curious. So, the entrance lock of the navigable canal from the side of the Volga (lock No. 1) is decorated with an arch, 40 meters high (the height of a 16-storey building). Next to lock No. 10 there are monuments to the heroes of the civil war A. Parkhomenko, N. Rudnev and F. Sergeev (Artyom). The control towers of one of the locks in the Don area are decorated with equestrian statues of Red Army soldiers with swords drawn. At lock No. 13 there is a monument "Connection of Fronts" by sculptor E. Vuchetich. He recalls that in November 1942, the Nazi troops were surrounded here by the troops of the Stalingrad and Southwestern fronts.

Interesting facts about Kalmykia

Many generations of Kalmyks were deprived of the possibility of traditional religion. Only in 1988, the first Buddhist community was formed in Elista, although interest in the Buddhist religion and philosophy was practically lost. It took time to revive the cultural traditions of the ancestors. In Elista, in 1995, a branch of the Karmapa International Buddhist Institute (New Delhi, India ).

The Kalmyk language belongs to the Mongolian group of the Altaic language family. The Kalmyk alphabet was created in the middle of the 17th century on an old Mongolian graphic basis. In 1925, a new alphabet based on Russian graphics was adopted. The Kalmyk language is included in the list of endangered languages by UNESCO.

In Kalmyk, the name of the Republic of Kalmykia sounds like Halmg Tangch: halmg - separated, and tangch - people, nation, region.

The greatest monument of the ancient culture of the Kalmyks - the heroic epic "Dzhangar", containing several tens of thousands of verses, is performed by dzhangarchi storytellers.

The Great Silk Road once ran across Kalmykia.

Kalmykia is the most treeless region of Russia.

Believing Kalmyks profess Lamaism, which is an offshoot of Buddhism, some Kalmyks are Orthodox.

The Kalmyk family has always had many children, in the past each couple had at least 10 children, but they often got sick, and only 3-4 children survived. Adult children lived with their families, separately from their parents. The marriage was concluded by agreement of the parents, and the daughter was extradited outside of her khoton. The Kalmyks did not have a kalym, but the gifts were often very generous.

The main drink of the Kalmyks was a kind of jomba tea: it was prepared from milk and butter, salted, seasoned with nutmeg and bay leaf. Such a drink quenched thirst on hot days and warmed in the cold.

The patron saint of saigas among the Kalmyks is the White Elder, the Buddhist deity of fertility and longevity.
And the Kalmyks were forbidden to shoot at the saigas during the hunt, which were huddled together: it was believed that at this time they were milked by the White Starets himself.

The Golden Horde built cities and mounds here - until now, the remains of the second capital of the ancient empire, Saray-Berke, have been preserved.

In ancient times, Kalmyks baked carcasses of animals in a huge earthen pit, into which air was blocked, it was covered with earth in a special way. This dish was prepared all day long.

The ancestors of the Kalmyks are considered to be the Oirats, who came to the Caspian steppes at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries. Until that time, the Oirats were in close contact with the Turkic and Tungus-Manchurian tribes, which had an impact on the emerging culture. According to one of the hypotheses, the Oirats separated from the Mongol tribes, they did not accept Islam, for which they were called Kalmaks by the Turkic peoples, which meant “breakaways”, “remnant”.

The largest Buddhist temple in Europe functions in Kalmykia. The temple was opened in 2005.

Kalmyks have all the features of the Central Asian anthropological type of the Mongoloid race: short stature, outlined cheekbones, Mongolian eyes, swarthy skin, black straight hair. There are other features characteristic of nomadic peoples in the past: keen hearing and excellent eyesight, endurance, the ability to endure both summer heat and icy winds.

It is in Kalmykia that the Great Historical Crossroads, the geographical center of Eurasia, is located.

December 28, 1943 is a tragic date in the history of the Kalmyk people. On this day, a decision was made to forcibly deport Kalmyks to the regions of the Far North, Siberia and Kazakhstan . The Kalmyks were declared a people who helped the invaders. The Kalmyk ASSR was liquidated and restored only in 1957. After the eviction of the Kalmyks, Elista was renamed the city of Stepnoy and was called that until the return of the Kalmyk people.

Elista is considered the "chess capital of Russia". Here they built a town for chess players from all over the world. Even in all schools of the republic, chess has been introduced as a subject of instruction.

