Gorky Reservoir, "Gorky Sea" (Gore-More) — the main reservoir in the Nizhny Novgorod Region. The Soviet press dubbed it the Gorky Sea, and the people shortened it to "Gore-More" (roughly "Woe-Sea").
Surface area — 1,590 km², volume — 8.71 km³, average depth — 3.65 m, maximum depth — 22 m, length — 427 km, width — up to 16 km.
Average ice thickness — 65 centimetres.
Nature of the phenomenon
A reservoir on the Volga River River.
A hydroelectric station has been built on the dam of the Gorky Sea, serving as an auxiliary source of electricity to smooth out consumption peaks of enterprises in the Nizhny Novgorod Region.
Historical background
Formed by the dam of the Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station, filled in 1955–1957.
Located in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Ivanovo, Kostroma, and Yaroslavl Regions. In the upper section, the water flooded only the floodplain and the first terrace. Near the confluence of the Kostroma River, a vast lowland known as the Kostroma Widening was submerged. Below the town of Yuryevets begins the widened, lake-like portion of the reservoir, reaching widths of up to 14 km in places. The banks are high and picturesque near the town of Plyos. Weekly flow regulation is carried out; water level fluctuations reach up to 2 m. Created in the interests of power generation and navigation. Widely used for recreation and fishing. Towns situated on its banks include: Gorodets, Puchezh, Chkalovsk, Yuryevets, Kineshma, Zavolzhye, Navoloki, Plyos, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Tutayev, and Rybinsk.
Useful activities
Gore-More is a treasure trove of holiday camps and sanatoriums. Hardly a person living in the Nizhny Novgorod Region (or beyond) has not vacationed there. Gore-More is also a place of pilgrimage for barbecue enthusiasts, beach loungers, students, yachtsmen, and plain idlers of every rank. The shoreline, especially near the Burevestnik sanatorium, has become severely silted up. Rumour has it that a dredger will soon be brought in to restore the former depth. For now, lying on the beach, one can enjoy an uplifting sight: sunburned, hunched figures trudging for kilometres through the shallows just to get a swim.
Fishing on the Gorky Reservoir
In 1956 the Volga was dammed near Gorodets by the Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station. A reservoir was formed with an area of 160,000 hectares (length 430 km, average width 3.5 km). The lower section, covering 17,000 hectares, lies within the Nizhny Novgorod Region. It is a favourite spot for anglers. The reservoir stretches from the dam of the hydroelectric station and beyond the regional boundary, continuing upstream as far as Yuryevets. Above that town the reservoir retains the appearance of a full-flowing river about 3 km wide. In the section near the dam it has spread across the entire Volga valley to a width of 10–12 km. Depths in the flooded floodplain are 10–15 m, and in the flooded channel up to 22 m. From Yuryevets to Zavolzhye the right bank is high, steep, and in places sheer; the left bank is low and wooded. Along the valleys of Volga tributaries, shallow bays have formed that cut deep into the bank, reaching widths of up to 5 km at their mouths. The largest are those along the Unzha and Nemda rivers, and within the Nizhny Novgorod Region — along the Trotsa and Yug.
The hydrochemical conditions of the reservoir are favourable for fish. Only in places where extensive peat bogs were submerged in the floodplain do winterkill events occasionally occur, though these are not widespread. Current in the section near the dam is almost absent. Of greater importance to fish are wind-driven water movement and wave action.
A highly significant factor in fish life is the fluctuation of water levels in winter — a way in which reservoirs differ markedly from natural bodies of water. The hydroelectric station operates in a steady-state regime, as required by mandatory minimum flow releases. The water accumulated in spring is drawn down before the next flood. After the close of navigation the drawdown accelerates: between December and March–April the water level falls considerably (sometimes by up to 2 m) below the normal impoundment level. Shallows are exposed, the ice collapses and settles on the bottom, cutting off large areas from the reservoir. Winterkill sets in there. Under the settled ice a great deal of fish sometimes perishes, the bottom freezes, and the rhizomes of bankside plants die off. Vegetation along reservoir shores develops poorly.
In spring, in April–May, the reservoir refills. At this time level fluctuations do not exceed 20–40 cm, but even this is harmful to fish: much deposited spawn is lost, either drying out or being abnormally inundated. Reproduction — that is, the spawning of fish that deposit eggs on bankside vegetation (many cyprinids, pike, etc.) — is hampered here. This has a negative effect on fish stocks.
