Western Dvina. The Northern Dvina River: location and general characteristics In which direction does the Western Dvina river flow

Western Dvina Moat with river water Dvinsk (Daugavpils). O key value one or another locality often can be judged by the presence in itself or its immediate surroundings of the old fortress. The Dvina fortress began to be built in early XIX centuries and kept

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I in Latvia Daugava (Daugava), a river in Eastern Europe, flows through Russia, Belarus, Latvia. 1020 km, basin area 87.9 thousand km2. It begins on the Valdai Upland, flows into the Gulf of Riga of the Baltic Sea, forming a delta ... encyclopedic Dictionary

City (since 1937) in the Russian Federation, Tver region, on the river. Zap. Dvina. Railroad station. 11.4 thousand inhabitants (1992). Woodworking plant, flax mill ...

- (Latvian Daugava), a river in Russia, Belarus and Latvia. Length 1020 km. Sources on the Valdai Upland, flows into the Gulf of Riga of the Baltic Sea. Main tributaries: Disna, Drissa, Aiviekste, Ogre. Navigable in some areas. On the Western ... ... Modern Encyclopedia

- (in Latvia the Daugava Daugava), a river in the East. Europe. It flows through the territory of the Russian Federation, Belarus, Latvia. 1020 km, basin area 87.9 thousand km². It starts at the Valdai Tower and flows into the Riga Hall. Baltic m., forming a delta ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Exist., number of synonyms: 3 city (2765) daugava (2) river (2073) ASIS synonym dictionary. V.N. Trishin ... Synonym dictionary

Western Dvina- WESTERN DVINA, the river, originates in the lake. Dvintsa, Ostashkov. Uz., Tver. lips., on the slopes of Central Russian. rise, not far from the sources of the Volga and the Dnieper and flows into the Riga. gulf near the river Ust Dvinsk. Length 938 ver. Z. D. enters the Berezin. water … Military Encyclopedia

Western Dvina- 1) city, district center, Tver region Appeared as a village at Art. Western Dvina (opened in 1901); name by location on the river. Western Dvina. Since 1937 the city. Probably, regardless of the considered name of the Dun, the Din in the middle and upper reaches of the river ... ... Toponymic Dictionary

1. WESTERN DVINA (Daugava in Latvia), a river in Eastern Europe, flows through Russia, Belarus, Latvia. 1020 km, sq. basin 87.9 thousand km2. It starts on the Valdai Upland, flows into the Gulf of Riga of the Baltic Sea, ... ... Russian history

I Western Dvina river in the RSFSR, BSSR and the Latvian SSR (within the latter it is called the Daugava). The length is 1020 km, the basin area is 87,900 km2. It originates on the Valdai Upland, west of the sources of the Volga, flows into the Gulf of Riga ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

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The Northern Dvina is a navigable river. It is located in the north of Russia, in its European part. At first glance, this river is unremarkable, but if you look deeper into its history and geography, you can find some interesting facts.

At one time (approximately from the middle of the 16th to the beginning of the 17th century), this river was the only way that connected the Russian Empire with those countries that at that time were located in Northern and Western Europe. Merchants and diplomats actively used this route. By the middle of the 19th century, its significance for foreign trade Russian Empire decreased significantly. However, in order to defend some cities in a possible war (for example, Arkhangelsk), the mouth of this river was very suitable.

Length of the Northern Dvina River

This river is not very big - its length is only 744 km. If we compare it with the Volga, the largest and longest Russian river, then the Northern Dvina is five times inferior to it - the length of the Volga is 3530 km.

Two rivers - the Sukhona and the South - merge into one, called the Malaya Northern Dvina. All this happens near the city of Veliky Ustyug, located in the Vologda region. And this city is interesting because the Russian residence of Father Frost is located there.

After that, it turns north and flows through Arkhangelsk and its environs. The high-water river Vychegda brings its waters into the watercourse of the Northern Dvina immediately after Arangelsk, after which the river continues its movement due north. Immediately before it flows into the Dvina Bay, the White Sea, it merges with another river called the Pinega.

The source of the Northern Dvina is located at the confluence of two rivers: the Sukhona and the South. The Northern Dvina flows into the White Sea. There are many in the river rare species fish: bream, burbot, roach, pike. Anadromous fish are of industrial importance: lamprey and salmon, and in the delta you can find smelt and river flounder.

