The Volga-Baltic Waterway

The Volga-Baltic Waterway from north to south consists of the Vytegra Canal, water distribution canal the Kovzha river, the White Lake and the Sheksna River. It connects the Baltic to the Caspian Sea. The canal has 8 locks, eight hydroelectric power stations and innumerable dams and bridges. The landscape along the Volga-Baltic Waterway has its own particular charm. By now the canal is so narrow that the banks, overgrown with trees, are near enough to touch. There are some places where the forest is flooded a long time ago and they’re only the skeletons of trees project out of the water.

By damming up the rivers and constructing hydroelectric power stations, the Soviets changed by natural course of the rivers by flooding. Along the riverbank the view alternates between picturesque villages with the typical colorful wooden houses and gray industrial towns. These forests of deciduous and evergreen trees lend the region a mysterious beauty and form the major source of income here. Timber sites and barges storehouses and saw mills can be seen all along the canal.