The Don (Russian: Дон, romanized: don) is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire.
Its basin is between the Dnieper basin to the west, the lower Volga basin immediately to the east, and the Oka basin (tributary of the Volga) to the north. Native to much of the basin were Slavic nomads.
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The Sea of Azov is an inland shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about 4 km (2.5 mi)) Strait of Kerch, and sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded by Russia on the east, and by Ukraine on the northwest and southwest (the parts of Ukraine bordering the sea are currently under Russian occupation). It is an important access route for Central Asia, from the Caspian Sea via the Volga–Don Canal.
The sea is largely affected by the inflow of the Don, Kuban, and other rivers, which bring sand, silt, and shells, which in turn form numerous bays, limans, and narrow spits. Because of these deposits, the sea bottom is relatively smooth and flat, with the depth gradually increasing toward the middle. Because of the river inflow, water in the sea has low salinity and a high amount of biomass (such as green algae) that affects the water colour. Abundant plankton result in unusually high fish productivity. The sea shores and spits are low; they are rich in vegetation and bird colonies. The Sea of Azov is the shallowest sea in the world, with the depth varying between 0.9 and 14 metres (3 and 46 ft). There is a constant outflow of water from the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.
Lenin Volga–Don Shipping Canal (Russian: Волго-Донской судоходный канал имени В. И. Ленина, Volga-Donskoy sudokhodniy kanal imeni V. I. Lenina, abbreviated ВДСК, VDSK) is a ship canal in Russia. It connects the Volga and the Don at their closest points. Opened in 1952, its length is 101 km (63 mi), 45 km (28 mi) of which is through rivers and reservoirs.
The canal forms a part of the Unified Deep Water System of European Russia. Together with the lower Volga and the lower Don, the canal provides the shortest navigable connection between the Caspian Sea and the world's oceans via the Sea of Azov, the Black Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.
The Wild Fields is a historical term used in the Polish–Lithuanian documents of the 16th to 18th centuries to refer to the Pontic steppe in the territory of present-day Eastern and Southern Ukraine and Western Russia, north of the Black Sea and Azov Sea. It was the traditional name for the Black Sea steppes in the 16th and 17th centuries. In a narrow sense, it is the historical name for the demarcated and sparsely populated Black Sea steppes between the middle and lower reaches of the Dniester in the west, the lower reaches of the Don and the Siverskyi Donets in the east, from the left tributary of the Dnipro–Samara, and the upper reaches of the Southern Bug–Syniukha and Ingul in the north, to the Black and Azov Seas and Crimea in the south.
In a broad sense, it is the name of the entire Great Eurasian Steppe, which was also called Great Scythia in ancient times or Great Tartary in the Middle Ages in European sources and Desht-i-Kipchak in Eastern (mainly Persian) sources.
Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy (Russian: Дми́трий Ива́нович Донско́й; 12 October 1350 – 19 May 1389) was Prince of Moscow from 1359 and Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1363 until his death. He was the heir of Ivan II.
He was the first prince of Moscow to openly challenge Mongol authority in Russia. In traditional Russian historiography, he is regarded as a Russian national hero and a central figure of the Russian Middle Ages. His nickname, Donskoy ("of the Don"), alludes to his great victory against the Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo (1380), which took place on the Don River. He is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church with his feast day on 19 May.
The Seversky Donets (Russian: Се́верский Доне́ц) or Siverskyi Donets (Ukrainian: Сіверський Донець), usually simply called the Donets (Russian: Донец, lit. 'Don + - ets, suffix'), is a river on the south of the East European Plain. It originates in the Central Russian Upland, north of Belgorod, flows south-east through Ukraine (Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts) and then again through Russia (Rostov Oblast) to join the river Don, about 100 km (62 mi) from the Sea of Azov. The Donets is the fourth-longest river in Ukraine, and the largest in eastern Ukraine, where it is an important source of fresh water. It gives its name to the Donets Basin, known commonly as the Donbas, an important coal-mining and industrial region in Ukraine.
The Oskil or Oskol (Ukrainian: Оскiл; Russian: Оскол) is a south-flowing river in Russia and Ukraine. It arises roughly between Kursk and Voronezh and flows south to join the Siverskyi Donets which flows southeast to join the Don. It is 472 kilometres (293 mi) long, with a drainage basin of 14,800 square kilometres (5,700 sq mi).
The river has its sources on the Central Russian Upland, and flows through Kursk and Belgorod Oblasts in Russia, and through the eastern part of Kharkiv Oblast in Ukraine, where it joins the Seversky Donets river. An artificial lake, the Oskil Reservoir, was created in 1958 to help with flood protection and as a source of electricity.
The Voronezh (Russian: Воро́неж, pronounced [vɐˈronʲiʂ]), also romanized as Voronež, is a river in Tambov, Lipetsk, and Voronezh oblasts in Russia, a left tributary of the Don. The Voronezh is 342 kilometres (213 mi) long, with a drainage basin of 21,600 square kilometres (8,300 sq mi). It freezes up in the first half of December and stays under the ice until late March. The lower reaches of the river are navigable. The cities of Lipetsk and Voronezh are along the Voronezh River.
Going upstream, it leaves the Don south of Voronezh and goes north parallel and east of the Don for about 150 kilometres (93 mi). West of Michurinsk it swings east and splits into the Lesnoy and Polny Voronezh Rivers ("Forest and Field Voronezh"). These go north about 75 kilometres (47 mi) to the border of Ryazan Oblast. To the north are tributaries of the Oka. To the east are the basins of the south-flowing Bityug which joins the Don and the north-flowing Tsna which reaches the Oka via the Moksha.