Which city is the river port of the five seas.

There is a common expression: "Moscow is a port of five seas." At the same time, from the reservoirs in the city there are a couple of rivers and several ponds, but there is nowhere to swim at all. Where are these five seas, with such a question, we turned to Alexei Skopin, professor at the HSE Department of Economic Policy.

"Why is Moscow a port of five seas?"

Alexey Skopin

Professor, Department of Regional Economics and Economic Geography, HSE

This expression was first heard from the lips of Joseph Stalin at the opening of the Moscow Canal, which connected the Moscow River with the Volga. The idea is that after the construction of two canals - the name of Moscow and the Volga-Don - from the capital, by water, you can get to five seas: the White, Baltic, Black, Azov and Caspian.

In fact, it turns out that any city that has a water connection with Moscow can be called a port of five seas: Kazan, Uglich, Volgograd, and so on. But these are details, of course. The main thing is that it sounds good. In general, the idea of ​​making Moscow a “port of five seas” is absolutely Stalinist. He liked to create outstanding projects, contrary to common sense. Here the capital, located in the center of the European part of Russia, will be a port of five seas - this is an ambitious project that requires a lot of money and human effort. But socialism is on the shoulder

Moscow, the capital of the Russian Federation, one of the largest and most beautiful cities in the world, is called by many different names. This is the "Capital", this is the "Third Rome", and "Golden-domed", and "White Stone", but there is another name that is characteristic of Moscow. And today we will understand its origin, answering the question of why they say that Moscow is a port of five seas.

There are no seas in Moscow

And indeed, looking at the map of Moscow or Russia, it becomes extremely obvious that the capital of the Russian Federation is not washed by five seas. Moreover, the metropolis is not washed by 4 or even 2 seas, they are not around the city at all.

Of the reservoirs in the capital, there is only the Moscow River, several reservoirs and lakes. However, as we have already said, not a single hint of the sea.

The occurrence of an expression

So, but who introduced such a dubious name for the capital of Russia, which has taken root and is in use to this day? And it was invented by none other than Joseph Stalin. It was the Generalissimo of the USSR who became the person who first pronounced this name, thereby making it one of the unofficial names of the capital of Russia.

Why Moscow is called the port of five seas

This name was announced by Stalin back in 1936, and this event was timed to coincide with the opening of the water canal, which received the name "Moscow-Volga". By the way, years later this channel was renamed and today is known as the Moscow Channel.

The fact is that the construction of this canal ensured the connection of the Moscow River with another major river - the Volga. And the appearance of this interchange, as a result, also influenced the fact that since 1936 a direct waterway appeared from Moscow immediately to five different seas.

We are talking about the following seas:

• Azov;
• Black;
• Caspian;
• White;
• Baltic.

Thus, the capital of Russia, which is not washed by any sea-scale reservoir, received such an unofficial, but very beautiful name as the “Port of the Five Seas”. It is worth noting that Stalin was famous for his ability to give beautiful and vowel names to various objects that left a place in history and are still used to this day.

It is noteworthy that the very idea of ​​a project aimed at connecting the Volga and the Moskva River was hatched for more than one century, because Peter the Great had already conceived such an operation, but at this stage in history this project was incredibly difficult to implement, therefore - this did not happen.

Many of us at least once in our lives have heard the expression that Moscow is a port of five seas. But if you pick up a map of the Moscow region, then no one will find a single sea nearby. Why did they start talking like that? Let's start in order.

Ship sailing

In ancient times, there were no cars, no trains, no planes, and it was always necessary to deliver food and other various goods to cities. The fleet came to the rescue. Of course, ships in antiquity were not the same as they are now. Today they can swim against the current with the help of an engine, and earlier ships were dragged on ropes. This work was done by horses. A man harnessed and led them along the coastline. However, it was hard for horses, but it was even more difficult for a person to do such work.

This fact is confirmed by the name "Barge Haulers on the Volga". On it, the artist depicted a crowd of barge haulers, exhausted by hard work, who pull the ship on ropes. Their faces were burnt from the scorching sun, their foreheads covered with sweat, their clothes turned into shreds from hard work. It is terrible to think how much strength and health these people gave in order to transport the cargo to where it is needed. Sometimes a person had to move loaded ships in this way even through forests and meadows in order for the ship to continue its journey along the river. Since then, the expression has gone that ships do not swim, but walk.

Muscovites know that there is a town called Volokolamsk in their region. The name of this city consists of two roots "volok" and "llama". This settlement arose precisely in the transshipment place where the ship was pulled out of the water and dragged along the land to the Voloshnia riverbed. Such navigation of ships continued for many centuries, but in the 18th century Emperor Peter the Great came up with the idea of ​​building a special canal. But the first mention of the port of the five seas in history will be even later.

man-made rivers

Sovereign Peter the Great came up with the opportunity to shorten the waterway for the ship. Imagine that from Moscow to sail you need not 200 kilometers, like a car, but much more. The thing is that the rivers are very winding, they have many twists and turns, so the waterway is longer than the highway.

