The river flowing through Belgorodskaya and Rostov region Russia, Kharkov, Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine, the right (largest) tributary of the Don. The seventh largest river in Ukraine and the most important source fresh water in the east of this country. Seversky Donets is the largest river in eastern Ukraine and the most major influx Don. The total length of the river is 1053 km, the basin area is 98,900 km².
The river received its name due to the fact that it flowed from the Seversk land (Seversky principality), in contrast to the sources of the Don, as the 16th century traveler Alexander Guagnini writes: “There is also another, small Tanais, which originates in the Seversky principality ( that’s why it’s called Donets Seversky) and above Azov it flows into the big Tanais.”
Seversky Donets originates on the Central Russian Upland, near the village. Podolhi in Prokhorovsky district Belgorod region Russia. Source coordinates 51°00′ N. w. 36°59′ E. d., the height of the source is about 200 m above sea level. There are over 3,000 rivers in the Seversky Donets basin, of which 425 are more than 10 km long and 11 rivers are more than 100 km long. Over a thousand of them flow directly into the Seversky Donets. The Seversky Donets is fed predominantly by snow, so water flow is uneven throughout the year. The spring flood lasts about 2 months from February to April, during this period the water rises by 3 - 8 m.
The width of the channel generally ranges from 30 to 70 m, sometimes reaching 100-200 m, and in the area of reservoirs - 4 km. The bottom of the channel is predominantly sandy, uneven, with depth fluctuations from 0.3 m on the rifts to 10 m on the reaches.
The river freezes in winter with a surface ice thickness of 20 to 50 cm. The freezing period is usually two to three months from mid-December to the end of March.
The Seversky Donets flows into the Don 218 km from its mouth at an altitude of 5.5 m above sea level. Thus, the fall of the river is 195 m, the average slope is 0.18 m/km. The speed of the Seversky Donets current is small, in some areas almost zero, from 0.15 m/s near Chuguev to 1.41 m/s near Lisichansk.
For most of its course, the river has a wide valley: from 8-10 km in the upper reaches to 20-26 km in the lower reaches. The valley is asymmetrical over most of its length. The right bank is high (sometimes there are chalk rocks), strongly dissected by ravines, the left bank is flat, it has a floodplain with numerous oxbow lakes, lakes and swamps, the largest of which is Lake Liman. The river bed is characterized by tortuosity, especially before the confluence of the Oskol River. On the river (in the upper and middle reaches) there are many rifts, rapids, small rapids, and rubble.
IN upper reaches(to the city of Belgorod) is blocked by dams and consists of several small reservoirs. Below, after the confluence of the Volchya River, the Pecheneg Reservoir is located, supplying water to the city of Kharkov. Below the Pechenezh Reservoir, the Udy River and the largest tributary of the Seversky Donets, Oskol, flow into the Donets. Further, the valley expands; there are many oxbow lakes in the floodplain. In the middle reaches, the Seversky Donets is fed by the waters of the Dnieper River through the Dnieper-Donbass canal, and below the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal branches off, supplying water to the Donetsk coal basin. In the area of Donetsk (Donetsk region), the river crosses the Donetsk Ridge and flows in a narrow valley with steep and rocky slopes. In the lower reaches, for 230 km, the river is locked, has a weak current and a predominant width of 100-200 m. Near the mouth, the river splits into 3 branches.
Like many other rivers, the Seversky Donets played vital role in life ancient man. The river not only served as a source of water and food, but later as a means of transportation, a defensive line and a trade route. In addition, before the advent of cartography, rivers served as natural boundaries for the settlement of tribes and peoples. People have settled in the Seversky Donets basin since ancient times
A STORY ABOUT THE SEVERSKY DONTS
_______________________
I. E. Saratov (1930-2012)
“As for the route of the merchants of Rus', and they belong to the Slavs, they export beaver furs, black fox furs and swords from the far ends of Slavonia to the Sea of Rum... And if they wish, they travel along the Tanais, the river of the Slavs...”
Ibn Hardadbe "Book of Paths and Kingdoms"
Many cities and villages bear in their names the names of the rivers on whose banks they are located. For example, the city of Moscow is the Moscow River, the city of Kharkov is the Kharkov River. And there are countless such cities. Often, several namesake cities are located on the same river: the Ural River - the cities of Uralsk and Novouralsk, the Laba River - the cities of Labinsk and Ust-Labinsk, the Lopan River - the city of Cossack Lopan and the village of Vesyolaya Lopan.
On large rivers there are more cities with the same name. So, on the banks of the Volga there are about ten cities, whose names come from the name of this great river. There are even more of them on the banks of the ancient Dnieper-Slavutych: Dnepropetrovsk, Dneprodzerzhinsk, Verkhnedneprovsk, Verkhnedneprovsky, Dneprovskoye, Dnepryany, Dnepryanka, Novodneprovka, Kamenka-Dneprovskaya, Dneprokamenka, Nikolskoye-on-Dnieper, etc.
There are other rivers that have given their names to many cities and villages. But not a single river in the world knows as many names as were formed from the name of the Seversky Donets!
The name of the Seversky Donets was and is today carried by vast territories, geological structures, sections of railways, canals, rivers, numerous cities and villages.
