Rybinsk Reservoir
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The Rybinsk Reservoir (Russian: ), informally called the Rybinsk Sea, is a vast water reservoir on Volga River and its tributaries Sheksna and Mologa. Its area is 4580 km², volume 25.4 km³, maximum depth 28 m, altitude of the surface: 102 m. Geographical coordinates: . The principal ports are Cherepovets in the Vologda Oblast and Vesyegonsk in the Tver Oblast.
The construction of the dam in Rybinsk started in 1935 and was finished in 1941, and filling of the reservoir continued until 1947. Some 150,000 people had to be resettled elsewhere, and the historic town of Mologa in Yaroslavl Oblast along with 663 villages have completely disappeared under water. At that time, the reservoir was the largest man-made body of water on Earth. As the time goes by, however, it has been increasingly viewed as a typical sample of Stalinist voluntarism. Today the dam is less important for electricity supply (power output is 346 MW) than it used to be, but the ecological damage caused by the reservoir is being re-evaluated and many find it to be very large.
See also
References
External links
- [Russian Atlantis: What lies underneath the Rybinsk Sea] (in Russian)
- [Webpage of the Leushino Monastery, now submerged under the waters of the Rybinsk Sea] (in Russian)
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