Along with such phrases as "Moscow - 3rd Rome", "Moscow - a city on 7 hills", you can hear "Moscow - the port of five seas". To understand the meaning of this expression, you need to delve deeper into history.
Why Moscow is called a port of 5 seas
The answer is very simple: through a network of water channels that penetrate the capital, you can go exactly to the five seas - the Azov, Baltic, White, Caspian and Black. It is believed that the author of the expression is none other than I.V. Stalin himself.
The leader of the Soviet people used this phrase on the very day when she really had the right to characterize Moscow - 06/14/1936. It was on this date that the Volga-Moscow channel was inaugurated, which would later be renamed the channel named after the capital. It is the reason why Moscow is a port of 5 seas, because after the construction of the canal, the city got access to these water areas through it.
Channel "Volga-Moscow"
The canal named after the capital is a navigable artery that connects the Moscow River with the great Volga. And through it from the capital, access to the Belomorkanal (White Sea-Baltic), the Volga-Baltic and Volga-Don canals is already possible .
Historically, the idea of building such a waterway belonged to Peter I. And the tsarist government intended to implement this project in the 19th century, but sent it to a long box because of the prohibitive cost. That is why - Moscow is a port of 5 seas, starting only in the thirties of the XX century.
Interesting facts about the channel named after Moscow
In addition to the connection with the well-known expression, the channel named after the capital is also interesting in a host of other interesting facts:
- The construction of this structure is associated with the emergence of the word "convict". This is a derivative of the "z / k" - a prisoner canal soldier (most of the builders were prisoners of the Gulag).
- The channel through which the question arose of why Moscow is a port of 5 seas is not gravity. He is "energetic." Water from the Volga River flows into the watershed by pumping.
- In Soviet times and up to 2006, a large number of passenger motor ships cruised along the canal waters. The championship was for the "Rocket" - hydrofoil ship. Today, bulk oversized cargo is mainly transported through the canal . However, cruise routes of the Moscow-Tver, Moscow-Uglich , Moscow-Petersburg, Moscow-Solovki, etc. routes remained.
- The channel includes more than 240 hydraulic structures. The most beautiful and recognizable is the Northern Moscow River Station (architects Rukhlydev, Krinsky and others). Besides the fact that the canal is the reason why Moscow has a port of 5 seas, it stands out among similar waterways by the architectural solutions of its locks. The upper towers of lock No. 4 resemble triumphal arches, and the granite towers of lock No. 3 are decorated with images of caravels of ancient ships resembling Columbian ones. At the gateway No. 5, the sculptural composition "Girl Carrying a Ship" is installed.
- The canal facilities were involved in the defense against the Nazis in 1941-1942. The defenders of the capital let the water out of the canal and the adjacent reservoirs on the enemy’s path, which significantly delayed it.
Channel them. Moscow is the main answer to the question why Moscow is a port of 5 seas. Moreover, the expression is rather controversial, because about any city through which such waterways pass, you can say something like that.