EducationSecondary education and schools

Why is it said that Moscow is a port of five seas?

Many of us at least once in my life have heard the expression that Moscow is a port of five seas. But if you pick up a map of the Moscow region, then no one will find a single sea nearby. Why did they say that? Let's start in order.

Walking ships

In ancient times there were no cars, no trains, no airplanes, and it was always necessary to deliver food and other various goods to the cities. The fleet came to the rescue. Of course, ships in antiquity were not the same as now. Today they can swim against the current with the help of an engine, and before the trial dragged on the ropes. This work was done by horses. The man harnessed and led them along the shore line. However, it was hard for horses, but it was even harder for a man to do such work.

A confirmation of this fact is the painting by Ilya Repin called "Burlaki on the Volga". On it, the artist portrayed a crowd of peasants, harassed by heavy labor, pulling the ship on ropes. Their faces were burned from the scorching sun, their foreheads were covered with sweat, their clothes turned to shreds from hard work. It's terrible to think how much strength and health was given by these people in order to transport the cargo to where it is necessary. Sometimes a man had to move loaded ships in this way, even in forests and meadows, so that the ship continued on its way along the river. Since then the expression has gone that the ships do not swim, but walk.

Muscovites know that in their area there is a town of Volokolamsk. The name of this city consists of two roots "fiber" and "lama". This settlement originated in that transshipment place where the ship was pulled from the water by the Lama River and dragged along the ground to the Voloshni channel. This circulation of ships continued for many centuries, but in the 18th century the emperor Peter the Great came up with the idea of building a special canal. But the first mention of the port of the five seas in history will be even later.

Man-made rivers

Sovereign Peter the Great came up with the possibility of cutting the waterway for the ship. Imagine that from Moscow to Ryazan the ship needs to sail not 200 kilometers, like a car, but much more. The thing is that the rivers are very winding, they have many bends and turns, so the waterway is longer than the motorway.

Our emperor thought of digging a deep trough in those places of the river, where it is very strongly bent, then close the old riverbed by the river, without letting water in, and fill a new trough. That's how Peter's idea straightened some rivers!

Indeed, such a road was more convenient and shorter than before. Surprisingly, such an idea allowed building waterways in places where they never existed. So that a man does not have to carry his ships, it was enough to dig a deep channel, and the main line for the fleet was erected.

Perhaps you will be surprised, but the active sovereign still embodied such a project in reality. Under his leadership the Vyshnevolotsky Canal was built. This pond connected two rivers: Tvertsu and Tsnu. So from the Volga ships came to the Baltic Sea. The port of the five seas was later built in a similar way.

Unrealized plans

Sovereign Peter the Great at one time planned to connect the Moscow River and the Volga. But these plans were not destined to be fulfilled. In the XVIII century, the emperor gave the order to draw up an estimate for the construction, and when it was prepared, acquainted with it, Peter the First disappointedly said: "However!"

The construction of such a channel at that time proved to be very expensive and long, since there was no technology that could do this quickly and without human sacrifice. And we are getting closer to the answer to the question: why is Moscow called the port of five seas?

The capital wants to drink

Each of us knows that drinking water in the tap is due to the fact that the city is built on the banks of the river. So it was with Moscow. On the threshold of the twentieth century, the capital starts to develop so quickly that the townspeople experience a shortage of clean water. Urban authorities urgently needed to take any measures.

And in 1931 it was decided to connect the main river of the capital with the Volga. Only she could help Moscow in this situation. The following year the construction of the Grand Moscow Canal began. The grandiose construction lasted 5 years, and in the spring of 1937 the canal was successfully built.

Its length was 128 kilometers. On the same spring, on March 23, the Volga was stopped for 3 minutes, and the channel was filled with Volga water. Ivankovskoe reservoir was filled, on April 18 water from the Volga watered the metropolitan residents!

It turns out that not all Muscovites know what a long way the water they have been drinking has overcome.

Moscow is a port city of five seas

That's the answer to the question. The opening of the channel was during the reign of Joseph Stalin. This expression was voiced by the leader of the Soviet state. The meaning of this phrase was that after the construction of the Moscow and Volga-Don channels from the main city, you can reach them by:

  • Black Sea.
  • Sea of Azov.
  • White Sea.
  • The Baltic Sea.
  • The Caspian Sea.

The status of the "port of five seas" can be appropriated not only to Moscow, but also to all those cities that have a water connection with the capital. These cities include Uglich, Volgograd, Kazan and so on. It was common for the Generalissimo of the Soviet Union to build such large-scale projects, so it was Stalin who came to the head to make the port of the five seas in Moscow.

Similar articles

 

 

 

 

Trending Now

 

 

 

 

Newest

Copyright © 2018 en.birmiss.com. Theme powered by WordPress.