The Volgodonsk navigable canal connects the Don and the Volga in a place where they are as close to each other as possible. It is located near Volgograd. The Volgodonsk Canal, the photo and description of which you will find in the article, is part of a deep-sea transport system operating in the European part of our country.
The first attempt to connect the two rivers
As early as the middle of the 16th century, the first attempt was made to connect the Don and the Volga in the place of their maximum rapprochement. In 1569, Selim II, the Turkish sultan, who became famous thanks to his campaign on Astrakhan, ordered 22 thousand soldiers to be sent up the Don. They had to dig a canal connecting the two rivers. But a month later the Turks had to retreat. According to the chroniclers, they said that even the whole nation could not do anything here in 100 years. However, traces of this attempt to connect the two rivers have survived to this day. This is a deep ditch called the Turkish Wall.
The attempt of Peter I
After 130 years, the second attempt to build the Volgodonsk Canal was made by Peter I. However, it was unsuccessful. By the end of 1701, construction was partially completed, and several locks were completely built. However, in the midst of the work, an order was issued to destroy the canal, as the war with Sweden began. By the way, this project also left a mark - Petrov Val, which is located next to the city of the same name.
The construction of the canal between the Volga and the Don was moved to another place - in the Ivan Lake region. The Ivanovo Canal, built here, connected the Don River with the Tsna River (a tributary of the Oka River) through Ivan Lake and the Shat River flowing from it. About 5 ships passed through it 5 years after the start of construction. However, this system turned out to be low-water.
Main projects
More than 30 projects connecting the Don with the Volga were created before 1917. Most of them were divided into the following three groups:
- the southern one, which intended to connect directly the Azov and Caspian seas or the mouths of the Don and Volga;
- the middle one, which combined canal construction projects in the place of the closest convergence of the Volga and Don;
- northern, which included projects connecting the tributaries of the Don with the tributaries of the Oka.
Hydrologists believe that the northern projects could not be of interest, since they assumed the merger of shallow rivers, which are unsuitable for modern ships to pass through them. Southern projects would not be successful either, since the canal route in this case would be too long, which would make the construction cost very high. Engineers admitted that the most rational are the projects of the middle group.
However, not one of them was realized until the mid-20th century. Two circumstances prevented this. Firstly, the railways had private owners who resisted. Secondly, even in the case of the construction of the canal, the movement of ships could be carried out only in the spring, since only then the rivers were full-flowing. There could be no talk of full-fledged navigation without their large-scale reconstruction. Nevertheless, it should be noted the great contribution made by Puzyrevsky Nestor Platonovich, a Russian hydraulic engineer, in the study of the interfluve of the Don and Volga. He chose a track that would be suitable for the future channel.
According to the GOELRO plan, in 1920 the government of the country returned to the problem of building a canal. His project, however, was created only in the mid-1930s. The Great Patriotic War prevented its implementation.
Project approval
In 1943, after the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, work resumed. They were led by Zhuk Sergey Yakovlevich, an experienced hydraulic engineer and builder. Under his leadership, by that time the Moscow-Volga and Belomorsko-Baltic canals had already been designed and built. The scheme of the Volgodonsk complex was approved in February 1948 at a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. After that, they began to carry out land work.
Who built the canal
Note that the so-called enemies of the people, that is, political prisoners, who were convicted under article 58 of the Criminal Code, which was in effect at that time, were engaged in the construction of the Volgodonsk Canal. The hard physical work that the convicts were forced to carry out was counted by him as a day for two or three sentences. However, in the piercing winter cold and the sweltering summer heat, the mortality rate of people who lived in adobe huts and dugouts was very high. The beetles of Sergei Yakovlevich, who supervised the construction of the canal, are compared by historians of the Hoover Institute with Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi figure who used slave labor.
Construction period and used equipment
In just 4.5 years, the Volgodonsky Canal was built. This is a unique period in the entire history of world hydro construction. For example, the Panama Canal, whose length is 81 km, was built for 34 years with the same amount of work. The 164-kilometer Suez Canal was built for 11 years.
During the construction, 3 million m 3 of concrete was laid and about 150 million m 3 of land was taken out. 8 thousand machines and mechanisms took part in the work: earthmoving shells, bucket and walking excavators, dump trucks, bulldozers, powerful scrapers.