In 1991 His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama visited Elista.

The Kalmyk steppes, through which the chain of Sarpinsky lakes stretches, turn into a real desert in a dry summer. The temperature in July reaches +45°C in the shade (!), hot dry winds blow. But, when the sun disappears behind the horizon line, a rather cold night sets in. In the long autumn, lakes are often covered with a veil of fog, and rains turn dust into impenetrable clay. In winter, real frost can hit down to -25 ° C, but the salt content in the water of the lakes does not allow them to freeze.

When the lake dries up, the fish burrow deep into the silt and fall into a state similar to suspended animation. There are cases when, when digging a well at the bottom of a dried-up lake, under a crust of solid silt, sleepy tenches and crucian carp were found at a depth of 2-3 meters. Fish can be in a state of suspended animation for a long time - from 1 year to several years, but for this it is necessary that the sludge in the depths be liquid.

The Black Earth reserve is home to the bustard, one of the largest (by weight - up to 15 kg) flying birds in Russia. And the symbol of the reserve is the saiga antelope, one of the few antelopes in Russia.

Interesting facts about the Astrakhan region

The famous campaign of Stepan Razin up the Volga began with the capture of Astrakhan. Arriving in 1670 with an army after a campaign in Persia, the Cossack chieftain besieged the city and took it by cunning - while in one place an assault was imitated by drumming and noise, in another - the main part of the army calmly entered the city.

The main industry of the Astrakhan region is fuel. Here is the Astrakhan gas condensate field, the largest in the European part of Russia.

In the souvenir shops of Astrakhan you can buy fish skin products.

The Astrakhan region, by right, is considered a "bird talker". More than 260 species of birds live here, many of which are listed in the Red Book. Including the majestic white-tailed eagle, graceful pink flamingo and "Caspian hummingbird" rezun.

The pearl of the Astrakhan region is the lotus. It has been known in the Volga delta for more than 200 years, it is called the Caspian rose. From mid-July to September, these outlandish flowers, intoxicating with their beauty and aroma, bloom, attracting hundreds and thousands of tourists. For Kalmyks who practice Buddhism, the lotus is a sacred flower.

The Astrakhan Kremlin is one of the seven Russian cities that have retained their fortress walls.

On the territory of the Astrakhan region, wild hemp grows well and is fought with it every year.

It was from the territory of the Astrakhan region that on July 22, 1951, for the first time in the history of the earth, two earthlings flew into space into the upper atmosphere - the dogs Dezik and Gypsy. The rocket rose to a height of about 101 km, reaching the Karman line (the conditional boundary of the Earth's atmosphere and space). The flight lasted about 20 minutes, the container with the dogs landed safely a few kilometers from the launch pad.

The Volga-Akhtuba floodplain is one of the largest river valleys in the world and the only section of the Volga that has retained its natural structure. The floodplain is covered with 40-meter alluvial deposits. In terms of the scale of the alluvial process, it can be compared with the floodplain of the Nile and the Amazon.

Covered with a frequent network of channels and branches of various lengths and widths, the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain during spring floods is almost completely flooded with water. The water spill can reach 20 - 30 meters. At this time, large flocks of fish from the Caspian Sea and from the lower reaches of the Volga enter the flooded meadows and channels for spawning. In rapidly warming shallow water, juvenile fish develop well. Once, in this area, received about 80% of the world's sturgeon and delicacy fish. Today, the situation, unfortunately, has changed - rivers no longer give such a catch. After the descent of the water, a layer of very fertile silty deposits remains on the floodplain. Local residents have adapted to grow the famous Astrakhan watermelons, rice and tomatoes on these soils.

Bactrian camels are bred in the Astrakhan region. They reach up to 1.5 tons in weight and are the largest camels on Earth. In October, an agricultural exhibition is held where camel races are held. Most of the camels in Russia are grown in the Astrakhan region.

At the beginning of the 20th century, beluga whales weighed over a ton and lived in the Lower Volga; female caviar accounted for up to 15% of the total body weight. Such specimens can now only be seen in local history museums.

During the reign of Peter I, the Wedding Riot took place in Astrakhan, when 100 weddings were played in one day. The reason was a rumor about the forced extradition of girls for foreigners.

Astrakhan is located at a mark of minus 25 meters from the level of the World Ocean.