Five rivers bear the name “Donets”, but each of them necessarily contains in its name a qualitative characteristic of the river: Seversky Donets, Lipovy Donets, Sazhnoy Donets, Sukhoi Donets, Dead Donets. Not just the Donets River, but the Seversky Donets, and so on for all five “Donetsk” rivers.
The Seversky Donets River originates in the Belgorod region and on its thousand-kilometer path (1053 km) crosses the Kharkov, Donetsk, Lugansk regions and flows into the Don River in the Rostov region. The Seversky Donets has two tributaries in its very upper reaches: the Lipovy Donets and the Sazhnoy Donets. And a thousand kilometers below, at the mouth before it flows into the Don, the Seversky Donets River is divided into two branches, and the right branch is long 38 km . is called Sukhoi Donets.
Every river flows from its source (beginning of the river) to its mouth (end of the river). But the name of the Seversky Donets is born before its origins and lives beyond its mouth. We mean the left bank tributary of the Seim River, which is called Donetsk Seimitsa, as well as the right branch of the delta. Don, which is called Dead Donets.
The origin of these not entirely ordinary names stretches back to the distant past of our Motherland. Five rivers bear the name “Donets”. However, each of them necessarily contains in its name a qualitative characteristic of the river - Seversky Donets, Lipovy Donets, Sazhnoy Donets, Sukhoi Donets, Dead Donets. This feature in the names refers, first of all, to the heroine of our story, the Seversky Donets River: not just Donets, but Seversky. And Seversky because the ancient trade route to the Black, Azov and Caspian seas. On the banks of these rivers stand the ancient Russian cities of Kyiv, Chernigov, and Kursk. And on the banks of the Seversky Donets and its tributaries even before Kievan Rus there were white stone fortresses built by the creators of the Saltovskaya culture.
Unfortunately, the white stone fortresses have not survived. But they survived Slavic names rivers that flowed and flow across our land today as they did a thousand years ago. Today, on the tributaries of the Seversky Donets rivers Kharkov, Lopan, Udy, Nemyshl, Rogan, Studenok, Lozovenka, Ocheretyanka, Alekseevskaya, Sarzhin Yar and others, on an area of more than 300 square meters. km is located one and a half million Kharkov. We have already said that the white stone fortresses of the Saltovskaya culture have not survived. But new cities grew on their settlements: Chuguev, Zmiev, Saltov and many others. However, despite the many “own” rivers flowing through the city, main river Kharkov is Seversky Donets. Only he is able to “water” Kharkov with Donetsk water, supplying the city with one million cubic meters of drinking water.
We will talk about the features of Kharkov’s water supply below, and now, after the first acquaintance with the “Donetsk” rivers, we will name the “Donetsk” namesake cities of Donets.
This is, first of all, the “capital” of Donbass, the center of the Donetsk region, the metropolis of Donetsk. Donetsk was born in 1862. His father was the metallurgical plant of the English investor John Hughes, which was being built at that time. That’s why the factory’s workers’ settlement was called Yuzovka for more than 60 years. In 1917, Yuzovka received city status. The city received its modern name only in 1961.
The capital Donetsk has a namesake city, which also bears the name Donetsk. It is located in the Rostov region on the very border of Ukraine and Russia. The old name of Russian Donetsk is Gundorovka.
The center of the Shebelinskoye gas field is named Chervony Donets.
Another Donetsk, but with the prefix “North”, is located on the left bank of the Donets just opposite Lisichansk. This largest center chemical industry Ukraine.
The circle of “Donetsk” namesake cities also includes the city of Seversk. It is located in the middle of the route from Slavyansk to Severodonetsk. And although the name of the city of Seversk does not contain the morpheme “Donets”, we are sure that the word Seversk was formed from the name of the indigenous inhabitants of the Donetsk region, the Seversky Slavs.
In addition to the cities listed above, geographical maps Donbass you can find three villages with the name Donetskoye, three more villages with the name Zadonetskoye, one Petrograd-Donetskoye, one - Pristan-on-Donets and three railway stations (Donets - on the section between Rostov-on-Don and Taganrog, Krasnodonetskaya - near the city Sinegorsky, Severo-Donetskaya - near the city of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Rostov region.) And at the mouth of the Donets there is the port of Ust-Donetsk.
In addition to many rivers, cities and villages, the name of the Seversky Donets was and is carried by vast territories, geological structures, giant canals, areas railways, administrative districts, feather grass Donetsk steppes, etc.
For example, the Donetsk coal basin (abbreviation Donbass), the Donetsk ridge (a hilly plateau at the northeastern foot of which the Seversky Donets flows), the Dnieper-Donets depression (the name of a geological structure on the territory of Ukraine), the Donetsk district of the Don Army Region (in the administrative structure of Russia until 1917), Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic (proclaimed by the Fourth Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog regions on 02/12/1918), Donetsk region (in the administrative structure of modern Ukraine), Seversky Donets-Donbass and Dnieper-Donbass canals and etc.
With this we will complete the statistics of “Donetsk” names and move on to another section of the essay, namely etymology.
What does the name Seversky Donets mean?
