thumb|256px|Basin of Neva River
The Neva ( , ; , ) is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast (historical region of Ingria) to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length of , it is the fourth-largest river in Europe in terms of average discharge (after the Volga, the Danube and the Rhine).
It has been postulated the name could derive from Indo-European adjective newā which means new – the river began its flow some time between 2000 BC and 1250 BC. However, the local place names with such influence coincide with Scandinavian traders and Slavs' first main settlement in the region, in the 8th century AD.
Near the modern Lake Ladoga, by glacial rebound land rose faster, and an endorheic lake briefly formed. This overspilled, eventually the whole Mga valley and thus broke into the western valley (the valley of the Tosna/lower-Neva). The Ivanovo rapids of the modern Neva were created at the breakthrough. According to early books, the breakthrough may have been about 2000 BC, but according to more recent research, this happened at 1410–1250 BC, making the river rather young.
The valley is lined with glacial and post-glacial sediments and has changed little over 2,500 years. The delta was formed at that time, technically a pseudodelta, as not from accumulation of river material but by scouring past sediments.
Topography and hydrography
The Neva flows out of Lake Ladoga near Shlisselburg, flows through Neva's lowlands and discharges into the Baltic Sea in the Gulf of Finland. It has a length of , and the shortest distance from the source to the mouth is . The river banks are low and steep, on average about and at the mouth. There are three sharp turns: the Ivanovskye rapids, at Nevsky Forest Park of the Ust-Slavyanka region (the so-called "Crooked Knee"), and near the Smolny Institute, below the mouth of the river Okhta.
In the Neva basin, rainfall greatly exceeds evaporation; the latter accounts for only 37.7 percent of the water consumption from the Neva and the remaining 62.3 percent is water runoff. Since 1859, the largest volume of was observed in 1924 and the lowest in 1900 at . Due to the uniform water flow from Lake Ladoga to the Neva over the whole year, there are almost no floods and corresponding water rise in the spring. The Neva freezes throughout from early December to early April. The ice thickness is within Saint Petersburg and in other areas. Ice congestion may form in winter in the upper reaches of the river, this sometimes causes upstream floods. Of the total ice volume of Lake Ladoga, , less than 5 percent enters the Neva. including the pools of Lake Ladoga and Onega (281,000 km<sup>2</sup>). The basin contains 26,300 lakes and has a complex hydrological network of more than 48,300 rivers, however only 26 flow directly into Neva. The main tributaries are Mga, Tosna, Izhora, Slavyanka and Murzinka on the left, and Okhta and Chyornaya Rechka on the right side of Neva.
! Name
! Region
! Length, km
|-
| Rowspan = "2"|Great Neva|| from the mouth of the Fontanka to the Blagoveshchensky Bridge|| 2.40
|-
| From the Blagoveshchensky Bridge to the Palace Bridge|| 1.22
|-
| Little Neva|||| 4.85
|-
| Ekateringofka|||| 3.60
|-
| Zhdanovka|||| 2.20
|-
| Smolenka|||| 3.30
|-
| Rowspan = "3"|Great Nevka|| from the Neva to Little Nevka|| 3.70
|-
| from Little Nevka to Middle Nevka || 2.05
|-
| From Middle Nevka to Neva Bay|| 2.15
|-
| Middle Nevka|||| 2.60
|-
| Little Nevka|||| 4.90
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| Karpovka|||| 3.00
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| Krestovka|||| 0.74
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| Fontanka|||| 6.70
|-
| Moyka|||| 4.67
|-
| Griboyedov Canal|||| 5.00
|-
| Pryazhka|||| 1.32
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| Kryukov Canal|||| 1.15
|-
| Obvodny Canal|||| 8.08
|}
Flora and fauna
There is almost no aquatic vegetation in Neva. The river banks mostly consist of sand, podsol, gleysols, peat, and boggy peat soils. Several centuries ago, the whole territory of the Neva lowland was covered by pine and spruce mossy forests. They were gradually reduced by the fires and cutting for technical needs. Extensive damage was caused during World War II: in Saint Petersburg, the forests were reduced completely, and in the upper reaches down to 40 to 50 percent. Forest were replanted after the war with spruce, pine, cedar, Siberian larch, oak, Norway maple, elm, America, ash, apple tree, mountain ash and other species. The shrubs include barberry, lilac, jasmine, hazel, honeysuckle, hawthorn, rose hip, viburnum, juniper, elder, shadbush and many others.
thumb|Birch forest
Nowadays, the upper regions of the river are dominated by birch and pine-birch grass-shrub forests and in the middle regions there are swampy pine forests.
Because of the rapid flow, cold water and lack of quiet pools and aquatic vegetation the diversity of fish species in Neva is small. Permanent residents include such undemanding to environment species as perch, ruffe and roaches. Many fish species are transitory, of which commercial value have smelt, vendace and partly salmon.
Floods
Floods in St. Petersburg are usually caused by the overflow of the delta of Neva and by surging water in the eastern part of Neva Bay. They are registered when the water rises above with respect to a gauge at the Mining Institute. More than 300 floods occurred after the city was founded in 1703. Three of them were catastrophic: on 7 November 1824, when water rose to ; on 23 September 1924 when it reached , and 10 September 1777 when it rose to .
Besides flooding as a result of tidal waves, in 1903, 1921 and 1956 floods were caused by the melting of snow.