Filming of such famous films as "My friend Ivan Lapshin", "It can't be", "We'll live until Monday" took place in Astrakhan.

A little over 100 pairs of white-tailed eagles nest throughout Russia, and only in the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain are 24 known nesting nests of these giant birds.

Lake Baskunchak is the largest deposit of self-planting salt. Baskunchak salt makes up 80% of all Russian salt and is considered one of the best in the world.

Many people associate Astrakhan with black caviar, but now you can officially buy it, practically, at the same prices as in Moscow. True, they sell mainly caviar from Dagestan and Kalmykia, obtained from fish illegally caught in the Caspian Sea. The highest quality caviar is mature, it looks light and very large. It is extracted from fish that has already come to spawn in the river, which is why the best caviar is Astrakhan.The most valuable caviar is beluga caviar, then sturgeon, then stellate sturgeon, they differ in color and size.

Practically, all the leaders of the USSR and the Russian Federation were avid hunters and fishermen, therefore, they often spent their holidays in the Volga Delta. Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin were also here.

Lake Baskunchak became the "author" of a curious cartographic incident - a lake is drawn on all maps of the region, and a railway line runs right through the water. In fact, the tracks lie on a small embankment, and if there were no embankment, then the trains would probably go quietly and on salt - that's how hard most of the lake's surface is. Baskunchak contains not even water, but brine (a saturated aqueous solution of salt), which appears mainly in winter and spring. The level of brine varies depending on climatic conditions and is 0.1 - 0.8 meters. The thickness of the surface of the salt deposit in the lake is 10 - 18 meters in the center and 1 - 4 meters near the shores.

Astrakhan is located on 11 islands. There are over 50 bridges in the city.

In Lake Baskunchak you can and should (extremely good for the skin) swim without fear of drowning. Only after water procedures it is necessary to plunge into fresh water.

In the Astrakhan region, the American prickly pear cactus grows in the wild.

The uniqueness of the Baskunchak salt deposit lies in the fact that, due to natural features, it is able to restore lost reserves over the years due to numerous springs flowing into Baskunchak along its northwestern coast. It was this quality that, at one time, gave rise to the myth of the inexhaustibility of the lake and the infinity of its reserves. During the day, more than 2,500 tons of salts enter the lake, and more than 930,000 tons per year. In addition to this salt, which is continuously introduced into Baskunchak Lake by springs, a huge amount of salt has accumulated in the basin itself over the past geological times, the thickness of which is 20–50 meters, and deposits of rock salt have been found in the bowels of the earth at the site of the lake, going to a depth of 10 km ( !).

Big Bogdo is the most revered mountain of Buddhists. According to legend, three Buddhist monks carried this mountain through the air by force of will. Seeing the beautiful girl, they lost their temper and dropped the mountain, but could not lift it again. Scientists still cannot unravel the mystery of the origin of the mountain, arguing that according to all scientific calculations, Bogdo should not exist.

Astrakhan standard time is 1 hour ahead of Moscow, although in reality it is only 42 minutes ahead.

In the Volga delta, the water is very clear, reeds growing in abundance here act like a giant filter. You can see how the fish swims in the water, this is especially striking in comparison with the water upstream, when putting your hand into the water you do not see your own palm.

For almost 200 years, the only tools used by the salt workers were a shovel and a pood pick (special iron scrap). Standing almost to the waist in brine corroding the skin, the workers manually loosened the salt layer with a heavy pick and loaded the salt into carts drawn by camels. Thus, the supply of over 10 million poods of the purest Baskunchak salt to the Russian market was provided by the hard labor of almost 40,000 hired workers. With the advent of Soviet power, the active introduction of mechanization began. By 1934, 3 salt pumps were already working on the lake. In 1972, a new salt factory was put into operation, with a capacity of 800,000 tons of salt per year, producing ground, packaged and briquetted salt.

Astrakhan is known as one of the largest centers of the fishing industry. The Caspian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography operates here.

Astrakhan watermelons brought all-Union glory to the region, but it must be taken into account that they mean varieties bred by local plant breeders, unfortunately, now they are being replaced by foreign varieties that are more productive, although inferior in taste. Previously, watermelons were not only eaten fresh, but also salted. Local scientists were able to cross a watermelon with a melon, resulting in "moon watermelons" - with yellowish flesh and a pleasant taste.

