Volga
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Volga. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the largest river of Europe; rises in the central Russian province of Tver, near the Dwina, about 200 miles from the Gulf of Finland; flows S. E. through several small lakes, receiving the Selicharovka from Lake Seliger, then S. E. past Rsjev to Subzov, where it turns N. E., passing Tver and Rybinsk, then S. E. through the provinces of Jaroslav, Kostroma, Nijni Novgorod, and Kasan, passing Nijni Novgorod and Kasan, and receiving from the right the Oka, and from the left the Mologa, Kostroma, Unsha, and Wetluga. At Kasan it turns S., receives from the left the great Kama and the Samara, and from inces of Simbirsk, Saratov, Samara, and the right the Sura, separates the provpasses the towns of Simbirsk, Samara, Sysran, Wolsk, and Saratov. At Sarepta it turns sharply to the S. E. and flows in that direction to the Caspian, which it enters by 8 principal and 200 smaller mouths, forming a delta 68 miles in breadth. Besides those named, about 100 smaller tributaries join this giant river, which with its affluents has a drainage area of 563,300 square miles, waters 22 provinces, and measures from its source to its mouth 2,300 miles. Its breadth at Tver 75 feet, the mouth of the Mologa 1,542 feet, above the influx of Kama 4,920 feet and opposite the mouth of the Kama nearly 5 miles. The course of the Volga is very slow, its total fall is only 896 feet , and its channel is comparatively sha shallow, its greatest depth being 85 feet. The Volga is free from ice for 200 days in the year, in Kostroma, Jaroslav , and Kasan for 152. Steamers ply regularly on its waters between Tver and Nijni Novgorod, Kasan, and Astrakhan; and from Nijni Novgorod by the Kama to Perm, by the Oka to Riazan, by the Ufa to Ufa, and by the Unsha to Ugor. The three great canal systems of Vishni-Volotchok, Tichvin, and the Marien canal, connecting the Volga with Petrograd, and the canal of the Duke of Württemberg joining it with the Dwina, make an unbroken water way between the Baltic and the Caspian Sea. A canal to join the Volga with the Don, between Zarizyn at Katchalinsk , was projected by Peter the Great, but was never executed. Its purpose is now effected by the Zarizyn-Kalatsch railway. The Volga has extensive fisheries , chiefly of salmon and sturgeon.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the longest river of Europe. It rises in the marshes of the Valdai plateau and flows in a general southerly direction through Russia, emptying by a delta into the Caspian Sea . It is the largest inland river in the world. The best known cities on its banks are Nijni-Novgorod and Astrakhan. It is about 2,400 miles in length and is navigable throughout the greater part of its course. With its tributaries it affords 7,000 miles of waterway. It is connected by canals with the Baltic and with them forms a waterway of great importance leading from the Baltic to the Caspian. The fisheries of the Volga are also of importance. See Nijni-Novgorod ; Astrakhan ; Sturgeon ; Caspian
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's noted in 1921 that a Volga–Don canal "was projected by Peter the Great, but was never executed"; it was finally opened in 1952, and the Volga is now joined to the Don, the Baltic and the White Sea by modernised deep-water routes. The free-flowing river both accounts describe, with its "very slow" current and total fall of under 900 feet, has since been converted into a staircase of reservoirs behind large hydroelectric dams built from the 1930s onward — among them Rybinsk, Zhiguli (Kuybyshev) and Volgograd — so that much of the channel is now standing water rather than river. Nearly every town on the list was renamed at some point: Simbirsk became Ulyanovsk in 1924, Tsaritsyn became Stalingrad and then Volgograd in 1961, Samara spent decades as Kuybyshev, and Nizhny Novgorod was Gorky from 1932 to 1990. The "extensive fisheries, chiefly of salmon and sturgeon" have largely collapsed: dams cut the sturgeon off from their spawning grounds and the beluga is now classed as critically endangered, with the caviar trade under international control.
Written for this edition, 2026.