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|7 November 1824, in front of Bolshoi Theatre
|7 November 1824
|Sadovaya Street near the former Nikolsky Market, 15 November 1903
|Bolshaya Podyacheskaya Street, 25 November 1903
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|Boat transportation over Vasilievsky Island during the flood of 23 September 1924
|Vladimirsky Avenue after the flood of 1924
|A pier during the flood of 18 October 1967
|Near the Mining Institute on 18 October 1967
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Ecological condition
The Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring of Russia classifies the Neva as a "heavily polluted" river. The main pollutants include copper, zinc, manganese, nitrites and nitrogen. The dirtiest tributaries of the Neva are the Mga, Slavyanka, Ohta, and Chernaya. Hundreds of factories pour wastewater into the Neva within St. Petersburg, and petroleum is regularly transported along the river. The annual influx of pollutants is 80,000 tonnes,
In 2008, the Federal Service of St. Petersburg announced that no beach of the Neva was fit for swimming.
Cleaning of wastewater in Saint Petersburg started in 1979; by 1997, about 74% was purified. This rose to 85% in 2005, to 91.7% by 2008, and Feliks Karamzinov expected it to reach almost 100% by 2011 with the completion of the expansion of the main sewerage plant.
History
Before 1700
Many sites of ancient people, up to nine thousand years old, were found within the territory of the Neva basin. It is believed that around twelve thousand years BC, Finnic people (Votes and Izhorians) moved to this area from the Ural Mountains.
In the 8th and 9th centuries AD, the area was inhabited by the East Slavs who were mainly engaged in slash and burn agriculture, hunting and fishing. From the 8th to 13th centuries, Neva provided a waterway from Scandinavia to the Byzantine Empire. In the 9th century, the area belonged to Veliky Novgorod. The Neva was already mentioned in the Life of Alexander Nevsky (13th century). At that time, Veliky Novgorod was engaged in nearly constant wars with Sweden. A major battle occurred on 15 July 1240 at the confluence of the Izhora and Neva Rivers. The Russian army, led by the 20-year-old Prince Alexander Yaroslavich, aimed to stop the planned Swedish invasion. The Swedish army was defeated; the prince showed personal courage in combat and received the honorary name of "Nevsky".
As a result of the Russian defeat in the Ingrian War of 1610–17 and the concomitant Treaty of Stolbovo, the area of the Neva River became part of Swedish Ingria. Beginning in 1642, the capital of Ingria was Nyen, a city near the Nyenschantz fortress. Because of financial and religious oppression, much of the Orthodox population left the Neva region, emptying 60 percent of the villages by 1620. The abandoned areas became populated by people from the Karelian Isthmus and Savonia.
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|Victory of Alexander Nevsky over the Swedes by B. Chorikov
| Assault on the Oreshek fortress on 11 October 1702 by Alexander Kotzebue
|Map of the Peter the Great Canal (1742)
|Map of St. Petersburg (1720)
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Russian period
As a result of the Great Northern War of 1700–21, the valley of Neva River became part of Russian Empire. On 16 May 1703, the city of St. Petersburg was founded in the mouth of Neva and became capital of Russia in 1712.
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|View down the Neva River between the Winter Palace and St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Engraving of 1753.
|Palace Embankment (1826)
|View on the Smolny Convent from Bolshaya Ohta (1851)
|Tramways on the frozen Neva (more images)
|}
Soviet and modern periods
The first concrete bridge across Neva, the Volodarsky Bridge, was built in 1936. During World War II, from 8 September 1941 to 27 January 1944, Leningrad was in the devastating German Siege. On 30 August 1941, the German army captured Mga and came to Neva. On 8 September Germans captured Shlisselburg and cut all land communications and waterways to St. Petersburg (then Leningrad). The siege was partly relieved in January 1943, and ended on 27 January 1944. Navigation season on the Neva River runs from late April to November.
To the west of Shlisselburg, an oil pipeline runs under the river. The pipeline is part of the Baltic Pipeline System, which provides oil from Timan-Pechora plate, West Siberia, Ural, Kazakhstan and Primorsk to the Gulf of Finland. The long pipeline lies below the river bottom and delivers about 42 million tonnes of oil a year.
Near the Ladozhsky Bridge there is an underwater tunnel to host a gas pipeline Nord Stream 1. The tunnel has a diameter of and a length of and is laid at a maximum depth of .
Neva is the main source of water (96 percent) of St. Petersburg and its suburbs. From 26 June 2009, St. Petersburg started processing the drinking water with ultraviolet light, abandoning the use of chlorine for disinfection. The Neva also has developed fishery, both commercial and recreational.
Attractions
Whereas most tourist attractions of Neva are located within St. Petersburg, there are several historical places upstream, in the Leningrad Oblast. They include the fortress Oreshek, which was built in 1323 on the Orekhovy Island at the source of Neva River, south-west of the Petrokrepost Bay, near the city of Shlisselburg. The waterfront of Schlisselburg has a monument of Peter I. In the city, there are Blagoveshchensky Cathedral (1764–95) and a still functioning Orthodox church of St. Nicholas, built in 1739. On the river bank stands the Church of the Intercession. Raised in 2007, it is a wooden replica of a historical church which stood on the southern shore of Lake Onega. That church was constructed in 1708 and it burned down in 1963. It is believed to be the forerunner of the famous Kizhi Pogost.
Old Ladoga Canal, built in the first half of the 18th century, is a water transport route along the shore of Lake Ladoga which is connecting the River Volkhov and Neva.
References
External links
- Neva River