Several centuries ago, the Khvalynsk Sea approached the Astrakhan region several tens of kilometers closer, and the Volga passed much closer to the Astrakhan Kremlin.

Over the past century, the land area in the Volga delta has increased 10 times.

5,000 hectares of the territory of the Astrakhan Reserve are occupied by thickets of the walnut lotus. Its rhizomes and fruits are the favorite food of geese and swans. Perhaps it was these birds that brought lotus seeds to the Volga delta during their flights.

Rice is grown in Astrakhan and quite tasty.

Of the birds listed in the Red Book, in the Astrakhan Reserve you can see the curly pelican, the Egyptian heron, the little cormorant.

We attributed the completely non-Volga Kalmykia. From the former Volga-Vyatka region, the Kirov region and all 3 republics (Mordovia, Chuvash, Mari) are included in the Volga region. Thus, the Volga region, which we further characterize, includes all regions located on the Volga (south of Nizhny Novgorod), Kirov Oblast, which occupies the basin of the Vyatka (a tributary of the Kama), and does not go to the Volga, but has much in common with the neighboring republics of Mordovia.

Our reasoning about what the Volga region is and what its boundaries are helps to feel the complexity of such work as zoning a territory. In this case, the area that we are studying would be easiest to identify with "unlimited" zoning, that is, one where the core of the area is clearly distinguished, and its boundaries are unclear. In the case of the Volga region, we have a clear core, the main axis of the region is the Volga River. Undoubtedly, the Volga region is those territories whose centers are strung on the Volga below Cheboksary: Kazan, Ulyanovsk, Samara, Saratov, Volgograd, Astrakhan. It is these 6 regions that are the core of the Volga region, and the rest are its periphery, transitional territories to other regions.

To better understand the essence of the "Volga core", let's first consider its periphery.

Kirov region

The Kirov region is a transition zone between the Volga and the Urals. Its location in the forest zone, the development of logging and woodworking, and various crafts make it related to the North. With the Urals - the development in the past of ferrous metallurgy on local ores and charcoal, and now - rolling production and metalworking. With the Volga region - the development of the chemical industry (including the military - the production of fuel and others) and the features of historical development (the evacuation of military factories during the Great Patriotic War). A feature common to both the Volga region and the Urals is the predominance of the military-industrial complex in the structure of mechanical engineering (the production of weapons in the city of Vyatskiye Polyany, in Kirov - aviation equipment and instruments).

Mordovia

According to its natural conditions, Mordovia belongs to the black earth belt and is similar to the Central Chernozem Region, but its settlement by Russians took place under different conditions: Russian villages appeared among Mordovian ones. As a result, out of 1 million population of Mordovia, Mordovians make up only 1/3, and 2/3 are Russians. Here is how the Mordovians were described at the beginning of the 20th century:

The region, in which the Mordovian tribe lived from time immemorial, compares favorably with the swampy areas along the left bank of the Volga, occupied by other Finnish tribes, by its relatively high position (Volga Upland) and rich black earth soil. Previously, they were almost completely covered with dense deciduous forests, teeming with various forest animals: wild boars, goats, elks, foxes and beavers. Now only small islands have survived from these forests. The inhabitants of this rich region differ from their fellow tribesmen who settled in the swamps and forests north of the Volga by being taller, massive, strong physique, fair skin and considerable strength, not inferior to the strength of the Russian population. Despite their sluggishness, they show self-confidence and in speech and in movements. Mordva has already become very Russified and in some places completely merged with the Russian population. In general, the Mordvins live richer than their neighbors - Russians, Tatars and Chuvashs - they are more provided with land, they are distinguished by great industriousness and thriftiness.

The industry of Mordovia developed almost exclusively in its capital - Saransk (where 1/3 of the population of the republic is concentrated - 320 thousand people) and is represented mainly by the electrical industry (electric lamps, cables, electric rectifiers, and so on), instrument making and the production of medicines.

The Mordovian settlement area is from the Ryazan region to Bashkiria: only 1/3 of the entire Mordovians live outside the territory of the Mordovian Republic, and the rest live mainly in adjacent regions (Ulyanovsk, Samara, Penza) and in Bashkiria.

So, according to the natural prerequisites for development and the nature of agriculture, Mordovia is similar to the Central Chernobyl Region, and in terms of the nature of industry (labor-intensive engineering), the history of settlement and modern problems, it is similar to the neighboring Chuvash and Mari republics.