This is not a simple question at all. The fact is that deciphering geographical names is not always easy. To solve such problems, there is a special science called “toponymy”. This name comes from two Greek words: topos - place and onoma - name. It is especially difficult to decipher the names of rivers or, as scientists say, to decipher hydronyms. The term “hydronym” also comes from two Greek words: hydro - water and onoma - name.
While studying the oldest documents about the life of long-vanished peoples, ancient researchers discovered Interesting Facts: It turns out that river names are the oldest human names. This can be explained as follows.
U primitive man were extremely limited opportunities cognize the world. The harsh living conditions and primitive tools for obtaining food and clothing left him no opportunity to make any cruises. Therefore, all the names that ancient people gave to their environment were extremely simple: forest, field, cave, water, etc. These simple names completely satisfied people in ancient times, since they practically did not know other forests, other fields or waters. This was the period of “childhood” of humanity. But the man grew, and along with his growth, his knowledge of the surrounding world expanded. With new knowledge, new, more complex concepts and names appeared. Calm water, surrounded on all sides by shores, began to be called a lake, and other water, constantly flowing from somewhere to somewhere, began to be called a river. But with the emergence of new names, the old ones did not die and the concept of “water” began to be identified with the concept of “river”. Years passed, decades passed, centuries passed into oblivion. The boundaries of human possessions changed, forests cut down by humans or destroyed by fires disappeared, cities were built and destroyed, empires arose and died. Only the rivers remained in the same places where they flowed millions of years ago. And man had no more reliable landmark than the river. That's why the original names of the most large rivers, reprinted hundreds of thousands of times in the minds of successive generations, came to us almost unchanged. That is why the names of the largest rivers have a homogeneous, almost identical meaning. And the words (not names, but words) “Don”, “Dnieper”, “Dniester”, “Danube”, “Laba”, “Oka”, “Indus”, “Ganges”, “Ephrates”, “Nile”, “orinoco”, “rhine”, “sena”, “volga”, “desna” and many others originally meant water, river.
The word “don” is still preserved in this meaning. In Ossetian the word “don” originally means “water”, then “river” in general. The names of most Ossetian rivers are composed of adjective names with the addition of the common noun “don”. For example, Urs-don, Hobby-don, Ar-don, Gizel-don, Fiag-don, Khatal-don, Karma-don, etc.
Now, knowing the meaning of the name Don, you can guess that the name Donets comes from the name Don, to which the suffix “ets” was added. The Old Church Slavonic suffix “ets” gave words a diminutive meaning. In our case, the name Donets seems to mean “Small Don”, in contrast to “Big Don”. The diminutive meaning of the name Donets is aptly noted by an old Cossack proverb: “Don is with Donets, like father and son.”
In the hydronymy of the Don region, the suffix “ets” is characteristic of the early Slavic period. Many names have come to us that have a similar diminutive form. For example: Oskol - Okolets, Izyum - Raisins, Tor - Torets, Aksei - Aksenets, Kalitva - Kalitvinets, etc. In turn, the name of the Seversky Donets gave rise to many other names, which we have already talked about. True, the names of the railways. the Northern Donets station and the city of Severodonetsk are the result of an unfortunate geographical error.
The fact is that for many years there was confusion with the name of the Donets River. What is the correct name for the river: Seversky or Severny? Today this question no longer arises among geographers and without a shadow of a doubt they call the river Seversky Donets. But just yesterday there were such doubts. The erroneous name Northern Donets was used so widely that even the railway station was named by this name: Northern Donets and the city of Severodonetsk. This is what I.V. Sergeev writes about this in his book “The Secret geographical names": "...The name of the Donetsk Ridge arose from the name of the river that goes around the ridge from the northeast. This river, which is the right tributary of the Don, is still called by many as the Northern Donets, although it makes no sense.
Why "Northern"? After all, neither the southern, nor the western, nor the eastern Donets exist. Only in very few books, in particular, in the multi-volume “Russia”, published under the editorship of V.P. Semenov-Tianshansky, could you find correct name this river is the Seversky Donets. It should be connected not with the north, as a part of the world, but with the Seversk land, the Seversky appanage principality ancient Rus' named after Slavic tribe northerners who lived east of the Dnieper. Today, the centuries-old mistake is being corrected; in history and geography textbooks the river is called by its correct name, but on maps, to save space, the epithet is given in the abbreviated form “North. Donets,” and therefore many still use the old, incorrect name of the river.”
Maybe some readers of this essay will think: - Is it all the same between the Seversky Donets and the Northern Donets?
No, it doesn't matter. The name Seversky Donets is the living news of our distant ancestors - the Seversky Slavs, who lived many centuries ago on the lands of our Motherland. The names of the rivers Seversky Donets, Murom or Yar Sevryuk are historical monuments that we are obliged to preserve according to the law of the Constitution.
Seversky Slavs or northerners is the name of agricultural tribes who, during the times of Kievan Rus, lived on the upper left bank of the Dnieper in the basins of the Desna and Seim rivers. According to the author of this work, the northerners are descendants of the Croatian tribes, traces of which we find from the Don to the Carpathians. Many researchers have paid attention to the relationship between the ethnonyms of Croats and Serbs. Serbs is a later term and was first used as a name for East Slavic tribes only in the 9th century in the works of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. And the world-famous Slavist Lubor Niederle (1865 - 1930) believed that the ethnonym Serbs is a distorted form of the ethnonym Northerners.