Tributaries of the Northern Dvina

The Northern Dvina feeds mainly on snow, which in the spring melts into its waters. It freezes at the end of October - a little earlier than other rivers of Russia, which is explained by its more northern position. When the river breaks up (and this usually happens in mid-April or even early May, if the spring is late and cold), the ice drift is quite stormy, active, and jams often form. During this period, it is not navigable - it can even be dangerous.

This river has two main tributaries - the Sukhona and Yug rivers. However, if we counted all the rivers that flow into it, then this will be

Cities of Russia on the Northern Dvina River

On the Northern Dvina River there are many cities - large and small. First of all, this is Veliky Ustyug, already mentioned above, famous for that you can meet the real Santa Claus there. In addition, the cities of Novodvinsk, Severodvinsk and the legendary city of Arkhangelsk are located near the mouth of the river.

There are boats on the river. Until now, the N.V. Gogol paddle steamer has been operating on the Northern Dvina - it was launched back in 1911 and still functions as a full-fledged cruise ship, which enjoys the attention of tourists.

The Western Dvina is a classic flat river with all its islands, bends, low banks and villages that avoid the floodplain, which is flooded in spring by rising waters.

River of three countries

The Western Dvina River flows through the territory of three countries, in Russia it is called the Western Dvina, in Belarus - Zakhodnaya Dzvina, in Latvia - Daugava. The first mention of the river is contained in the chronicle “The Tale of Bygone Years” for the 11th century: “The Dnieper will flow from the Okovsky forest and flow at noon; and the Dvina will flow from the same forest, and go at midnight and enter the Varangian Sea ... ”“ Varangian ”is the Baltic Sea, where the Western Dvina flows into. The river is the largest of those flowing into.

The basin of the Western Dvina River occupies large uplands - Vitebsk, Gorodok, Latgale and Vidzeme, which alternate with wide lowlands: Polotsk, East Latvian and Central Latvian.

The Western Dvina begins in the swamps of the Valdai Upland, about 40 km south of the source of the Volga. According to ancient Baltic mythology, the river appeared when the god of thunder Perkunas commanded the birds and animals to dig it.

The river flows out of the western bay of Lake Okhvat, in the Tver region, in a picturesque area where coniferous forests. In ancient times, a section of the route from the Varangians to the Greeks passed through Lake Okhvat. Many names in the district testify to this: for example, the villages of Volok and the Volkota River. By dragging the ancient Slavs dragged boats between water bodies. Many people died in this dangerous occupation, about this and many forgotten wars reminiscent of burial mounds scattered around.

In the upper course the river has southwest direction, its channel passes through a deep valley, formed relatively recently - about 12-13 thousand years ago.

The settlement of the upper reaches of the Western Dvina began in the Mesolithic - 8-6th millennium BC. e. Especially many settlements of the Neolithic era - the end of the Stone Age were found here: 5th - early. 2nd millennium BC e. A very early (second half of the 1st millennium AD) penetration of the Slavs to the banks of the Western Dvina, its tributaries and lake shores was noted. Numerous Slavic settlements and burial mounds have been found.

In the valley, the river flows between rather steep banks overgrown with forest. Mainly mixed forests: spruce predominates in the upper reaches, birch, alder and aspen are more common in the middle reaches. Beautiful pine forests have been preserved in the Polotsk Lowland.

The rafting of timber in these places has been carried out since the time of the ancient Slavs, but they began to take care of the purity of the river relatively recently. Below the place where the Tver river Mezha flows into the Zapadnaya Dvina, a large barrage (protective device) was built to collect timber rafted along the Mezha.

The tributaries of the Western Dvina are numerous, but not large, of which only the same Mezha (259 km) reaches the greatest length.

Throughout the river, its bed is winding. In the middle reaches there are numerous rapids, which are formed by a cluster of boulders brought by the glacier and in places exits hard rock. On the approach to the Belarusian city, they form rapids that stretch for 12 km.

The Western Dvina enters the city in the northwest, flows through it, forming a "horseshoe", and exits in the southwest. In the city, the river is navigable for some types of ships; the Vitebsk river port is located on it.