Our emperor came up with the idea of ​​digging a deep trench in those parts of the river where it bends very strongly, then closing the old channel near the river, not allowing water to pass through, and filling the new trench with it. This is how Peter's idea straightened some rivers!

Indeed, such a road was more convenient and shorter than the previous one. Surprisingly, such an idea made it possible to build waterways in places where they never existed. So that a person would not have to carry ships on himself, it was enough to dig a deep channel, and a highway for the fleet was erected.

You may be surprised, but the active sovereign nevertheless made such a project a reality. Under his leadership, the Vyshnevolotsk Canal was built. connected the two and Tsna. So from the Volga the ships got into the Baltic Sea. The port of the five seas was later built in a similar way.

Unrealized plans

Sovereign Peter the Great at one time decided to connect the Moscow River and the Volga. But these plans were not destined to be fulfilled. In the XVIII century, the emperor gave the order to draw up an estimate for the construction, and when it was prepared, having familiarized himself with it, Peter the Great said disappointedly: “However!”

The construction of such a canal at that time turned out to be very expensive and long, since there was no equipment that could do it quickly and without human casualties. And you and I are getting closer to answering the question: why is Moscow called the port of five seas?

The capital is thirsty

Each of us knows that there is drinking water in the tap due to the fact that the city is built on the banks of the river. So it was with Moscow. On the threshold of the 20th century, the capital begins to develop so rapidly that the townspeople experience a shortage of clean water. The city authorities urgently needed to take any measures.

And in 1931, it was decided to connect the main river of the capital with the Volga. Only she could help Moscow in this situation. The following year, the construction of the Great Moscow Canal began. The grandiose construction lasted 5 years, and in the spring of 1937 the canal was successfully erected.

Its length was 128 kilometers. In the same spring, on March 23, the Volga was stopped for 3 minutes, and the canal was filled with Volga water. The Ivankovskoe reservoir was filled, on April 18, water from the Volga made the capital's residents drink!

It turns out that not all Muscovites know how long the water they drink has covered.

Moscow - a port city of five seas

Here is the answer to the question. The channel was opened during the reign of Joseph Stalin. This expression sounded from the lips of the head of the Soviet state. The meaning of this phrase was that after the construction of the Moscow and Volga-Don canals from the main city, you can get to:

• Black Sea.
• Sea of ​​Azov.
• White Sea.
• the Baltic Sea.
• Caspian Sea.

The status of "port of five seas" can be assigned not only to Moscow, but also to all those cities that have a water connection with the capital. These cities include Uglich, Volgograd, Kazan and so on. It was common for the Generalissimo of the Soviet Union to build such large-scale projects, so it was Stalin who came up with the idea of ​​making a port of five seas in Moscow.

As you know, toponyms can be both official, marked on all maps, and folk, when a particular city, village, river or mountain is called by the inhabitants of the region in their own way. The Moscow Sea is one of such toponyms. It is well known not only in the capital and its environs. And although the official name of this reservoir is the Ivankovskoye reservoir, the popular name suits it much more. After all, the history of the emergence of this sea is closely connected with the scope of shock construction projects of the Stalinist era, when for the sake of a higher goal they spared neither the prisoners of the Gulag, nor the flooded cities and towns.

Mogilny Island in the Ivankovsky Reservoir

The Ivankovskoye reservoir is called the Moscow Sea, primarily because of its size. The area of ​​the reservoir is 327 km². Its length is about 30 km, and the width in different places is from 2 to 5 km. The maximum depth of the sea is 19 meters. The Ivankovskoye reservoir is located in the upper reaches of the Volga, from which the Moscow Canal originates, supplying fresh water to the capital. The cities of Konakovo and Dubna, as well as the settlements of Kozlovo, Novozavidovsky and Radchenko are located on the seashores.

The flooded city of Korcheva.

The Volga water in the reservoir is kept by a nine-kilometer dam. Ivankovskaya hydroelectric power station and Konakovskaya state district power station use this reservoir for hydrotechnical purposes. Cargo and passenger shipping is carried out along the Moscow Sea, it connects the cities of the Volga region with the capital. The shores of the reservoir and the islands formed on it are occupied by boarding houses, rest houses, and children's health resorts.

Big Volga (Dubna). HPP and spillway dam Ivankovsko

The reservoir was artificially created in 1937 as a result of the construction of a canal that connected the Volga with the Moscow River. This is part of the implementation of the ambitious project of the Soviet government, called "Moscow - the port of five seas."

Barge haulers in the upper reaches of the Volga.