Chuvashia

Chuvashia is the only one of the republics of the Ural-Volga region where the indigenous population absolutely predominates (out of 1.3 million inhabitants, almost 70% are Chuvash, 1/4 are Russians). Chuvashia is one of the densely populated regions of European Russia, much less urbanized (like Mordovia) than its neighbors, with a large natural increase that has survived until recently and a high proportion of children in the population.

The specialization of agriculture is almost the same as in the CCR; the abundance of labor resources in the countryside makes it possible to grow such a labor-intensive crop as hops; sugar beet crops are expanding.

The industry of Chuvashia is mechanical engineering (electrical engineering, production of industrial tractors), chemical industry (including military), textile and food industries. The largest city of Cheboksary (420 thousand inhabitants), together with the city of Novocheboksarsk (120 thousand inhabitants), which arose 20 kilometers away from the construction of the Cheboksary hydroelectric power station on the Volga, concentrate more than 1/3 of all the inhabitants of the republic and most of its industry.

Unlike the peoples of the Finnish language group, which are easily assimilated (especially the Mordovians), the Chuvash, like other Turkic peoples, are ethnically much more stable (but among the Tatars and Bashkirs this could be explained by religious differences from the Russians, and the Chuvashs are Orthodox, therefore, apparently, the matter is not in the difference of religions).

Of the 1.8 million Chuvashs, about half live on the territory of Chuvashia itself, the rest are mainly in adjacent regions.

Mari Republic

The Mari Republic (Mari El), according to natural and cultural characteristics, is sharply divided into 2 parts - on the right high (mountainous) bank of the Volga and on the left lowland, forested. On the right bank live "mountain" Mari, on the left - "meadow" (in language and culture are very close to each other). In economic terms, the right bank is very similar to Chuvashia, and the left bank is very similar to the Kirov region and the Nizhny Novgorod Trans-Volga region: it is covered with forests (about half of the territory), agricultural land makes up less than 1/3; logging, woodworking and the pulp and paper industry are developed.

The capital - Yoshkar-Ola, with a population of 250 thousand inhabitants (1/3 of the population of the republic) concentrates almost all mechanical engineering, mainly military (radio factories, instrument making), as well as electrical engineering. Thus, labor-intensive mechanical engineering is concentrated in the capital in this republic as well.

Of the 750,000 inhabitants of the republic, Mari make up 43%, Russians - 48%. Of the total number of Maris (670 thousand people), only about half live in the Mari Republic, the rest are scattered in many other regions of the Ural-Volga region.

We see that in all 3 republics we have considered, there is much in common. In economic terms, the concentration in their capitals (concentrating 1/3 of all inhabitants) of labor-intensive engineering. From the point of view of ethnogeography - that they concentrate within their borders from 1/3 to 1/2 of their ethnic group, and its rest is scattered. All these peoples were converted to Orthodoxy by Russian missionaries, even the Turkic-speaking Chuvash. Everywhere the proportion of Russians is large - 2/3 in Mordovia, 1/3 in Mari El, 1/4 in Chuvashia. Chuvashia is distinguished by a much larger share of the indigenous population and its resistance to assimilation.

Let us now turn to the consideration of the Volga region proper - its core, stretching along the Volga from Kazan to Astrakhan.

The natural conditions of such a large region, stretching from north to south for more than a thousand kilometers, are very diverse. Tataria is located mainly in the zone of mixed forests (mostly cut down; agricultural land occupies about 2/3 of the territory); The Ulyanovsk and Samara regions are in the forest-steppe zone (where there is also little left of the forests), the Saratov and Volgograd regions are in the steppe zone, and the Astrakhan region is already halfway in the semi-desert zone. (Usually Tataria, Ulyanovsk and Samara regions are called the Middle Volga region, and Saratov, Volgograd and Astrakhan regions are called the Lower Volga region.)

The right bank of the Volga along its entire length is usually high, the left bank is low. Along the right bank for a long distance (from Cheboksary to Volgograd) stretches the Volga Upland. The main mineral reserves were found in sedimentary rocks on the left bank, these are primarily oil and gas fields: the southeast of Tatarstan (Almetyevsk region) and the west of the Samara region. The Saratov and Volgograd regions are also promising for gas production, where geological exploration is currently being actively carried out. Among other minerals, lakes Baskunchak and Elton (“All-Russian salt shaker”) deserve mention.

