The Pyana is the most winding river in the world — so claims the textbook "Geography. The Nature of Russia."
It flows almost entirely through the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod Region.
On the Pyana are located the towns of Perevoz and Town of Sergach, and the settlements of Gagino, Buturlino, and Pilna.
Theories on the origin of the name "Pyana"
One legend holds: "Long ago, the 'Hills' were covered everywhere with dense forests, teeming with all manner of wild beasts. A bear had taken to raiding the village that stood on the banks of the Sura. It spared neither women nor children nor the elderly, and many a brave hunter perished at its claws. The people had all but given up hope. Around that time, a young lad in the village came of age — strong and quick-witted. He resolved to take on the fearsome beast. But the bear seemed to sense something; it retreated into the forest and holed up in its den. For many days the youth wandered through the thicket, forcing his way through the undergrowth, doubling back, pressing on again, and marking the trees so he could find his way home. At last he found the bear. The fight was terrible. The lad won, but the savage beast had wounded him badly, and blood poured freely from his injuries. Exhausted, he skinned the bear, heaved the hide onto his shoulders, and staggered homeward along his trail of markers, swaying and stumbling from blood loss as though drunk (pyanyi). And wherever his blood dripped, pits and hollows formed in the ground, and from them springs burst forth and streams began to run. These streams merged together and flowed as a river along that very same winding path, all the way back to the village where the youth lived, before emptying into the Sura. The people did not forget his feat, and they named the river Pyana — for its twists and turns."
The Nizhny Novgorod writer Pavel Melnikov-Pechersky wrote in his book "In the Hills": "In other parts of our Russia you will rarely find rivers like the Pyana… It was named Pyana by the first Russian settlers because it reels and staggers in every direction like a drunken woman, and after winding and twisting for some five hundred versts, it circles back to its own source and empties into the Sura almost beside it." The writer cites mentions of the river's name in the chronicles.
Dobrolyubov, a collector and scholar of folk tradition, recorded the following legend: "The Pyana meets another river and asks her: 'What is your name?' 'Pyana,' she answers. 'You truly are drunk (pyana). Let me lead you where you need to go.' And the other river flowed on ahead, and the Pyana began turning to follow her. 'But where are you taking me, when you yourself are like that?' says the Pyana. 'To hell,' the other replies. People overheard this and named that other river Vad, and after it they named the selo standing on its banks."
Another version was presented by V. Malkin in the journal Nauka i Zhizn (Science and Life). In modern Finnish, the word "piana" means "small river." This is precisely what the Pyana was called in Russian medieval documents. A chronicle entry about the battle with the Horde murza Bulak-Temir in 1366 reads: "He, the accursed one (Bulak-Temir), would not stand and fight, but fled beyond the river Piana."
A. T. Kharitonych ev, in his book "The Nature of the Nizhny Novgorod Volga Region," argues that the name derives from the Mordva word "pyan" (meaning "pain" in Russian). The river served as the eastern boundary of the Russian state, and the lands along it suffered repeated incursions by nomadic tribes that brought grief and hardship to the local population.
The renowned Russian traveler Academician Ivan Lepekhin, who during the reign of Catherine II led one of the detachments of an academic expedition into the Volga Region and visited the Pyana River, recorded the following tale: "Its course is very winding and beautiful, which is why it came to be called the Drunk (Pyanaya) River. Although this explanation of the name is plausible, another cause is also told: that once two princes waged war upon each other — some say they were Russian, others say they were from the Horde. One of them vanquished the other and, celebrating his victory, halted beside the said river. During the festivities, his warriors drank themselves senseless and, abandoning all military order, wandered about everywhere. The vanquished, learning of the disorder among their conquerors, rallied their scattered forces, fell upon their enemies without warning, and routed them utterly; and in memory of this victory over the drunken (pyanye) soldiers, they named the river Pyanaya."
Interesting facts
The Pyana draws visitors with its scenic beauty and natural features — karst sinkholes, lakes, and caves.
In history, the Pyana is known for the Battle of the Pyana that took place on its banks.
The river and fishing
The Pyana has long been renowned for the clarity and purity of its water, as well as the abundance of fish. However, the millponds and mill dams that once lined the river in great numbers, keeping its water levels up, have since been demolished as unnecessary; the riverside forests have thinned considerably; and today the Pyana runs very shallow.
Even so, it remains a rich fishing river. For the sport angler, it is a paradise. In the crystal-clear water, fish are visible at depths of up to 2 metres. Large perch cruise through the deep pools, while red-finned chub dart about the shallows.
The Pyana flows through fertile black-earth soils, and in places its course cuts through easily dissolved limestone and gypsum. Its valley and banks are dotted with many subsidence lakes. The water is highly mineralized and fairly hard. Yet the abundance of fish is proof that these qualities do the river's inhabitants no harm.