Yenisei

The name comes from ancient . Enesy (modern Enzya-yam ' ) ^[2] , which in turn goes back to the “big water” ^{[3] [4]} . In the 17th century, the northern toponym Yenisei for some time competed in documents with the South Siberian name of this river - Kem , ultimately displacing it.

Siberians often call the river the epithet "Yenisei-Father" ^{[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]} .

One of the largest rivers in the world : the length of the river from the confluence of the Big Yenisei and the Small Yenisei - 3487 km (with the Small Yenisei - 4287 ^[11] km, from the sources of the Large Yenisei - 4092 (4123) ^[12] km). The length of the waterway: Ider - Selenga - Lake Baikal - Angara - Yenisei is 5550 km ^[13] . In terms of the basin area (2580 thousand km²), the Yenisei takes the 2nd place among the rivers of Russia and Eurasia (after the Ob ) and the 7th place among the rivers of the world . A sharp asymmetry is characteristic of the Yenisei basin: its right bank part is 5.6 times larger than the left bank.

Yenisei - the natural boundary between Western and Eastern Siberia . The left bank of the Yenisei ends the great West Siberian Plain , and the right bank represents the kingdom of mountain taiga . From the Sayans to the Arctic Ocean, the Yenisei passes through all climatic zones of Siberia . Camels live in its upper reaches, and polar bears in the lower reaches.

Actually the Yenisei starts from the city of Kyzyl , where the Big Yenisei and the Small Yenisei merge. The height of the source is 619.5 ^[14] m above sea level. For the first 188 km, the Yenisei flows under the name Upper Yenisei (Ulug-Khem) , within the northern edge of the Tuva Basin in the west ^{[ clarify ] the} river is divided into sleeves, the bed is replete with shoals, the width varies from 100 to 650 m; the depths in the reaches are 4–12 m, in the shallows no more than 1 m. From the Shagonar begins the Sayano-Shushenskoe reservoir formed by the dam of the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric station . Having taken the Khemchik river to the left, the Yenisei turns north and for 290 km it breaks through the mountains of the Western Sayan and the Minusinsk hollow . Below the dam of the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station begins a small Mainsky reservoir, ending with the Mainsky hydroelectric station . After the confluence of the left tributary - the Abakan River - the Krasnoyarsk Reservoir begins (360 km long) formed by the dam of the Krasnoyarsk Hydroelectric Power Plant , located near the town of Divnogorsk , at the crossing point of the Yenisei spurs of the Eastern Sayan . The width of the valley here is 5 km, the channel is more than 500 m. Between Krasnoyarsk and the Angara mouth, the Yenisei valley widens again, the river loses its mountain character, but there are still submarine ridges in the riverbed, a continuation of the spurs of the Yenisei ridge . Below the confluence of the Angara, the character of the valley and the bed of the Yenisei changes dramatically. The right bank remains mountainous, the left becomes low, floodplain. The width of the Yenisei valley at the mouth of the Lower Tunguska is about 40 km, at Dudinka and Ust-Port it is up to 150 km, the channel is 2.5—5 km; the minimum depths of the entire lower Yenisei range from 5 to 8.5 m. Below Dudinka, the prevailing depths are 20–25 m, the channel is broken into arms, the islands reach a length of 20 km.

From the mouth of the river Kureika , where tidal fluctuations of the level are already felt, the mouth of the Yenisei riverbed begins. The channel loses its normal appearance at the confluence of the Yenisei River into the Yenisei Gulf at the section passing through the mouth of the Funtusov channel (point with coordinates 69 ° 36′40 ″ N, 84 ° 32′40 ″ V. ^{[15] [16 ]} ) and Cape Krestovsky ^[17] . The expansion of the Yenisei Bay with the floodplain (left) and island (right) multi-arm begins below this alignment: below the village of Ust-Port is the Yenisei delta itself, which advanced into the bay in the form of a combination of sleeves and a canal with small tides and floodplain arrays up to the 71st parallel where the bay width increases to 44 km ^[17] . In the delta is also marked leaching mode. The Yenisei Bay is divided by the Brehovsky Islands into a number of channels, of which four main branches are distinguished: the Okhotsk Yenisei , the Kamenny Yenisei , the Big Yenisei and the Small Yenisei ; The total width of the bay here is 50 km. Downstream the Eniseysky Bay of the Kara Sea takes the form of an estuary .