The climate of the region is sharply continental. Average January temperatures vary from -14° in Kazan to -6° in Astrakhan, and July temperatures at the same points +20° and +25° (the last figure is the highest for European Russia). Precipitation brought by western winds falls on the western slopes of the Volga Upland (up to 500 mm per year), and on the low left bank (where they heat up, moving away from the saturation point) - much less, in Tatarstan about 400 millimeters, and in the Saratov Trans-Volga region and to the south - less than 300 millimeters. Thus, the dryness of the climate increases from the northwest to the southeast, and the specialization of agriculture changes accordingly. In the Middle Volga region, especially on the right bank, it is similar to the CCR: grain farming, meat and dairy farming and pig breeding, sugar beet and hemp crops. On the right bank in the Saratov and Volgograd regions, sugar beet and pig breeding almost disappear, sunflower and mustard appear. In the Saratov Trans-Volga region - grain crops, beef cattle breeding and sheep breeding, and even to the south - sheep breeding on dry steppe and semi-desert pastures with grain crops only on irrigated lands.

The Trans-Volga region is characterized by anticyclonic weather, which causes droughts in summer. They are especially dangerous if accompanied by hot and dusty southeasterly dry winds or dust storms; in these cases, grain plants can either die completely, or the grain in them dries up.

Over the past 70 years, droughts in the Volga region were twice accompanied by a terrible famine - in 1921 and 1933-1934, and each time the damage from the elements was aggravated by social factors: in the first case, the supply of food was complicated by the devastation of transport (but also by the refusal of the Bolsheviks to cooperate with other parties even in such a case as helping the starving), and in the second, the famine was greatly increased by the fact that all grain reserves from the peasants were taken away “for state needs” (including for export, to pay for purchased industrial equipment).

In the economic development of the Volga region, the following stages can be distinguished (We single out these stages from the point of view of the Russian state; apparently, from the point of view of the history of Tatarstan or Chuvashia, the stages may be different):

1. Prior to the annexation of the Kazan (1552) and Astrakhan (1556) khanates to Russia, the Volga was used by the Russian state only as a transit transport artery for not very intensive trade - first with the Golden Horde, then with these khanates.

2. After the accession of these khanates to Russia, Astrakhan becomes the main southern port of Russia, the "gateway to the East" - a kind of southern analogue of Arkhangelsk. At the end of the 16th century, between Kazan and Astrakhan, at approximately equal distances from each other (about 450 km), the guard cities of Samara, Saratov (its name is of Turkic origin: Sarytau is “yellow mountain”), Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd) arise. The right bank begins to be populated by landlord peasants.

3) In the 19th - early 20th centuries, the Volga region became a large area for the production of marketable grain and the flour-grinding industry. The colonization of the Trans-Volga region begins - no longer landowners, but peasants, especially after the abolition of serfdom. (True, even before that, in the 1760s, several tens of thousands of German colonists were resettled in the Trans-Volga region; the centers of their territories were Pokrovskaya Sloboda - the current Engels, opposite Saratov, and Ekaterinenstadt - the current Marx). The transport significance of the Volga (which is becoming the “main street of Russia”) is increasing, not only grain, but also oil cargo (coming from Baku) is transported along it, timber is rafted to the southern regions, including the Donbass mines (and in Tsaritsyn the most powerful sawmills in Russia).

4) The policy of industrialization during the years of the pre-war five-year plans (for example, the construction of a tractor plant in Volgograd) and especially the evacuation of defense enterprises in 1941-1942 dramatically changed the economic profile of the Volga region, made it from agrarian to industrial and from “flour-grinding” to machine-building. Since then, the Volga region has become a deeply militarized region. The military industry is located mainly in large cities - Kazan, Ulyanovsk Samara, Saratov, Volgograd.

5) In the post-war period, especially in the 1950s-1960s, the construction of large Volga hydroelectric power stations was completed: Volgogradskaya, Saratovskaya (with a dam near Balakovo) and Samara (with a dam near Togliatti), as well as Nizhnekamskaya (near the city of Naberezhnye Chelny); The Volga region becomes for two decades the main region of oil production, oil refining and petrochemistry. This further complicated the structure of the region's economy, made it even more industrial, including due to the flooding of floodplain lands, where more than half of Russian hay was harvested on the famous Volga flood meadows, a lot of vegetables and fruits were collected, and much more. In the total area of the Volga region, those flooded by reservoirs occupy a small share, but these lands were much more valuable than the watershed territories, and their loss sharply worsened the food supply of the Volga cities.