I.V. Sergeev’s statement about the correct application of the definition Seversky, and not Northern, can be supported by information from historical geography and toponymy.
1. Internationally recognized Khazar scholar M.I. Artamonov wrote the following in his major work “History of the Khazars.”
“...A large Sarmatian tribe, the Aorsi, lived in the Caspian region around our era. This tribe at the beginning of our era was renamed Alanya, i.e. Alan. Then the Roxolans lived between the Dniester and the Don...”
For the Roxolans in the sources of the 5th-5th centuries. the tribes of the Rosomons, then the Rosses, and from the 8th century are recorded. sources talk about the Russians. It should be thought that there are connections between tribal names of different times, which today we can trace only in the very first approximation.
2. The Seversky Donets River on the map of the Arab cartographer Idrisi (1154) is called Rusiya, and the area in the upper reaches of the Donets and its tributaries is called Siveria.
3. Arab sources called the Black Sea the Russian Sea, the city of Kerch - the Russian city, and the Kerch Strait - the mouth of the Russian River.
4. In the charter of the Byzantine Emperor Leo V the Wise (886 - 912) “On the order of metropolitan churches subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople” in the list of churches in 61st place we find the Russian church, next to the Alanian church.
5. In the 9th-11th centuries. southern border ancient Russian appanage principalities passed approximately where the border of forest-steppe and steppe is located today. The capital cities of these principalities, Pereyaslav-Russky (now Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky), Kyiv, Chernigov and Kursk, were real border cities, several days' journeys on horseback from the nomadic Pechenegs, Ugrians and Cumans. To the south of these cities there was an endless steppe, which was called differently at different times. First by the Russian Field, then by the Polovtsian steppe (Dasht-I-Kipchak). After the Polovtsians, this steppe was called the Wild Field for almost 500 years. And at the other end of this steppe, a thousand kilometers away from Kyiv and Chernigov, there existed the Russian Tmutarakan principality, which for a long time did not lose connections with Kiev and Chernigov.
6. In 922, Ahmed Ibn Fadlan, secretary of the Arab embassy of the Baghdat Caliph to the Volga Bulgars, described in detail the appearance of the Russians, their homes and customs. The original report of Ibn Fadlan has not survived or has not yet been found. This description has come down to us in retellings of other Arab and Persian authors of the 12th, 13th and 16th centuries. For example, Amin Razi, a Persian writer of the 16th century, retold Ibn Fadlan’s description of the Russians.
“...Russians are a huge mass of people. Their people are mostly red-haired, tall, with a white body.
Instead of money /they/ have squirrel skins in circulation. They use them to make trade transactions... Libras are not common in those places. They make purchases and sales using a measuring cup. They are extremely fond of pig meat. Their king constantly lives in a very high castle, and 400 soldiers are constantly with him... The flax of this region and area is famous, especially the flax of the king’s residence, which is called Kiyava.
Of their famous and well-known cities, one is Chernig, and the other is Kharka.”
Given the theme of this story, in the above description of the Russians, we were especially interested in the names of “famous and famous” Russian cities. In our opinion, Kiyava is the Arabic rendering of the name of ancient Kyiv, Chernigov - Chernigov, and Kharka - Kharkov. The existence of the ancient Kharkov settlement and a huge labyrinth of underground passages and halls are powerful arguments in defense of the hypothesis about the antiquity of the city, which existed in the 10th century in the Seversk land on the site of the historical center of modern Kharkov.
The above examples of even the most short excursion history and linguistics have shown what deep meaning conceals the definition of “Seversky” in comparison with faceless and nothing meaningful definition"Northern".
We have already spoken above about various definitions, which necessarily accompany the river in its various sections. So in the very upper reaches of the river flows the Lime Donets. The definition of “fake” is transparent and does not require explanation. The cities of Lipetsk and Leipzig bear “false” names.
There, in the upper reaches of the Donets flows a river called Sazhnoy Donets. According to the author, the definition of “sazhnaya” is related to the size of the river, namely its small width, less than one sazhen (sazhen is a Russian measure of length equal to 2.13 m).
Two rivers, Lipovy Donets and Sazhnoy Donets, merge to form a new river with the new name Seversky Donets. In other words, the confluence of the Lipovy Donets and the Sazheny Donets is the source of the Seversky Donets.
Originating in the north of the Belgorod region, Seversky Donets on its thousand-kilometer route crosses four more regions: Kharkov, Donetsk, Lugansk and Rostov. Donets flows into the Don River Seversky in two branches. The left branch is always full of water and therefore is considered the main channel of the Seversky Donets. The right branch, 38 km long, becomes shallow during dry periods and often dries out. Hence its name Dry Donets.
