Rybinsk Reservoir
Posted by: 
NevaP
N 58° 10.513 E 038° 36.326
37V E 476791 N 6448286
This was the first of eight huge reservoirs constructed on the Volga River.
Waymark Code: WM32PH
Location: Russia
Date Posted: 01/31/2008
Views: 22
The Rybinsk Reservoir, which lies at the southern end of the Volga-Baltic Waterway was formed by the construction of dams across the Volga and the Sheksna Rivers at a point near the city of Rybinsk. Here, just before its original confluence with the south flowing Sheksna, the northeast flowing upper Volga makes a sharp turn to flow southeast. Before the dams were constructed, a broad flat natural basin, crossed by a maze of small rivers, lay to the north.
The reservoir filled this basin which had been formed by the gradual filling of a glacial lake left by the last ice age. Construction of the dams began in 1935 and the filling of the reservoir, which took six years from 1941 to 1947, flooded towns, villages and excellent farmland over a vast area. The reservoir extends about 70 miles from north to south and is 35 miles across at its widest point. When first constructed it was the largest man-made body of water in the world. It is still the second largest in Europe and the eight largest on earth.
Here and elsewhere, on the massive waterway projects ordered by Stalin, the labor was done by hundreds of thousands of Gulag prisoners, few of whom survived. Tens of thousands of people were expelled from their homes and plans were kept secret with people unaware of what was happening until the water began to rise.
In recent years the human cost of these projects has become public knowledge and the environmental cost is being appraised. The supply of great quantities of cheap electric power and greatly improved navigation and shipping routes is offset by lost farmland, climate changes caused by huge bodies of water, and increasing pollution.
The Rybinsk Reservoir is so large that it is sometimes called the Rybinsk Sea. Ships crossing it are out of the sight of land for much of the way. Ice covers the lake from December to April, allowing about 200 ice-free shipping days on its waters.
The coordinates above were taken at the south end of the reservoir. The northeast arm extends to the city of Cherepovets at approximately N59 6.00, E37 48.570. a northwest arm goes to about N58 29.900, E37 35.540
Visit Instructions:
To post a visit log to this waymark you need to visit and write about the actual physical location. Any pictures you take at the location would be great, as well.