Partially, this loss was compensated for by irrigating the dry steppes of the Trans-Volga region (especially in the Saratov region), however, due to poor quality of reclamation work and due to non-compliance with irrigation technology, many irrigated lands became saline. This is one of the clearest examples of extreme disinterest in work, when it is done not for oneself, but for someone (“for an uncle”): none of the builders and operators was vitally interested in the fact that reclamation systems were built and operated with high quality, with observance of all the rules: the personal well-being of workers did not depend on this in any way.

At present, the main branches of specialization of the Volga region are mechanical engineering and petrochemistry. Mechanical engineering is represented mainly by military-industrial complex enterprises, but it also produces civilian products: cars (Tolyatti, Ulyanovsk, Naberezhnye Chelny), aircraft (Saratov, Ulyanovsk), tractors (Volgograd), machine tools, instruments and much more. Oil production is declining, but oil refining and petrochemistry are switching to Siberian oil; The Volga region is the largest producer of plastics, chemical fibers, synthetic rubber and tires, mineral fertilizers, and so on.

Environmental problems are very acute in the Volga region. The creation of the Volga reservoirs disrupted the processes of self-purification of river waters (in the "stagnant" reservoirs, these processes are much slower). At the same time, the development of petrochemistry on the banks of the Volga, with a chronic lack of capacity of treatment facilities (or their absence), has sharply increased the discharge of wastewater into the Volga and its tributaries. As a result, in its lower reaches, the Volga water is extremely polluted and sometimes unsuitable even for irrigation. Correcting this situation requires concerted action throughout the Volga basin - that is, in most of European Russia. Extremely polluted and the Volga cities.

National composition

The ethnic composition of the inhabitants of the Volga region is quite diverse. In addition to Russians, who make up 3/4 of its inhabitants, many other peoples live here.

Tatars are the largest ethnic group in Russia after Russians (5.5 million people); of these, about 1.7 million live in Tataria (constituting 48% of the population of the republic), 1.1 million live in Bashkiria, and the rest are scattered throughout almost all regions] of Russia, mainly the Volga region.

The very name "Tatars" first appeared among the Mongol tribes who roamed south of Lake Baikal as early as the 6th-9th centuries. In Russia, it became known from the 13th century, from the time of the “Mongol-Tatar invasion. Later, all the peoples living in the Golden Horde began to be called Tatars in Russia. These peoples included: the Volga Bulgars (or Bulgarians) - a Turkic-speaking people who came to the Volga region in the 7th-8th centuries, assimilated the local Finno-Ugric tribes and created their own state in the 10th century - the Volga-Kama Bulgaria, whose inhabitants were engaged in agriculture, trade and craft (and other groups of Bulgarians went in the 7th century to the Balkan Peninsula and there, mixing with the Slavic tribes and adopting their language, formed in 680 the Bulgarian-Slavic state - the predecessor of today's Bulgaria).

During their stay in the Golden Horde, the Volga Bulgars adopted much from the culture of the settlers (“Mongol-Tatars”), with whom they were also brought together by a religious community (Islam). In general, the population of the Golden Horde became more homogeneous After the collapse of the Golden Horde during the existence of separate khanates (Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberian), separate groups of Tatars were formed - Kazan, Astrakhan Siberian, Mishars and others. Part of the Tatars adopted Orthodoxy - these are the “Kryashens” Tatars (from the distorted word “baptism”) Having become part of the Russian state, the Tatars, together with the Russians, took part in settling the territory of the Russian Empire, and now they can be found in any corner of Russia.

This is how ethnographers described the Tatars of the beginning of our century: By occupation, the Tatars are farmers, but the lack of land often makes them look for other ways to earn money. Thousands of Tatars work as loaders on the Volga, are hired as janitors or coachmen in the cities, or serve as laborers in the landowners' economy. With their strength, endurance, conscientiousness and the performance of the work they have undertaken, they have gained a reputation as the best workers in the Volga region. The energy and practical ingenuity of the Tatars made them excellent merchants, who seized into their hands a significant part of not only small but also large trade in the Volga region.