The reservoir clears of ice later than rivers, usually in early May, and only in warm years somewhat earlier, in late April. The ice melts first in the open, open-water portions and only afterwards in the bays.
As already noted, the current in the reservoir, especially in the section near the dam, is very slow. In terms of its regime this body of water most closely resembles a weakly flowing lake. River fish that prefer current — ide, chub, sterlet, and others — have moved upstream or into tributaries, and their numbers have fallen.
Migratory fish — lamprey, herring, sturgeon — have ceased to appear. On the other hand, fish for which the lake-like conditions proved suitable thrived in the early years of the reservoir's existence. In 1956–1957 vast areas of fertile floodplains covered with shrubs and meadow vegetation were inundated. Spawning conditions were highly favourable. The numerous young fish hatched in those years found abundant food, as all aquatic organisms — including those on which fish feed — developed vigorously.
The numbers of such fish as pike, bream, white bream, roach, perch, and others increased sharply. All grew well. But the period of intensive development of aquatic organisms was short-lived. By the 3rd–4th year after inundation the submerged vegetation began to die off, spawning grounds shrank, conditions for fish reproduction deteriorated, and the unstable water-level regime began to take its toll. Moreover, in a young body of water such as a reservoir, productive silt had not yet accumulated on the bottom. As a result, the numbers of bottom-dwelling animals living there are small. Many fish that feed on them suffer from a shortage of food and consequently grow slowly. Bream, for example, instead of chironomid larvae begin consuming planktonic crustaceans, which is uncharacteristic of them and to which they are poorly adapted. Something similar occurs with other fish as well.
The most numerous fish in the reservoir are perch, ruffe, roach, white-eye bream, bleak, and sabre carp, while among commercially valuable species bream predominates. Pikeperch are not abundant. Azure bream — common in some southern Volga and Dnieper reservoirs — is also scarce here. Burbot has become rare. New species have, however, appeared: the Belozersk cisco and the lacustrine smelt, both of which are spreading through the Upper Volga. Eel is caught occasionally, entering the Volga from Lake Seliger.
To increase the productivity of the reservoir, valuable food organisms — gammarid crustaceans — have been introduced, along with fry of the freshwater Siberian sturgeon and larvae of the peled (Siberian whitefish). All the new settlers have established themselves, though their numbers remain low for now. Peled, however, is sometimes caught on a rod and is known to anglers. Fishing on the reservoir is productive. Anglers fish here in both winter and summer. The stretches along the Trotsa and Sanakht rivers are particularly highly regarded. Good catches are taken on the Micha and Mocha rivers, and especially on the Unzha in Ivanovo Region. In autumn and winter perch and ruffe are caught, and in March large roach bite — reaching 25 and even 35 cm in length and up to 1 kg in weight.
The Gorky Sea in natural history
The Gorky Sea, the third reservoir in the Volga cascade counting from upstream, was formed in 1955 and spread widely across the meadowlands of the Upper Volga. The flooding of such valuable land is a drawback of building hydroelectric stations on lowland rivers. Although it is of medium size among the Volga seas, its area is considerable — approximately 1,600 square kilometres.
In the dam near the right bank of the Volga stands the Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station, while near the left bank are two rows — or, as they are called, two lines — of two-chamber locks, separated by an intermediate water space, the reach, where the Gorodetsky ship-repair yard is located. This arrangement allows vessels heading upstream and downstream to pass through the locks simultaneously. The sharp reduction in current speed in the reservoir compared with the former speed in the river (it decreased several-fold — from 0.7–1.5 to 0.2–0.4 m/s) has significantly extended the duration of ice cover: the reservoir now freezes over a week earlier (around 20 November) and breaks up a week and a half later (at the end of April). Average ice thickness is 65 centimetres (maximum up to 1 m).
Despite its large area, the Gorky Sea influences the climate of the surrounding territory no more than half a kilometre from the shores, raising air humidity and producing light breezes that moderate the midday heat in hot weather. The left bank of the sea — now gently sloping with sandy shallows, now steep and undercut — is almost entirely covered with forest, either pure pine or mixed with birch groves.
Geography of Nizhny Novgorod Region. By L. L. Trube
Interesting facts
- Construction of the sea was overseen by a Party official referred to in the press of the time as "Comrade Sery" (Comrade Grey).
- Two Moscows would fit within the area of the Gorky Sea.
- At its greatest depth (22 metres) the Gorky Sea contains nearly 9 cubic kilometres of water.
- The Gorky Sea holds more water than the entire Volga River contained before reservoirs were built on it.