According to historical documents, the first plans for the construction of a canal connecting the Volga with the Moscow River arose during the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. But his son Peter the Great considered this project too costly. Although the direct shipping route "from the Volga to the Balts" had its prospects, primarily from the point of view of the growth in the volume of cargo transportation.

Locks of the Ivankovsky Reservoir

Under Nicholas the First, they returned to the project again. In 1824, Nicholas I entrusted the development of a new canal project to Major General Mikhail Nikolaevich Bugaisky. Some changes were made to the "Petrovsky" project of the canal. The total length of the waterway was 214 miles (about 292 km).

Flooded City Korcheva

In 1826, according to this project, construction work began in the upper reaches of the Sestra, which lasted more than twenty years. In the area of ​​Solnechnaya Gora, where the city of Solnechnogorsk (formerly the village of Solnechnaya Gora) is now located, the Sestra and Istra rivers were connected by an eight-kilometer canal, the width of which was 45 meters. To replenish the canal with water, a dam was built near the village of Zagorye, with a length of about two kilometers, and a reservoir with a volume of 12.6 million cubic meters was formed in the valley of the Sestra and Mazikha rivers. This is a reservoir, better known as Senezh Lake, according to one version, named after the graveyard that used to be here, and according to another, after the name of Catherine II's favorite horse - the Seneschal.

Catherine's Canal in Solnechnogorsk today

The rivers Sestra and Istra were straightened. 13 were built on Istra, and 20 on Sestra, wooden and stone locks of the same dimensions as those on the Tikhvin water system. In 1850, the new waterway Moscow - Volga was solemnly opened. But soon the era of rail freight began, and the waterway was simply not needed. In 1860, just 10 years after the official opening, the Catherine Canal ceased to exist, gradually falling into disrepair. Huge investments and labor costs were wasted.

Construction of the Ivankovskaya HPP

At the beginning of the 20th century, the problem of supplying the capital with drinking water became urgent, and the need for a canal was again discussed. The First World War and the October Revolution put these plans on hold. The political decision to connect the Volga with the Moscow River was made only in 1931. The village of Ivankovo, from where the construction of the dam began, was moved to a new location. So the name "Novo-Ivankovo" appeared on the map of the region. Just think: as a result of the construction of the reservoir, the city of Korcheva and more than 100 surrounding villages were flooded. The residents of these settlements were forced to move by the authorities. Forests, cemeteries, churches, gardens remained under water.

Flooded Villages

Tens of thousands of people round the clock dug the earth with shovels, loaded the soil onto wheelbarrows and manually lifted it over the edge of the future reservoir. Due to groundwater, the prisoners worked in the mud. People who died from unbearable stress, hunger and cold were buried there, in common pits. Like the White Sea Canal, the Moscow Sea splashes literally over the bones. The canal was completed in early 1937. The spring flood of the Volga quickly filled the Ivankovskoye reservoir. And already on May 1 of the same year, ships left Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod): Iosif Stalin, Klim Voroshilov, Mikhail Kalinin and Vyacheslav Molotov. They successfully reached the capital.

Ivankovo, Dubna. Preparing to flood the village

All this was destroyed by the will of the party leaders for the sake of a higher goal. The main wave of migrants moved to the neighboring city of Konakovo, which was lucky to remain on the map of the Moscow region. During the construction of the Ivankovskoye reservoir, as well as on the White Sea Canal, hard labor of Gulag prisoners was widely used. Their living conditions cannot be called human. The unheated, leaky barracks of Dmitlag and Khimlag sprang up along the entire construction site. And the party bosses gave the prisoners the nickname "Canal Army". At the same time, propaganda films were shot and articles were written stating that thanks to work, former criminals are embarking on the path of correction.

Photos Volga Selizharovo

The Ivankovo ​​reservoir and the canal that connected the Volga with the Moskva River were considered by the Soviet government not only as the largest hydraulic structures. It was one of the symbols of the era of socialism. Therefore, two monuments were erected on the banks of the canal - to Lenin and Stalin. The height of each monument together with the pedestal was 26 meters. However, after the exposure of the cult of personality, during the time of Nikita Khrushchev, the statue of Stalin was blown up.

Despite the most difficult working conditions and thousands of lives lost, despite the flooded villages, the Ivankovskoye reservoir and the canal solved the task: the Moscow River again became full-flowing and suitable for navigation, and the inhabitants of the capital never felt interruptions in water supply. The construction of the reservoir became one of the stages of the ambitious project "Moscow - the port of five seas", implemented in Stalin's time. Its meaning is that it became possible to reach the Black, Azov, Caspian, Baltic and White Seas from the capital by waterways. The Moscow Canal and the Volgo-Don opened the way to the three southern seas. And the aforementioned White Sea Canal allowed ships to sail from the capital to the Baltic and the White Sea.