Sukhoi Donets is the fourth name of the Donets, but not the last. And that's why. Each river lives only up to its mouth. After two rivers merge, the name of one disappears and another river flows further. Usually the name of the smaller river disappears, and the larger one flows on to its mouth. But even after it flows into the Don, the name Donets does not disappear! It is found in the Don delta, where the right branch of its delta is named Dead Donets. The length of the Dead Donets is about 30 km. With northeastern winds driving water to the left bank, the Dead Donets becomes almost waterless. When there are winds from other directions, the Dead Donets comes to life, and its waters are plied by shallow-draft ships. In addition to the Dead Donets, there are four more main branches (arms) in the Don delta: Perevoloka or Krivaya Kutyurma, Egurcha, Kalancha and Stary Don. There are many other, smaller channels, oxbow lakes and various man-made canals. Getting acquainted with the names of the channels immediately raises the question: - Why was one of the branches of the Don delta called Donets, and the other Don?
Maybe a section of the Don River between the mouth of the modern Donets and Taganrog Bay Sea of Azov was once called the Donets, and the Don was considered a tributary of the Donets?
According to the author of this work, such confusion with the names of the Donets is not only possible, but also occurred in various periods of our history. Geography knows many examples when rivers with large catchment areas are mistakenly considered tributaries of smaller rivers. There are such examples in the Seversky Donets drainage basin. For example, the Kharkov River and the Lopan River. Many small rivers flow within the city of Kharkov. But three rivers, the sources of which are located in the Belgorod region, and their mouths are located within the city limits of Kharkov, are considered the main watercourses of the city. These are the rivers Kharkov, Lopan and Udy. All of them are approximately the same in length and water content. All three rivers flow from north to south. The Kharkov River collects water from an area of 1160 square meters. km, but is considered a tributary of the Lopan River, which collects water only from an area of 840 sq. km. Further, both rivers, united into one river called Lopan, collect water from an area of 2000 square meters. km, but flow into the Udy River, which, at its confluence with the Lopan River, collects water from an area of 1100 square meters. km.
Explain the situation when big river is a tributary of a smaller one, from an engineering point of view it is impossible. Moreover, in a number vintage maps the Lopan River is shown as a tributary of the Kharkov River, and in others the Kharkov River is shown as a tributary of the Lopan River. One should think that the omniscient had a hand here human factor. We also draw the attention of the inquisitive reader to the fact that in the “Book of the Great Drawing,” which was published in 1627, p. Lopan is indicated by a tributary of the river. Kharkov: “...and Lopin fell to Kharkov, and Kharkov to Udy...”.
These contradictions can only be explained by the fact that all the names of the rivers were formed long before man, putting aside his stone ax and armed with knowledge, was able to accurately determine the water reserves of each river and the areas of their catchment areas. But in the case of Seversky Donets There was no certainty in past centuries either. It is still not clear when in ancient times the Seversky Donets was called the Donets, and when the Don. The same ancient names Tanais and Girgis were and are still attributed either to the Don or to the Donets. The authors of the Academic edition of Herodotus's History (Leningrad, 1972) believe that Tanais is ancient name Donets. Academician B. A. Rybakov also called the Donets Tanais, and the Don - Girgis. Other authors only called Don Tanais.
This question did not become clearer even one and a half thousand years after Herodotus. Chronicles and other ancient Russian written monuments call the Donets the Great Don. In turn, the modern tributary of the Seversky Donets, the Uda River, was called the Donets. Obviously, these were the names of rivers that were common in those days, since the fortress built on the right bank of the Ud was also called “Donets” by our ancestors. It was to this city of Donets that Prince Igor, who escaped from Polovtsian captivity, reached in 1185.
I. E. Saratov, 2012
Saratov I. E. The story of the Seversky Donets / I. E. Saratov // History of the Zmievsky region. - Zmiev. - 03/04/2012.
Seversky Donets is the largest river in eastern Ukraine and the largest tributary of the Don. The total length of the river is 1053 km, the basin area is 98,900 km², the average annual flow at the confluence with the Don is 200 m³/sec. Seversky Donets originates on the Central Russian Upland, near the village. Podolhi in the Prokhorovsky district of the Belgorod region of Russia. There are over 3,000 rivers in the Seversky Donets basin, of which 425 are more than 10 km long, and 11 rivers are more than 100 km long. Over a thousand of them flow directly into the Seversky Donets. The largest tributaries: Oskol, Kalitva, Aidar, Derkul, Volchya, Udy, Bereka, Kazenny Torets, Krasnaya, Nezhegol... The Seversky Donets is fed predominantly by snow, so water flow is uneven throughout the year. The spring flood lasts about 2 months from February to April, during this period the water rises by 3 - 8 m, spreading in some places more than 3 km wide. The width of the channel generally ranges from 40 to 70 m, sometimes reaching 200-350 m. The bottom of the channel is predominantly sandy, uneven, with depth variations from 0.3 m on the rifts to 10 m on the reaches. Maximum depths are up to 15, in some places up to 20 m. The river freezes in winter with a surface ice thickness of 20 to 50 cm. The freezing period is usually two to three months from mid-December to the end of March. The speed of the Seversky Donets current is small, in some areas almost zero, 0.15 m/s near Chuguev to 1.4 m/s near Lisichansk. The right bank of the river is high (sometimes there are chalk rocks), strongly dissected by ravines, the left bank is flat, it has a floodplain with numerous oxbow lakes, lakes and swamps. The river bed is characterized by tortuosity, especially before the river confluences. Oskol. On the river (in the upper and middle reaches) there are many rifts, rapids, small rapids, and rubble. On the territory of the Kharkov region, Seversky Donets is very picturesque. Below, after the confluence of the Volchya River, the Pecheneg Reservoir is located, supplying water to the city of Kharkov. In the area of Donetsk (Rostov region), the river crosses the Donetsk Ridge and flows in a narrow valley with steep and rocky slopes. In the lower reaches, for 230 km, the river is locked, has a weak current and a predominant width of 100 - 200 m. Near the mouth, the river splits into 3 branches. Navigable 315 km from the mouth. By various sources In the Seversky Donets there are from 38 to 47 species of fish. Personally, I caught or saw 31. Just recently, sturgeon came to the Donets to spawn. Vimbe and shemaya are still found. At present, in view of economic, or rather non-economic, human activity, one can only remember the former quantity of fish. The river is getting shallower every year. is thriving. Podust, sinets and . There has been a significant decrease in pike perch, carp, ide, and burbot. But despite this, catches of five-kilogram asps and two-three-kilogram chubs are still quite frequent. There are perch up to 1.5 kg and pike up to 8-10 kg. Bream weighing 3-4 kg is not a rarity, but catfish, due to unlimited fishing, have also crushed individuals over 5 - 7 kg - a rarity, although about ten - twelve years ago, catching a catfish weighing 50-60 kg was not sensational.
