Oka River

This article is about a river in western Russia. For the river in Siberia with the same name, see Oka River (Siberia). For other uses, see Oka.

Oka Ока́
The Oka riverbank in Nizhny Novgorod
Map of the Volga watershed with the Oka highlighted
Location
Country	Russia
Cities	Oryol, Kaluga, Serpukhov, Kolomna, Ryazan, Murom, Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod
Physical characteristics
Source
- location	Oryol Oblast
- coordinates	52°21′45″N 36°13′20″E / 52.36250°N 36.22222°E / 52.36250; 36.22222
- elevation	226 m (741 ft)
Mouth	Volga River
- location	Nizhny Novgorod
- coordinates	56°19′55″N 43°58′53″E / 56.33194°N 43.98139°E / 56.33194; 43.98139Coordinates: 56°19′55″N 43°58′53″E / 56.33194°N 43.98139°E / 56.33194; 43.98139
- elevation	67 m (220 ft)
Length	1,500 km (930 mi)
Basin size	245,000 km2 (95,000 sq mi)
Discharge
- average	1,260 m3/s (44,000 cu ft/s)

Oka (Russian: Ока́, IPA: [ɐˈka]) is a river in central Russia, the largest right tributary of the Volga. It flows through the regions of Oryol, Tula, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod and is navigable over a large part of its total length, as far upstream as to the town of Kaluga. Its length exceeds 1,500 kilometres (930 mi). The Russian capital Moscow sits on one of the Oka's tributaries—the Moskva River.

Contents

• 
  1 Name and history
  


• 
  2 Landmarks
  


• 
  3 Main tributaries
  


• 
  4 Cities and towns on the Oka
  


• 
  5 In culture
  


• 
  6 References
  


• 
  7 External links
  

Name and history

Max Vasmer connects the name of the river to the Gothic аƕа, Old High German aha, Latin aqua, which all mean either "water" or "river" (compare Aa (river)).^[1]Oleg Trubachev traces the origin of the name to the Baltic languages^{[citation needed]}: the Baltic tribe of Galindians lived in the western part of the Oka basin prior to the arrival of the Slavs ^[2].

By 5th century the land around the Oka river was inhabited by Slavic tribes.^[3]

From the Mongol conquest until about 1633, the Oka was the last line of defense against steppe raiders. The river gave its name to the Upper Oka Principalities, situated upstream from Tarusa. In 1221 Grand Duke Yuri II of Vladimir founded Nizhny Novgorod, later to become one of the largest Russian cities, to protect the Oka's confluence with the Volga. The Qasim Khanate, a Muslim polity, occupied the middle reaches of the Oka (around the city of Kasimov) in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Before the construction of the railways in the mid-19th century and the building of the Moscow Canal in the 1930s, the Oka, along with its tributary Moskva, served as an important transportation route connecting Moscow with the Volga River. Due to the Oka's and Moskva's meandering courses, travel was not particularly fast: for example, it took Cornelis de Bruijn around 10 days to sail from Moscow down these two rivers to Nizhny Novgorod in 1703.^[4] Traveling upstream may have been even slower, as the boats had to be pulled by burlaks.^[5]

Landmarks

The banks of the river are dotted with historical and cultural sites, including the medieval monasteries of Murom, the mosques and minarets of Kasimov, the fortified kremlins of Kolomna and Serpukhov, the memorial houses of Vasily Polenov and Sergey Yesenin, the excavated ruins of Old Ryazan and the Oka Shukhov Tower.

The Prioksko-Terrasny Biosphere Reserve lies along the left bank of the river opposite the town of Pushchino and is known for its wisent breeding nursery.^{[citation needed]}

Main tributaries

The Oka River in Ryazan Oblast, near Rybnoye

• Oryol


• Ugra


• Zhizdra


• Upa


• Protva


• Nara


• Moskva


• Pra


• Osyotr


• Pronya


• Para


• Moksha


• Tyosha


• Klyazma


• Besputa

Cities and towns on the Oka

Nizhny Novgorod

Murom

Kasimov

Ryazan

Kolomna

Serpukhov

Kaluga

Belyov

Oryol

MOSCOW

Cities on the Oka

• Oryol


• Belyov


• Chekalin


• Kaluga


• Aleksin


• Tarusa


• Serpukhov


• Stupino


• Kashira


• Protvino


• Pushchino


• Kolomna


• Ryazan


• Kasimov


• Murom


• Pavlovo


• Navashino


• Gorbatov


• Dzerzhinsk


• Nizhny Novgorod

In culture

The River appears as the title and main theme in a popular, nostalgia filled song (in which it is compared to the Vistula river in Poland) of the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division which was formed nearby in 1943. The unit fought all the way to Berlin alongside the Red Army. It was written by Leon Pasternak.

References

1. 
   ^ Vasmer's Etymological Dictionary, trans. by Oleg Trubachev, vol. 3, p. 127.
   


2. 
   ^ Tarasov I. The balts in the Migration Period. P. I. Galindians, p. 98.
   


3. 
   ^ "History of Russia, the Russian Empire, in ancient times, read | we know everything - Mouzenidis Travel". Mouzenidis Travel. Retrieved 2018-11-18..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
   


4. 
   ^ Bruin, Cornelis de (1725), Voyage au Levant: c'est-à-dire, dans les principaux endroits de l'Asie Mineure, dans les isles de Chio, Rhodes, Chypre, etc., de même que dans les plus considérables villes d'Egypte, de Syrie, et Terre Sainte., 3, J.-B.-C. Bauche le fils, pp. 233–247
   


5. 
   ^ Bruin 1725, p. 240
   

External links

• 
  Oka at GEOnet Names Server
  


• 
  Media related to Oka River at Wikimedia Commons

v t e Volga River
Tributaries	Selizharovka Vazuza Tvertsa Shosha Dubna Medveditsa Nerl Kashinka Sit Mologa Suda Sheksna Sogozha Kotorosl Kostroma Nyomda Unzha Uzola Oka Kudma Kerzhenets Sura Vetluga Rutka Tsivil Great Kokshaga Little Kokshaga Anish Ilet Sviyaga Sumka Kazanka Kama Aktay Bezdna Cheremshan Sok Samara Chapayevka Little Irgiz Irgiz Tereshka Yeruslan Akhtuba (distributary)
Reservoirs	Lake Volgo Ivankovo Uglich Rybinsk Gorky Cheboksary Kuybyshev Saratov Volgograd
Hydroelectric stations	Ivankovo Uglich Rybinsk Nizhny Novgorod Cheboksary Zhiguli Saratov Volga
Canals	Moscow Canal Volga–Baltic Waterway Volga–Don Canal
Cities	Astrakhan Volgograd Saratov Samara Kazan Ulyanovsk Nizhny Novgorod Yaroslavl Tver
Portal

Authority control	GND: 4321797-7

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