Volga River

 

The Volga is the longest River in Europe(3,692 km (2,294 miles) and it is also Europe's largest River in terms of discharge and watershed

It flows through Central Russia and into the Caspian Sea and is widely viewed as the National River of Russia

11 of the20 largest cities of Russia , including the capital,Moscow, are in the Volga's watershed (drainage basin)

Rising in the Valdai Hills 225 meters (738 ft)above sea level northwest of Moscow and about 320 kilometers (200 mi) southeast of Saint Petersburg,the Volga heads east
past Lake Sterzh,Tver,Dubna,Rybinsk,Yaroslavl,Nizhny,Novgorod and Kazan

 From there it turns south, flows past Ulyanovsk,Tolyatti,Samara,Saratov and Volgograd and discharges into the Caspian Sea below Astrakhan at 28 meters (92 ft) below sea level.

The Volga has many tributories most importantly the Kama,the Oka,the Vetluga and the Sura Rivers

The Volga and its tributaries form the Volga river system, which flows through an area of about 1,350,000 square kilometres (521,238 square miles) in the most heavily populated part of Russia.