Seversky Donets (Ukrainian Siversky Donets, ancient Greek according to Ptolemy Tanaid, Tanais, Italian Tan, Old Russian Great Don) is a river in the south of the East European Plain, flowing through the Belgorod and Rostov regions of Russia, as well as the Kharkov, Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine, right (largest) tributary of the Don. The fourth largest river in Ukraine and the most important source of fresh water in the east of this country. Sometimes it is incorrectly called Northern Donets.
Physiography
Seversky Donets is the largest river in eastern Ukraine and the largest tributary of the Don. The total length of the river is 1053 km, the basin area is 98,900 km², the average annual flow at the confluence with the Don is 200 m³/sec.
Seversky Donets originates on the Central Russian Upland, near the village. Podolhi in the Prokhorovsky district of the Belgorod region of Russia. Source coordinates 51°00′00″ N. w. 36°59′00″ E. d. / 51° N. w. 36.983333° E. d. (G)51, 36.983333, source height approx. 200 m above sea level. There are over 3,000 rivers in the Seversky Donets basin, of which 425 are more than 10 km long, and 11 rivers are more than 100 km long. Over a thousand of them flow directly into the Seversky Donets. The Seversky Donets is fed predominantly by snow, so water flow is uneven throughout the year. The spring flood lasts about 2 months from February to April, during this period the water rises by 3 - 8 m.
The width of the channel generally ranges from 30 to 70 m, sometimes reaching 100-200 m, and in the area of reservoirs - 4 km. The bottom of the channel is predominantly sandy, uneven, with depth fluctuations from 0.3 m on the rifts to 10 m on the reaches.
The river freezes in winter with a surface ice thickness of 20 to 50 cm. The freezing period is usually two to three months from mid-December to the end of March.
The Seversky Donets flows into the Don 218 km from its mouth at an altitude of 5.5 m above sea level. Thus, the river fall is 195 m, the average slope is 0.18 m/km. The current speed of the Seversky Donets is small, in some areas almost zero, 0.15 m/s near Chuguev to 1.41 m/s near Lisichansk.
Researchers have discovered many Mesolithic sites in the Seversky Donets basin. The highest density is in the middle reaches from Izyum to Lugansk. All Mesolithic sites have characteristic features(numerous prismatic cores, evidence of hunting wild horses, etc.), which indicates the ethnic homogeneity of the tribes living in the basin. The most ancient basin decorations made from Black Sea shellfish painted with red ocher were discovered in Mesolithic sites. This, in particular, testifies to the contacts of these tribes with the people who inhabited southern Ukraine.
Almost all the Neolithic settlements of the basin were also located along the banks of the Seversky Donets and its tributaries. Archaeological evidence of the domestication of the bull has been discovered; an ancient canoe, hollowed out of a tree trunk, was discovered at the mouth of the Oskol River. Comb-spiked ceramics, characteristic of central Ukraine, appeared. Some researchers believe that the similarity of the Neolithic monuments of the Seversky Donets and contemporaneous monuments in the Poltava, Chernigov, Kyiv, Cherkassy, Zaporozhye and Volyn regions makes it possible to combine all these Neolithic monuments into one Dnieper-Donetsk culture.
