For the first time the Volga became a Russian river.
Corn from middle Russia for Astrakhan is transferred from the railway to boats at Tsaritsyn; timber and wooden wares from the upper Volga are unloaded here and sent by rail to Kalach; and fish, salt and fruits sent from Astrakhan by boat up the Volga are here unloaded and despatched by rail to the interior of Russia.
A fort was erected here in the 16th century to prevent the incursions of the free Cossacks and runaway serfs who gathered on the lower Volga, as also the raids of the Kalmucks and Circassians.
He reached Asiatic the headquarters of Batu, on the Volga, in February journeys.
The double river-systems of the Volga and Kama, the Ob and Irtysh, the Angara and Yenisei, the Lena and Vitim on the Arctic slope, and the Amur and Sungari on the Pacific slope, are instances.