Don (river)

Don (river) (ancient, Tanais), river of Russia, about 1,963 km (1,220 mi) long. It rises south-east of Moscow, flows in a general south-easterly direction to a point near Volgograd, and then in a south-westerly direction, emptying into the Sea of Azov, an arm of the Black Sea, near Rostov. The three mouths of the river form a delta with an area of about 337 sq km (130 sq mi).

Rising at an elevation of only 190 m (630 ft) and flowing for the most part through gently sloped, fertile steppes, the river has become known as the “quiet Don”. It drains an area of about 429,900 sq km (166,000 sq mi). Its chief tributary is the Donets River; other tributaries, from north to south, include the Voronezh, Khoper, Medveditsa, and Manych rivers. Most of the land in the basin is used for farming and logging, and a well-developed canal network provides irrigation from the Don. The Donets Basin, a region north-west of the delta, is rich in coal and highly industrialized. Rostov is the chief port and principal city on the Don; other cities include Serafimovich, Voronezh, and Novomoskovsk.

The Don varies in breadth from about 152 to 579 m (500 to 1,900 ft) and in depth from about 1 to 21 m (3 to 70 ft), with numerous shallow reaches. It is navigable for some 1,287 km (800 mi), but during the winter the greater part is frozen; in the spring, melting snow and ice swell the Don, especially its lower reaches. In June the river begins to subside, and in August most of it is so shallow that navigation is almost halted.

The Don was long an important traffic artery from the Black Sea and Caucasus regions of old Russia to the central part of the country. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the inception of national economic planning, the commercial importance of the river was enhanced as a result of its integration with other important waterways. In the north, the Yepifan Canal was constructed to link the Don with the Upa River, a feeder stream of the Oka River. The Oka is a tributary of the Volga, which in turn is connected with Moscow by another canal. In the south-east, the Volga-Don Canal, approximately 97 km (60 mi) long, connects the Don with the Volga south of Volgograd.

Ancient Greek geographers considered the Don, which they called the Tanais, part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. Later, Tatar invaders of Europe called the river the Tuna or Duna. In the Middle Ages, serfs fleeing the oppression of Muscovite princes in the north settled in the Don Basin; their descendants became known as the Don Cossacks. During World War II, major battles were fought on the banks of the Don between the Germans and the Soviet forces.