Having passed Vitebsk, the river rushes to the northwest.

Having built hydroelectric power stations and reservoirs, man, however, did not greatly change the regime of this flat river.

Downstream, through the Ulla tributary, a chain of lakes and the Berezina River, the Western Dvina is connected to the Dnieper by the Berezina water system, which is no longer in operation. It was built in the late 18th - early 19th centuries, during the 19th century. has been reconstructed several times. Its length is more than 160 km; a dozen and a half locks were built. It was intended for the export of products Agriculture and forests from the Mogilev and Minsk provinces to the port of Riga. The system has lost its meaning after laying railways. During the Great Patriotic War the locks were blown up and the canals fell into disrepair. Today it is the main historical attraction of the Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve.

The farther from the source, the weaker the valley is expressed. In several places, the river passes through lakes, such as Luka and Kalakutskoe. At the city of Velizh, standing on the river, the Western Dvina becomes navigable, and the forest ends.

Having passed the Latgale and Augshzem uplands, the Western Dvina (Daugava) flows through the ancient valley. Beyond Daugavpils, the river enters the East Latvian lowland. During the spring flood, ice jams often form here, and the river waters, without encountering obstacles, flood everything around.

Outside the town of Pļaviņas, after the construction of the Pļaviņas hydroelectric power station, the river valley was flooded by the waters of the Pļaviņas reservoir, and the water level rose by 40 m. Judging by the recollections of old-timers, the river valley from Pļaviņas to Ķegums was very beautiful. There were many rapids and shoals in the channel. In the 1950s-1960s. the construction of the hydroelectric power station provoked protests among the Latvian population: the historical cliff of Staburags, the rocks of Olinkalns and Avotinyu-Kalns were supposed to go under water.

Below are two more hydroelectric power plants - Kegums and Riga. The latter occupies the most important place for the capital of Latvia: it is a source of electricity, and the Riga Reservoir is a source of tap water for most residents of the city. In general, the Western Dvina (Daugava) is the only large own source of electricity in Latvia.

Below Dole Island, the Western Dvina (Daugava) flows through the Primorskaya lowland. Here the flow of the river slows down, the banks become quite low, the Dvina in many places separates from itself branches that envelop the islands formed by sand drifts from Dvinsk to Riga, forming a delta. In the city, the width of the river reaches 700 m, and downstream it reaches one and a half kilometers.

Historian Nikolai Karamzin compared the Western Dvina with the Eridanus River from ancient Greek mythology. Myths tell that the river was rich in amber, and ancient Greek authors mention this in their works. And even in the old days, it was the Western Dvina that was the source of most of the large river pearls used to embroider royal and boyar clothes. The prey was of a predatory nature, as a result, the pearl shells were exterminated.

At the mouth of the Western Dvina (Daugava), amber is still mined, and its extraction is carried out in no less barbaric ways.

The current of the river is fast, the water in it is clean, but there are few fish in it, which is explained by shallow water. In the Western Dvina, in the reservoirs of its basin and in the mouth, there are pike, chub, ide, tench, bream, crucian carp, burbot, pike perch. Previously, the Dvina was rich in 1.5-meter eels that came across the Baltic from Atlantic Ocean, but after the construction of the Plyavinskaya hydroelectric power station, the eels in the upper reaches of the Dvina disappeared. Today, commercial fishing is either banned or restricted. Recreational fishing is also limited.

general information

Numbers

Climate and weather

Economy

Attractions

Natural

• (1925)
• (1930)
• Daugava Bend Nature Park (1990)
• Smolensk Lakeland (1992)
• Birzhai Regional Park (1992), Braslav Lakes (1995) and Sebezhsky (1996)
• Razna National Park (2007)
• Verver cliff

historical

• Vetsrachin settlement (X-XIII centuries)
• Settlement Buets (v. Zhukovo, before 1130)
• Berezina water system (1797-1805)

City of Vitebsk (Belarus)

• Governor's Palace (1772)
• Salt Stores (1774)
• City Hall (1775)
• Former District Court (Art Museum, 1883)
• The building of the first power plant ( Literary Museum, 1897)
• The building of the former diocesan women's school (1902)
• Monument to the Heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812 (1912)
• The building of the former land and peasant bank (1917)
• Memorial complex in honor of the soldiers-liberators (Victory Square, 1974)
• House Museum of Marc Chagall
• Marc Chagall Art Center (1992)