Yenisei refers to the type of rivers of mixed nutrition with a predominance of snow. The share of the latter is slightly less than 50%, rainwater 36–38%, underground in the upper reaches up to 16%, to the lower reaches it decreases. The freezing of the Yenisei begins in the lower reaches (early October). For the Yenisei characterized by intensive formation of intra-ice, autumnal drift. Ice accumulation in the lower reaches from the end of October, in the middle of November in the middle reaches of Krasnoyarsk and in the end of November - December in the mountainous part. In some areas in the stream there are powerful frost. For the most part of the Yenisei, extended spring floods and summer floods are characteristic, in winter there is a sharp reduction in runoff (but levels fall slowly due to the development of zazhora ). For the upper reaches is characterized by a stretched spring-summer flood. The flood on the Yenisei begins in May, sometimes in April, on the average Yenisei a little earlier than on the upper, on the lower in the middle of May - early June. Spring break-up is accompanied by congestion. The range of fluctuations of the Yenisei level in the upper reaches is 5–7 m in expansions and 15–16 m in narrowings, it is greater in the lower reaches (28 m at Kureika ), decreases to the mouth (11.7 m at Ust-Port ).

The water flow rate at the beginning of the Yenisei River, at Kyzyl, is 1009 m³ / s ^[18] , in the Sayanogorsk area 1,484 m³ / s ^[19] , in the Krasnoyarsk Hydroelectric Power Station 2,723 m³ / s ^[20] , in the Krasnoyarsk region 2864 m³ / s ^[21] , near Yeniseisk 7724 m³ / s ^[22] , after the confluence of the Podkamennaya Tunguska tributary 10768 m³ / s ^[23] , Igarka has 18395 m³ / s ^[24] .

In terms of runoff (624 km³), the Yenisei ranks first among the rivers of Russia. The average annual water discharge at the mouth is 19,800 m³ / s, the maximum flow from Igarka is 154,000 m³ / s.

The list of the most significant tributaries of the Yenisei includes the following rivers: on the left - Khemchik , Kantegir , Abakan , Kem , Kas , Sym , Dubches , Yelogui , Turukhan , Malaya Kheta , Bolshaya Kheta , Gryaznukha ; on the right - Us , Kebezh , Tuba , Syda , Sisim , Mana , Kan , Angara , Bolshoy Pete , Podkamennaya Tunguska , Bakhta , Lower Tunguska , Kureika , Khantayk , Dudinka . In total, about 500 more or less significant rivers flow into the Yenisei, and their total length is more than 300 thousand kilometers ^[25] .

The right tributaries of the Yenisei dominate over the left by the amount of brought water and the catchment area. The main tributary is the Angara , but about one year out of ten years another large tributary, the Lower Tunguska , surpasses it in annual runoff ^{[26] [27]} .

Controversy: Yenisei or Angara

The Yenisei is considered the main river due to the more ancient geological structure of its river valley and by virtue of its historically established tradition. .

There are several reasons why the modern Yenisei below the merger with Angara could be considered Angara:

• at the confluence with the Yenisei, the Angara carries much more water - near the village of Arrow the average annual water consumption in the Yenisei is 3350 m³ / s or ≈104 km³ per year, and at the mouth of the Angara - 4530 m³ / s or ≈143 km³ per year ^{[26] [28 ] ] [29]} ;
• the basin of the upper part of the Yenisei is less than 400 thousand km² , that is, significantly less than the catchment area of ​​the Angara - 1040 thousand km² ^{[26] [22]} ;

Cities (location downstream): Kyzyl , Shagonar , Sayanogorsk , Minusinsk , Abakan , Divnogorsk , Krasnoyarsk , Sosnovoborsk , Zheleznogorsk , Lesosibirsk , Yeniseisk , Igarka , Dudinka .

Other localities: Cheryomushki , Main , Shushenskoye , Ust-Abakan , Novoselovo , Berezovka , Atamanovo , Kazachinskoe , Pityosovo , Turukhansk , Kureika , Ust-Port , Karaul , Peschanka.