During the Eneolithic, the cultural separation of the Seversky Donets basin from central Ukraine took place. At a time when the Trypillian culture was developing in the Dnieper, Vorskla and northwestern Ukraine basins, tribes of the ancient Yamnaya culture lived in the Seversky Donets basin. For example, unlike the Trypillian culture, which was mainly agricultural, the ancient Yamnaya and many subsequent cultures of the Donets basin were mainly pastoral. This gives grounds for most researchers to exclude the Seversky Donets basin from the zone of origin of the Slavic tribes. However, there is an opposite opinion, based mainly on the similarities of the tribes of the Neolithic era. The ancient Yamnaya culture, first identified in the Izyum district of the Kharkov province, is characterized by specific burials using ocher as a dye. These burials took the form of a pit, covered with logs, with a mound, forming mounds. The mounds of this particular culture are considered the oldest in the world. The ancient Yamnaya culture was distributed much wider than the Seversky Donets basin: it spread south to the foothills of the Crimea, east to the Volga.
Ideas of ancient Greek geographers about the Seversky Donets basin
From the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. tribes of the Catacomb culture lived in the Seversky Donets basin. The Catacomb culture developed on the basis of the ancient Yamnaya culture and covered a similar territory. There is archaeological evidence of independent copper smelting by tribes of the Catacomb culture, who used copper deposits Donetsk region. From the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. in the Seversky Donets basin, the catacomb culture is replaced by the Timber culture, which originated in the Volga region.
Seversky Donets is the largest river in the eastern part of Ukraine and the largest tributary of the Don. The total length of the river is 1053 km, the basin area is 98900 km2, the average slope of the riverbed is 18 cm per 1 km. The Ukrainian part of the basin accounts for 723 km of channel and 54,500 km 2 of drainage area (55% of the total area).
general characteristics.
The name of the Seversky Donets River is believed to be associated with the residence of a tribe of northerners in its upper reaches, and in everyday life local residents usually called the main one water artery the east of the country is simplified - Donets.
The Seversky Donets originates on the southern slope of the Central Russian Upland and in its upper reaches flows mainly to the south, and below the city of Zmiev - to the southeast. In general, the river basin is characterized by a complex geological structure. Its feature is ascending neotectonic movements, which contribute to incision river valleys and activation of erosion processes - the formation of numerous ravines.
Schematic map of the Seversky Donets river basin within Ukraine.
Within Ukraine, the river basin can be conditionally divided into three parts. The first is located in the Kharkov region and is a predominantly treeless plain with small oak forests. In the southern part of the region, on the right bank, hills rise, usually composed of chalk rocks, which causes the development of karst phenomena.
In the second section, the river is pressed against the Donetsk Ridge, and significant differences appear between the flat, gentle left bank and the hilly, high right bank of the basin. In some places, bedrock (marl, chalk) is exposed on the slopes of the valley, and the floodplain (usually the left bank) has numerous oxbow lakes. After the Seversky Donets leaves the Donbass, the differences between its left and right bank parts are again leveled out.
Climate and soils.
The climatic characteristics of the river basin are determined by its location in the east of the country, which is characterized by cool winters (sometimes cold) and warm (sometimes sultry) summers. The average long-term air temperature in January here is -6.4°C, in July - +21.0°C, and the amount of precipitation is only 500 mm. Compared to the basins of other large rivers, the Seversky Donets is distinguished by the predominance of dry east winds and lower relative air humidity (especially in summer).
The main type of soil in the Seversky Donets basin is chernozem with medium humus content (in the upper part) and low (in the lower part). Near the river bed on the left bank, predominantly sandy soils are common, while on the right bank, heavier gravelly soils are common.
River bed and water intakes.
The Seversky Donets has a winding channel, the width of which at the entrance of the river into the territory of Ukraine is 25-30 m, and the usual depth is 1 m. In the area of the largest on the river settlement(Lisichansk) the width during low water reaches 60-70 m, and maximum depth- up to 2.5 m. A certain increase in the size of the river occurs after the acceptance of important tributaries - Aydar and Derkul.
The riverbed of the Donets, the water of which has a faint greenish tint, is predominantly sandy; in places there are outcrops of bedrock, and along the banks there is often a strip of aquatic vegetation.
The characteristic features of the Seversky Donets, which distinguish it from other large rivers of Ukraine, are a large number of water intake structures located almost every few kilometers. Significant water consumption of the densely populated region is accompanied by drainage, in addition to which the Seversky Donets and its tributaries receive large volumes of mine water. These factors predetermine a significant impact on the water quality in the Seversky Donets, which is the worst compared to other large watercourses in the country.
Largest tributaries.
The largest left tributary of the Seversky Donets is the Oskol River, the length of which is 472 km, and the basin area is 14,800 km 2. Oskol flows into the Donets 580 km from the mouth and its peculiarity is significant variability of the flow. After a short flood, the river’s water content was usually low for most of the year, but now, due to significant flow regulation, it has somewhat leveled off. Among the largest left tributaries, the rivers Aydar (length - 264 km, drainage area - 7420 km2) and Derkul (163 km and 5180 km2) also stand out.
The largest right tributary of the Seversky Donets is the Kazenny Torets River (length - 134 km, basin area - 5410 km 2), on the banks of which a number of industrial cities are located - Kramatorsk, Slavyansk and Druzhkovka. Due to this, significant volumes of its runoff are used for water supply (primarily industrial), for which several water-retaining structures were built at Kazenny Torets and small reservoirs were created. Of the other right tributaries of the Seversky Donets, the Lugan River stands out (length - 198 km, drainage area - 3740 km 2), on which the regional center of Lugansk is located.
