Moscow Canal

Moscow Canal
Between Pestovskoye and Pyalovskoye reservoirs
Former names	Moscow-Volga Canal
Date completed	1937 (1937)
Start point	Ivankovo Reservoir
End point	Moskva River
Locks	8
Length	79.6 miles (128.1 km)
Maximum height above sea level	531 ft (162 m)

The Moscow Canal (Russian: Кана́л и́мени Москвы́), named the Moscow-Volga Canal until the year 1947, is a canal that connects the Moskva River with the Volga River. It is located in Moscow itself and in the Moscow Oblast. The canal connects to the Moskva River 191 kilometers from its estuary in Tushino (an area in the north-west of Moscow), and to the Volga River in the town of Dubna, just upstream of the dam of the Ivankovo Reservoir. Length of the canal is 128 km.

It was constructed from the year 1932 to the year 1937^[1] by Gulag prisoners during the early to mid Stalin era, under the direction of Matvei Berman. During the process about 22,000 prisoners died^[2]

Thanks to the Moscow Canal, Moscow has access to five seas: the White Sea, Baltic Sea, Caspian Sea, Sea of Azov, and the Black Sea. This is why Moscow is sometimes called the "port of the five seas" (порт пяти морей). Apart from transportation the canal also provides for about half of Moscow's water consumption, and the shores of its numerous reservoirs are used as recreation zones.

One of the world's tallest statues of Vladimir Lenin, 25-meter (82 ft) high, built in 1937, is located at Dubna at the confluence of the Volga River and the Moscow Canal. The accompanying statue of Joseph Stalin of similar size was demolished in 1963 during the period of de-stalinization.^{[citation needed]}

25m tall statue of Lenin at Dubna

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Moscow-Volga canal.

Coordinates: 56°43′N 37°08′E / 56.717°N 37.133°E / 56.717; 37.133

v t e Volga River Tributaries Selizharovka Vazuza Tvertsa Shosha Dubna Medveditsa Nerl Kashinka Sit Mologa Suda Sheksna Sogozha Kotorosl Kostroma Nyomda Unzha Uzola Oka Kudma Kerzhenets Sura Vetluga Rutka Tsivil Great Kokshaga Little Kokshaga Anish Ilet Sviyaga Sumka Kazanka Kama Aktay Bezdna Cheremshan Sok Samara Chapayevka Little Irgiz Irgiz Tereshka Yeruslan Akhtuba (distributary) Reservoirs Volgo Lake Ivankovo Uglich Rybinsk Gorky Cheboksary Kuybyshev Saratov Volgograd Hydroelectric stations Ivankovo Uglich Rybinsk Nizhny Novgorod Cheboksary Zhiguli Saratov Volga Canals Moscow Canal Volga–Baltic Waterway Volga–Don Canal