Sheksna River: description and origin of the name

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

The Sheksna River is quite small. However, the area on its picturesque shores has a rather rich history. Moving along this river, you can see many interesting objects and beautiful landscapes.

Sheksna River (Vologda Region)

This water artery is located within the modern Vologda region. Its length today is 139 kilometers, although a century ago it was almost three times as long. The Sheksna River collects its waters from a decent area of 19,000 square kilometers.

Today the river connects two large reservoirs: Beloe Lake (where it originates) and the Rybinsk Reservoir (where it brings its waters). There is only one city on the river - Cherepovets, as well as a large village of the same name.

A brief description of the river

Today, in fact, the Sheksna River has retained only its middle course. The upper and lower were flooded in the middle of the 20th century by the waters of the Sheksna and Rybinsk reservoirs, respectively. Historically, the river flowed into the Volga. Today, only a small section of its old mouth in Rybinsk has survived.

Two hydroelectric power plants are now located on this river -Rybinskaya and Sheksninskaya. Once upon a time, the Sheksna River was full of fish. Written references have been preserved that here in the 19th century a huge sterlet was caught, which was served at the royal table. But after the creation of powerful hydroelectric facilities on the river, fish stocks have dried up significantly.

The river is mainly fed by melted snow waters. It freezes in November - early December. The melting of ice on Sheksna usually begins at the end of April.

Throughout the river, many tributaries flow into it (the largest of which is the Kovzha River), as well as several artificial channels.

Origin of toponym

The origin of this toponym remains interesting and not completely clear. The Sheksna River - where did it get its name from?

The exact genesis of this hydronym remains unclear. However, some researchers suggest that it comes from the Finnish word "hähnä", which translates as "woodpecker".

One way or another, the name "Sheksna" has B alto-Finnish roots. After all, it is known that it was the B altic tribes that once lived in these parts. Thus, the Russian philologist Yuri Otkupshchikov draws attention to the word "šèkas" in the Lithuanian language. It is translated into Russian as "motley". However, why the ancient B alts called the river that way remains a mystery.

The Sheksna River: the history of the region and monuments

The picturesque area on the banks of the river has a historical name: "Poshekhonye". Most of this area is occupied by water meadows with dense green grasses. That is why local cows have always been famous for their very high milk yields. "Milk land of Russia" - this is how the territory of Poshekhonye was once called.

Only at the end of the first millennium these territories began to be developed by the Slavic tribes. And before that, Merya lived here - tribes of Finno-Ugric origin.

It is curious that at the end of the 18th century the title of the land of Russian dupes and fools was assigned to Poshekhony. The reason for this is the book of the researcher V. S. Berezaisky, published in 1798, in which the author collected a large number of local anecdotes and folklore plots of the region.

The banks of the Sheksna River are a land rich in numerous ancient monuments. So, it is known that during the X-XIV centuries, in the area of the sources of Sheksna, there was an ancient Russian settlement "Beloozero". Today, active historical and archaeological research is being carried out at the source of the river.

On the banks of the Sheksna, a unique architectural monument has also been preserved - the Goritsky Monastery, which was founded back in 1544. The heir of Ivan the Terrible, the eldest son of the Tsar, drowned in the same river.

In the 19th century, Sheksna turns into an important transport route through which grain was delivered to the European market. The importance of this river as a transport corridor lasted until the construction of the railway in these places.

Conclusion

Sheksna is a small river within the Vologda region of Russia. In the middle of the pastcentury, it became part of the artificial water system of the Rybinsk reservoir, which negatively affected the river itself, in particular, the natural diversity of its ichthyofauna. However, several interesting historical and cultural monuments have been preserved on its banks, which can be seen even today.