DON RIVER

The Dnieper, Don, and Volga river basins and their drainage network. one of the great rivers of the European portion of Russia. It has been a vital artery in Russian history since the days of Peter I the Great, who initiated a hydrographic survey of its course. Throughout the world the river is associated with images of the turbulent and colourful Don Cossacksromanticized in a famous series of novels by the 20th-century Russian writer Mikhail Sholokhovand with a series of large-scale engineering projects that have enhanced the waterway's economic importance. The Don River rises in the small reservoir of Shat, located in the Central Russian Upland near the city of Novomoskovsk. It flows generally in a southerly direction for a total distance of 1,162 miles (1,870 kilometres), draining a basin of some 163,000 square miles (422,000 square kilometres), before it enters the Gulf of Taganrog in the Sea of Azov. It lies between the Volga River to the east and the Dnieper River to the west. In its middle and lower courses, from the confluence with the Chornaya Kalitva River to its mouth, the Don forms an enormous eastward-bulging arc as far as its junction with the Ilovlya River. Near the top of the arc, the vast Tsimlyansk Reservoir begins. The VolgaDon Ship Canal stretches from the upper part of the reservoir to the Volga, which at that point is a mere 50 miles distant. From its source in the Tula oblast, the Don crosses the Lipetsk, Voronezh, Volgograd, and Rostov oblasts, through the forest steppe and renowned steppe zones of southwestern Russia. Along the way it collects the waters of numerous tributaries, the most important of which are the Krasivaya Mecha, Sosna, Chornaya Kalitva, Chir, and Donets (right bank) and the Voronezh, Khopyor, Medveditsa, Ilovlya, Sal, and Manych (left bank). The river winds throughout its course, and the drop along its length is about 620 feet (190 metres). historic river of Russia. The Don River rises in the small reservoir of Shat near the city of Novomoskovsk, south of Moscow in the central Russian uplands and flows for 1,162 mi (1,870 km) in a generally southerly direction until it enters the Gulf of Taganrog in the Sea of Azov. The following article summarizes information about the Don River. For full treatment, see Europe: Don River. The major tributaries are the Krasivaya Mecha, Sosna, Chir, and Donets (right bank) and the Voronezh, Khopyor, and Manych (left bank). In its upper course the Don flows along the eastern edge of the central Russian heights through a narrow valley; in its middle course the valley widens to about 4 mi, and the river flows into the Tsimlyansk Reservoir, which dominates the Don's lower course. The Tsimlyansk Reservoir (188 mi long, 24 mi wide) has raised the level of the river by 85 ft, regularized the annual flow, and made the lower course a major transportation artery. The climate of the basin is moderately continental with average January temperatures of 12 to 18 F (-11 to -8 C) and July temperatures of 66 to 72 F (19 to 22 C); annual precipitation decreases from 23 in. (584 mm) in the north to 14 to 15 in. in the south. The Don is primarily fed by snow; it annually carries about 6,800,000 tons (6,200,000 metric tons) of dissolved mineral substances to the Sea of Azov. Most of the basin (163,000 sq mi [422,000 sq km] ) is rich farm and timber land; an extensive network of canals provides irrigation in the lower course. The river carries cargoes of lumber, grain, building materials, and other bulk freight. Its delta has valuable fish (pike, perch, carp, sturgeon) resources. The river is navigable (in the spring) as far as 990 mi from the Sea of Azov; straightening and dredging operations are necessary to maintain navigation in the upper reaches. The largest ports are Kalach-na-Donu, Tsimlyansk, and Rostov-na-Donu. Additional reading The Dnieper, Don, and Volga rivers are often treated together because of their physical and economic interaction. Survey information is found in such general sources as National Geographic Society, Great Rivers of the World (1984); Michael T. Florinsky (ed.), McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Russia and the Soviet Union (1961); S.V. Kalesnik and V.F. Pavlenko (eds.), Soviet Union: A Geographical Survey (1976; originally published in Russian, 1972); and, in Russian, M.I. L'Vovich, Reki SSSR (1971). The following study the influence of civilization and human interference on riverine biology, ecology, and river flow: I.A. Shiklomanov, Antropogennye izmeneniia vodnosti rek (1979); S.L. Vendrov, Problemy preobrazovaniia rechnykh sistem SSSR, 2nd rev. ed. (1979); and A.B. Avakian and V.A. Sharapov, Vodokhranilishcha gidroelektrostantsii SSSR (1962), focusing on water reservoirs and hydroelectric power plants. Daniel R. Snyder, Notes of a Visit to the Middle Volga, Soviet Geography 21(3):180183 (1980), describes a cruise on the Volga and Don and visits to the major cities of the area. The many relevant historical works include Richard G. Klein, Man and Culture in the Late Pleistocene (1969), which deals with the Stone Age civilization of the Don River valley; and Boris A. Raev, Roman Imports in the Lower Don Basin, trans. from Russian (1986), based on the result of the archaeological excavation in the Don River region. Philip P. Micklin