The Rybinsk artificial lake (Rybinskoye vodokhranilishche) is a large water reservoir on Volga River and its tributaries Sheksna and Mologa. The Rybinsk dam was constructed in 1941, and the lake finally filled in 1947. Some 150,000 people had to be resettled elsewhere, and the town of Mologa has completely disappeared under water.
Lake Ladoga is the largest lake in Europe, with an area of 17 700 km2 (18 135 km2 with islands), a watershed of 280 000 km2, a length of 219 km, an average width of 83 km, an average depth of 51 m, and 1870 km of shoreline.
Lake Ladoga washes the territory of five districts in Leningrad Region: Volkhov (159 km of shoreline), Priozersk (132 km), Kirov (102 km), Vsevolozhsk (87 km), and Lodeinoye Pole (24 km).
Lake Onega has a watershed of 63 000 km2, an area of 9720 km2 without islands, a length of 247 km, an average width of 40 km, and an average depth of 31 m.
Although called a sea, it is actually a saline lake that occupies the southern end of the Caspian Depression, an area of lowland that straddles the Europe-Asia boundary in Russia and neighbouring Kazakhstan.
Lake Baikal is the world’s deepest and oldest freshwater lake, with a maximum depth of 1,637 m (5,371 ft); it is estimated to be about 20 million years old, compared with the 20,000 years of most freshwater lakes.
The lake is one of three natural World Heritage sites recently established in Russia—the others being the Virgin Komi Forest in the Ural Mountains (listed 1995) and the Kamchatka Peninsula (1996)—and the government is seeking to have more sites included on the list as part of environmental protection efforts.
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