Moskva River

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Map of the Volga watershed with the Moskva highlighted; the two rivers are directly connected by the Moscow Canal.

The Moskva River (Russian/Cyrillic: Москва-река) is a river that flows through the Moscow and Smolensk Oblasts in Russia, and is a tributary of the Oka River. The length of the river is 503 km. The area of its basin is 17,600 sq km. It freezes in November-December and begins to thaw around late March. Its main tributaries are the Ruza, Istra, Yauza, Pakhra, and Severka rivers.

Moscow (Москва́), the capital of Russia, is situated on its banks. The river also flows through the towns of Mozhaysk, Zvenigorod, Zhukovsky, Bronnitsy, Voskresensk, and — at the confluence of the Moskva and Oka — Kolomna.

Moskva and Moscow are two different transliterations of the same Russian word Москва. The city is named after the river. The origin of the name is unknown, although several theories exist [1]. One theory suggests that the source of the name is an ancient Finnic language, in which it means "dark" and "turbid". Alternatively, the name may come from the Finno-Permic Komi language, meaning "cow-river" or from the Finno-Volgaic Mordovian language, meaning "bear-river".

The Battle of Borodino is known in French as "Battle of the Moskva River" (Bataille de la Moscowa). The river is also referenced by the Scorpions in their song Wind Of Change (1990).