The opening of the channel, its length and depth
Foreign engineers were skeptical of this grandiose project. They predicted that the spillway dam would not be able to withstand the pressure of the water and a grandiose technological disaster would occur. But the Beetle was sure that everything would go well. He personally monitored the laying of concrete to prevent theft and assault.
May 31, 1952 at 13:55 the waters of the Don and Volga merged between the first and second locks. Since June 1, ships have already begun to move along the canal. July 27, 1952 this building was named after Lenin V.I.
The length of the Volgodonsk Canal is 101 km. Of these, 45 km pass through reservoirs. The channel depth is at least 3.5 m.
Reservoirs and locks of the Volgodonsk Canal
Vessels for passing the way from the Volga to the Don must pass 13 locks (the first is shown in the photo above), which are divided into the Don and Volga lock ladders. The height of the latter is 88 m. It consists of 9 single-line single-chamber locks. The height of the Don lock ladder is 44 m. It consists of 4 locks of the same design.
The Volgodonsky Canal connects the Don at the city of Kalach-on-Don with the Volga at Volgograd. It includes Karpovskoye, Bereslavskoye and Varvarovskoye reservoirs. The whole journey takes about 10-12 hours. The water coming from the Tsimlyansk reservoir feeds the Volgodonsky Canal, since the Don lies 44 meters above the Volga. Thanks to the system, which consists of 3 pumping stations (Varvarovskaya, Marinovskaya and Karpovskaya), water enters the watershed, and then flows by gravity to the Don and Volga slopes. The first and thirteenth gateways have triumphal arches. Workers who service the canal live in villages created along its route.
Channel value
Volgodonsk Canal named after V.I. Lenin connected the following 5 seas: Caspian, Black, Azov, White and Baltic. He connected the paths of the Dnieper, Don, North-West and Volga basins. The path of this channel runs through the arid steppes. He brought moisture to the fields of the Rostov and Volgograd regions.
Major Attractions
Tourists are very impressed with the Volgodonsk Canal. Volgograd today is hard to imagine without this structure. Each guest of the city considers it his duty to admire him. Popular is not only fishing on the Volgodonsk Canal, there really is something to see here.
The beginning of movement along the canal is carried out from the Sareptsky backwater of the Volga River, which is protected from currents, as well as from ice drift along the Sarpa River valley. Within the boundaries of Volgograd are the first three gateways.
On the Sarpinsky island (at the entrance to the canal) in 1953 a lighthouse was installed, whose height is 26 meters. On its walls are cast-iron rostras, they depict the bow of various old ships. The author of the project is the architect Yakubov R.A.
If you walk along the embankment from the first gateway, you will soon see the Lenin monument (pictured above). At the opening of the canal another monument was erected - I.V. Stalin, who is on a high pedestal. This monument was erected as soon as possible. Native copper went to cast the figures of the people's leader. The monument (a photo of it is presented below) was on the site for several years, rising 40 meters above the level of the Volga. However, as a result of the process of de-Stalinization, which was started in 1961 at the XX Congress, this monument was removed. All that remains of it is a reinforced concrete pedestal, which passes into a pile monolithic base of the embankment.
It was decided to erect a new monument on the pedestal, now V.I. To Lenin. It is made of monolithic reinforced concrete. The height of the sculpture is 27 m, and the pedestal is 30 m. Architect Delin V.A. and sculptor E.Vuchetich are the authors of the monument. Interestingly, the monument to Lenin was included in the Guinness Book of Records. It is the largest monument in the world, erected in honor of a real person.
Volgodonsk Canal today
After 60 years, more than 19 thousand vessels pass through the hydroelectric complex. At present, the question is about building another thread of the Volgodonsk Canal, thanks to which it would be possible to increase its cargo flows. Perhaps its construction will take place in the coming years, although due to the crisis this issue, most likely, will have to be postponed for some time. However, the president plans to expand the Volgodonsk Canal by building another thread, which he announced back in 2007. The construction of the second branch is expected to double the channel capacity - up to 30-35 million tons of cargo annually. True, the current Volgodon thread is only half loaded.