From source to mouth:

• Kyzyl City Bridge
• The transport bridge in Kyzyl - the bypass road of the M54 "Yenisei"
• Pedestrian-road bridge in Cheryomushki

• Bratsk bridge near the village of Green Bor
• Railway-automobile bridge near the village of Green Bor
• Road bridge near the town of Divnogorsk
• Nikolaevsky bridge
• Railroad bridge
• Communal bridge
• October Bridge
• Korkinsky bridge
• The bridge over the Yenisei on the Krasnoyarsk bypass - the bypass of the federal highway M53 "Baikal"

Yenisei - the most important waterway of the Krasnoyarsk Territory . Regular shipping - from Sayanogorsk to the mouth (3013 km). The main cargo flows go from Krasnoyarsk to Dudinka . Main ports and wharves: Abakan , Krasnoyarsk , Strelka , Maklakovo , Yeniseisk , Turukhansk , Igarka , Ust-Port . To Igarka rise ships. A unique ship lift was built to escort vessels from the downstream of the Krasnoyarsk Hydroelectric Station to the upper one. In the Republic of Tuva on the Yenisey local shipping (the main pier Kyzyl ).

Hydroelectric power plants (downstream location): Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP , Mainskaya HPP , Krasnoyarskaya HPP .

According to the Yenisei, wood is floated in rafts.

At the end of the XIX century the Ob-Yenisei Canal was built, connecting the Ob with the Yenisei. The channel is currently unused and abandoned.

After the construction of the Krasnoyarsk and Sayano-Shushenskaya HPPs, serious environmental consequences ensued ^[30] .

The Yenisei near Krasnoyarsk, Divnogorsk, Sayanogorsk stopped freezing, in particular, the extended non-freezing polynya below Krasnoyarsk can have a length of up to five hundred kilometers. The official site of RusHydro connects the formation of such an extended polynya “not so much with the work of hydroelectric power stations, as with discharges of warm wastewater in Krasnoyarsk” ^[31] . The climate became softer and the air more humid, thanks to the huge amount of water that accumulates in the Krasnoyarsk reservoir ^[31] .

In addition, the cascade of the Yenisei Hydroelectric Power Station flooded large areas of valuable land, led to the destruction of archaeological sites, biocenoses, fish resources, and the forced relocation of a significant number of the population ^{[31] [32]} . In 2001, a memorial cross was erected on a mountain in the place where the water hid the village Byskar at the bottom of the Krasnoyarsk reservoir ^[33] .

After the mining chemical complex was built in Krasnoyarsk-26 in the 1950s, two direct-flow nuclear reactors were commissioned to produce weapons-grade plutonium (plutonium-239). The reactors had a direct-flow type cooling, that is, after the water was taken and the reactor cooled, the water without purification was discharged back to the Yenisei - which led to radiation pollution of the Yenisei ^[34] .

From source to mouth:

• The confluence of the Big and Small Yenisei near the city of Kyzyl is the geographical center of Asia . To commemorate this, an obelisk is installed at the memorial site.
• The annual international festival of ethnic music and crafts "The World of Siberia " (until 2012 the festival was called the "Sayan Ring") ^[35] and the Historical and Ethnographic Museum-Reserve under the open sky in the village of Shushenskoye .
• Preserve Stolby , as well as a ski complex - Fanpark " Bobrovy Log " near Krasnoyarsk.

• History of shipping on the Yenisey
• Yenisey River Shipping Company
• Kazachinsky threshold

• Бурыкин А. А. Енисей и Ангара. К истории и этимологии названий гидронимов и изучению перспектив формирования географических представлений о бассейнах рек Южной Сибири (неопр.) . www.tuva.asia . Дата обращения 15 марта 2019. // Новые исследования Тувы. — 2011. — № 2-3.
• Вышегородцев А. А. Рыбы Енисея: Справочник . — Новосибирск, 2000.
• Кублицкий Г. И. Енисей, река сибирская (неопр.) (недоступная ссылка — история ) . . — Красноярск, 2015.
• Latkin N.V. Yenisei // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 t. (82 t. And 4 add.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.

• Yenisei // Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 t.] / Ch. ed. A. M. Prokhorov . - 3rd ed. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.
• Enisey // Dictionary of modern geographical names / Rus. geogr. about of . Mosk. Centre; Under total ed. Acad. V.M. Kotlyakov . Institute of Geography RAS . - Yekaterinburg: U-Factory, 2006.
• Lotsia r. Yenisei (Vorogovo section - Igarka 10.1 Mb) (рус.) . turuhansk-region.ru . The appeal date is March 15, 2019.