Although less than 1/3 of all Tatars in Russia live within the Tatar Republic, Kazan is the cultural center for most Tatars, wherever they live. Recently, for example, in Kazan, the training of teachers for Tatar schools has begun, opening in areas densely populated by Tatars in other republics and regions of Russia.

Kazakhs (with a total number of more than 200 thousand people) live mainly in the Astrakhan region (as well as in Volgograd and Saratov). Between the Volga and the Urals, the Kazakhs appeared at the very beginning of the 19th century (“Bukreev Horde”), when the Kalmyks migrated from here. They are mainly engaged in grazing sheep.

The Germans who settled in the Volga region at the end of the 18th century and created a prosperous agricultural region (on the territory of which the Volga German ASSR was created after the revolution), in 1941, after the outbreak of the war, were evicted to the eastern regions (Siberia and Kazakhstan) under the pretext that they can help the troops of fascist Germany. Unlike other peoples who were returned home in 1956-1957 after the Stalinist deportation, the Germans were forbidden to return to the Volga region, and to this day most of them live in the south of Western Siberia and in Northern Kazakhstan. In the late 1980s, the ban on return was lifted, but the local authorities of the Saratov and Volgograd regions were very disapproving of this, and German autonomy on the Volga was never recreated. The result was an increase in the emigration of Russian Germans to Germany, due to which, apparently, there will soon be practically no Germans left in Russia.

After the collapse of the USSR, the situation in the Volga region in some ways begins to resemble a picture of the 17th century: Astrakhan again becomes the southern gate of Russia (and the Caspian military flotilla has already been relocated there from Baku). However, now the role of the Volga region in the economy is immeasurably higher - but the “burdenedness” of the region with the most acute problems, primarily the state of the environment (the transformation of the Volga into a sewage sewer) and the conversion of defense enterprises, is much higher.

Middle and lower Volga is the largest region of the country in terms of agriculture, the leading branch of which is grain farming - the most significant for people. After all, bread is the head of everything, as the proverb says. Wheat varieties recognized in the world are grown on these lands. Depending on the climate, the soil of the lands is divided into four zones - forest-steppe, chernozem steppe, steppe and semi-desert steppe.

The Volga region was created for millions of years, and mention of its division into lower and middle began already in the 19th century. To separate the middle and lower Volga regions, you need to know that the middle regions include the regions: Ulyanovsk, Penza, Samara and Kazan regions. The Lower Volga region includes the regions: Saratov, Volgograd, Astrakhan and Kalmykia.

Volga region throughout its territory it has low plains and large uplands, valleys and basins of lakes, which have undergone changes only in the last thousand years of their history.

The edge of the Volga region in the western part represents the Volga Upland, in the southern part it is Ergeni, and from the north and east the edges represent the spurs of the Common Syrt. In the middle of the Volga region is the lowland of the Volga, and lower to the south is the Caspian depression.

The Volga Upland has an elevated plateau - about 400 meters the highest place. Almost the entire surface is cut by ravines and a network of wide and very deep river valleys. The Samara bow is the largest slope that washes the Volga from three sides. The Zhiguli Mountains are located in the north of the peninsula. They are formed in connection with the descent of the earth layers. Deep gullies with valleys and cliffs are covered with wild vegetation and dense forests, which looks very picturesque from the outside.

Sedimentary rocks protruding to the surface are sandstone, limestone and chalk. An amazing fact: when developing the Samara lands, mollusk shells were found that are found in the Caspian Sea! And this confirms that a decent part of the land was nothing but the seabed!

The Caspian Sea long before our time reached the city of Saratov. The bottom of the sea was made of clay and sand, during the period of drying, the bottom became the Caspian lowland, so there are now salt lakes and sands on its territory. The mighty Volga River carries its huge waters to the Caspian Sea - this is why the sea water is slightly salty.

The climate in the region is sharply continental. Average Volga region the predominance of winds from the north and west, and in the lower - from the south and east. Summer temperatures are high, and in winter there are storms and snowstorms.

In the lower reaches of the Volga River in the desert delta there are oasis islands overgrown with high reeds, and among the backwaters, as a miracle, you can see the flowers of the Indian lotus.

Middle and lower Volga- this is a water area and around flat fields with growing crops. This invaluable wealth depends only on us, on people, because it is necessary to ring the bells and save the great Russian river Volga from pollution! After all, we live in this region and raise our children!

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