Northern Dvina River

The Northern Dvina (, ) is a river in Northern Russia flowing through the Vologda Oblast and Arkhangelsk Oblast into the Dvina Bay of the White Sea. Along with the Pechora River to the east, it drains most of northwest Russia into the Arctic Ocean. It should not be confused with Western Dvina.

The length is . If we add its major tributary, the Sukhona, it is – about as long as the Rhine River. The area of its basin is 357,052 square kilometers – about the size of Montana.

The Northern Dvina basin is roughly T-shaped. The 558-km Sukhona River flows east and joins the west-flowing Vychegda River and the combined stream flows northwest into the White Sea near Archangelsk. Looking more closely, the Sukhona flows east and meets the north-flowing Yug River at Veliky Ustyug. The combined stream, now called the Northern Dvina, flows north about 60 km and receives the west-flowing Vychegda at Kotlas and then turns northwest to flow into the White Sea. The Sukhona-Vychegda was an important east–west transportation route while the Northern Dvina-Yug was a north–south route. The upper Sukhona is now connected by the Northern Dvina Canal to the Volga–Baltic Waterway which links Petersburg to Moscow.

Along the Northern Dvina

The Sukhona River flows east north-east and joins the north-flowing Yug River at Veliky Ustyug and acquires the name 'Northern Dvina'. The P157 highway comes in from the south and begins to run parallel to the river. The river flows about 60 km north crossing from the Vologda Oblast into the Arkhangelsk Oblast to Kotlas where it receives the west-flowing Vychegda River which rises in the northern Ural Mountains. The railway from Vologda to Vorkuta crosses here. It then turns northeast and receives a number of smaller rivers like the Uftyuga River and the Nizhnyaya Toyma River, both from the northeast. Near the town of Bereznik the Vaga River comes in from the south, as does the M8 highway (Russia) which runs from Moscow through Vologda to Arkhangelsk. The Emtsa or Yomtsa River and the P1 highway join from the southeast. The Pinega River, formerly an important river route, joins from the east. Near the mouth of the Pinega the river splits into several channels, among which is the ancient town of Kholmogory 75 km southeast of Arkhangelsk. The branches rejoin and pass the modern logging town of Novodvinsk. The 900 square kilometer delta begins. In the upstream part of the delta is the great port of Arkhangelsk which gradually replaced Kholmogory as the chief town of the region. On the southwest side of the delta is the naval base of Severodvinsk, the second largest city in the region. The delta ends in the Dvina Bay of the White Sea.

Navigation and canals

In summer the river is navigable all along and is heavily used for timber floating. The Northern Dvina Canal connects it with the Volga–Baltic Waterway. In the 19th century, a short-lived Northern Ekaterininsky Canal, now abandoned, connected the Northern Dvina basin with the Kama basin as well.

The river was scene of several battles during the Russian Civil War, many involving the Entente interventionist army as part of their North Russia Campaign.

References

External links

Northern Dvina

A detailed article about Nortnern Dvina in the 1906 Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary

Category:Rivers of Arkhangelsk Oblast Category:Rivers of Vologda Oblast