Hydrological regime.
Seversky Donets, which has been actively used for centuries for economic needs, only within Ukraine is studied at 10 water stations, among which the longest duration of observations are noted: Zmiev (distance from the mouth - 793 km, basin area - 16,600 km 2), Izyum (602 km, 22,600 km 2), Lisichansk (430 km, 52400 km 2) and Kruzhilovka (263 km, 73200 km 2).
The long-term average water flow at the Lisichansk water station is 104 m 3 /s. (3.28 km 3), and on the border of Ukraine with the Russian Federation (Kruzhilovka) - 137 m 3 /s. (4.32 km 3). A noticeable increase in the water content of the Seversky Donets is observed in the Protopopovka-Izyum section, which is due to the flow of water into the river from the Dnieper-Donbass canal. On average, approximately 120 million m 3 of water is supplied annually to the Donets basin, which corresponds to a flow rate of about 4 m 3 /s.
During the year, the spring flood stands out for its water content, usually observed from the beginning of March to mid-May, and its peak occurs at the end of March - beginning of April. Despite the short duration, 2/3 of the river’s annual flow passes during the flood. In some springs, the intensity of the level rise can reach 1 m per day, and the long-term average water flow during the peak of the flood is 1100 m 3 /s. (Lisichansk). The maximum water flow at this water point is 3310 m 3 /s, the minimum is 3.90 m 3 /s, and the amplitude of water level fluctuations in the Ukrainian section of the river reaches 7-9 m.
The Seversky Donets is characterized by a significant volume of solid runoff, due to the dissected relief, agricultural development of the region and its low forest cover. The long-term average suspended flow at the Lisichansk water station is 520 thousand tons, and the turbidity is 170 g/m 3 .
The main factors influencing water flow are its use by numerous water consumers and the discharge of mine water into the right-bank tributaries of the river. The water pipeline of the city of Kharkov, the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal, etc. originate from the river, and water enters it through the Dnieper-Donbass canal.
Hydrochemical characteristics.
The hydrochemical regime of the Seversky Donets is determined by the natural conditions of the basin (determining high water hardness) and the significant influence economic activity. The pool is characterized by relatively low humidity and having increased content water-soluble salts. In addition, highly mineralized groundwater flows into the river.
After water use, about 1.3 km 3 is annually diverted into the river and, together with wastewater 1.2 million tons of dry residue, 304 thousand tons of sulfates, 236 thousand tons of chlorides, 350 tons of petroleum products, 235 tons of iron and more than 2 tons of phenols are discharged. In addition to discharges, the quality of water in the river is affected by a large number of filter storage tanks, settling tanks and landfills, causing worst quality water in the Seversky Donets compared to other major rivers of the country. The flow of salts into the river is facilitated by the work of the Dnieper-Donbass canal, a section of the route of which runs along the valley of the Berek River with a high content of sulfates in the soil.
A significant deterioration in water quality in the Seversky Donets is noted downstream from the confluence of the Kazenny Torets, where the water becomes unsuitable for drinking. On this tributary, in addition to several large settlements, the Kramatorsk Metallurgical Plant and the Novokramatorsk Machine-Building Plant are located. Even further downstream is the Lisichansk-Rubezhansky industrial hub, which includes the Lisichansk Soda, Linos, rubber products factories, the Azot association, the Krasitel plant, etc.
Water use.
Among the major rivers of Ukraine, the Seversky Donets is second only to the Dnieper in terms of water management, and its water consumption approaches the annual flow indicators.
Significant water use of the river’s resources begins in the upper reaches of the Seversky Donets within Russian Federation, where a number of blocking structures are located. In this area, the Donets and its tributary, the Oskol River, receive water pumped out during mining iron ore within the Kursk magnetic anomaly. Almost on the border with Ukraine there is a comprehensively used Belgorod reservoir (volume 76 million m3). Already within Ukraine, a 65-kilometer section of the Seversky Donets valley is occupied by the Pechenezh reservoir, with an area of 86.2 km 2 and a total volume of 383 million m 3. From here in the area with. Old Saltov originates a water pipeline to Kharkov, and downstream the Uda River flows into the Seversky Donets, which is the main sewage collector of the regional center.
The main consumer of Donetsk water in the Kharkiv region is the Zmievskaya Thermal Power Plant, which uses the nearby Lake Liman as a cooling pond. At the mouth of the Oskol River there is the largest reservoir in the Seversky Donets basin, the Chervono-Oskol reservoir, designed to replenish the flow of the main inlet artery of the east of the country during the dry months of the year, when the natural flow of water in the river is not able to cover the needs of the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal.
Important hydraulic structure on the Seversky Donets is the Raigorodskaya dam near Slavyansk, built in 1958 in conjunction with the water intake of the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal. The dam was built with the purpose of raising water in the river and regulating the level at the entrance to the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal, which originates on the right bank of the river slightly above the dam, and several more water supply facilities begin on the left bank. A little lower from the confluence of the Kazenny Torets River into the Seversky Donets, water is taken for the technological needs of the Slavyanskaya Thermal Power Plant, the 150-kilometer Second Donetsk water pipeline, the South Donbass water pipeline, etc.
Loading...