City of Polotsk (Belarus)

• Sophia Cathedral (XI century)
• Spaso-Evfrosinevsky monastery (about 1128)
• Savior Transfiguration Church (1128-1156)
• House of Peter I (1692)
• House of Simeon of Polotsk (XVII-XVIII centuries)
• Monastery of the Bernardines (1758)
• Jesuit Collegium (XVIII century)
• Holy Cross Cathedral (1893-1897)
• Red Bridge (XIX century)
• National Polotsk Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve

City of Daugavpils (Latvia)

• Castles Dinaburgsky (1275) and Murmuizhsky (until 1601)
• Mikhailovsky Gate (1856-1864)
• Nikolo-Pokrovsky Staroforstadsky old believer temple (1889)
• Daugavpils Fortress (late 19th - early 20th century)
• Church Immaculate Conception Blessed Virgin Mary of Daugavpils (1902-1905)
• Borisoglebsky Cathedral (1904-1905)
• Unity Bridge (1935)

City of Riga (Latvia)

• Dome Cathedral (1211-1270)
• Cathedral of St. James (1225)
• Riga Castle (1330)
• Powder tower (before 1330)
• House of the Blackheads (XIV century)
• Swedish Gate (1698)
• Nativity Cathedral (1877-1884)
• House of Cats (1909)
• Byte Bridge (1981)

Curious facts

The river called the Western Dvina, as can be seen on the map, flows from Lake Okhvat, Andreapolsky District, Tver Region. However, local historians from Tver suggest that its source is a swamp, from which a stream flows, flowing into a small lake Koryakino, Penovsky district of the same region, connected to Okhvat by the Dvinets River. As proof, they cite the Atlas of 1792 (the full name is “The Russian Atlas, consisting of forty-four maps and dividing the empire into forty governorships”). a river will flow, starting in the swamps and marked on the map as the “Dvina River”. Nevertheless, this is not proof that this is the source of the Western Dvina, since other rivers also flow into Lake Okhvat. Moreover, there is no evidence why this particular river was honored to be named on the map “r. Dvina” and how it differs from others flowing into the Coverage of the Nikitikha and Volkota rivers is not given.

At its confluence with the Gulf of Riga, the Western Dvina (Daugava) River forms an erosive delta near the former island of Mangalsala. As the name implies, it was originally really an island (sala - island), but later a narrow isthmus of alluvial sand formed, and Mangalsala became a peninsula. From three sides it is washed by the Gulf of Riga, the Daugava and the branch of the Daugava - Vetscaugava.

The name of the city comes from its location on the Torop river. It also comes from the Russian word "torop", which means haste. This is associated with the high speed of the river at the threshold before flowing into the Western Dvina.

Throughout history, the Western Dvina river had about two dozen names: Dina, Vina, Tanair, Turun, Rodan, Rubon, Rudon, Dune, Eridan, Western Dvina, etc. In the 15th century. the Flemish traveler and knight Gilbert de Lannoy (1386-1462) noted that the Semigals called the Western Dvina Samegalzara: from Semigals-Ara, or Semigals water. Zemgale is one of the five historical areas Latvia.

Given the presence of two identical names (Western Dvina and Northern Dvina), as well as the common names of Vajna (the Estonian name for the Western Dvina) and Viena (the Karelian name for the Northern Dvina), the name of the river most likely has a Finnish origin with the semantic meaning "quiet, calm" . And the name Daugava was formed, apparently, from two ancient Baltic words: daug - "many, plentiful" and ava - "water".

The 20-meter Staburags - a limestone cliff on the left bank of the Daugava was flooded during the filling of the Pļaviņa reservoir. Staburags is also called a special type of limestone, very porous, through which moisture constantly oozes, if it is located at an underground source. The “weeping” cliff of Staburags is a national symbol often found in Latvian poetry and legends. This place was considered sacred, endowed with power that has a beneficial effect on people. Warriors ancient tribe villages performed here magical rites before military campaigns. Today there are 21 meters of water above the top of the cliff.