Izhora, river

Categories / City Topography/Waterways and Currents/Rivers
IZHORA, also known as Inger river, a tributary to the Neva. The river draws its water through the Izhora Hills from a spring near Skvoritsa village of Gatchinsky District. The Izhora River runs through the territory of Gatchinsky District and Tosnensky District of Leningrad Region and the territory of Kolpinsky District of St. Petersburg. The river is 76 kilometres long; the area of its river basin is close to 1,000 km2. The name of the river refers to a nationality which used to bear the same name. In the 13th-15th centuries lands pertaining to the basin of the Izhora formed a part of Izhorsky fiefdom of Vodskaya Pyatina (one of five boroughs of Novgorod) of Veliky Novgorod. The Battle of the Neva of 1240 took place in the mouth of the Izhora River. According to the data derived from the Pistsovaya Kniga (Property Register) chronicles of 1500, the Izhora consisted of 62 settlements and "a little row of stalls by their hovels". In the early 17th century the lands surrounding the Izhora were captured by Sweden and returned to Russia only in the course of the Great Northern War of 1700-21. In the early 18th century, numerous dams were erected on the Izhora River, which were used for saw mills. The mills, in their turn, supported various plants built on the Izhora which became the present-day town of Kolpino. Reminders of these early dams are seen by the stone dam of the early 19th century, a pond and two drainage canals on the river. As of the early 18th century, the place of the intersection of the Izhora with Moskovsky high road (now the freeway linking Moscow and St. Petersburg) was occupied by a post house, called yam in Russian (hence the name of the village of Yam-Izhora). At the same time, the village of Ust-Izhora (literally the Mouth of the Izhora) was set in the mouth of the Izhora. From the end of August 1941 through January 1944, the front line crossed the river above Kolpino; these lines were the place where regular troops together with soldiers of the Izhorsky battalion fought against the German invaders. The length of the river linking Antropshino Railway Station and Kolpino is a popular place for canoeing trips. The water of the Izhora is heavily polluted with industrial waste, which makes the river one of the most polluted confluents of the Neva River.

References: Плечко Л. А. Водные маршруты Ленинградской области. Л., 1978. С. 107-110; Ильина Л. Л., Родионов В. З. Воды и веси: (Экол.-ист. очерк). СПб., 1997.

L. D. Burim. Izhora River/Ust-Izhora, village
Плечко Л. А. Водные маршруты Ленинградской области. Л., 1978
Ильина Л.Л., Родионова В.З. Воды и веси: (Экол.-ист. очерк). СПб., 1997 Neva Battle (1240)
Great Northern War of 1700-21
Izhora Plants
Izhora Battalion