Ladoga Canal
Ladoga Canal ( Russian Ладожский канал) is the name of a shipping canal on the south bank of Lake Ladoga. It is part of the Volga-Baltic Sea Canal System , which has been built since 1709.
The waterway
The often stormy weather on Lake Ladoga in autumn as well as the treacherous sand and rubble banks in the mouth areas of the tributaries made shipping on Lake Ladoga a dangerous undertaking and often caused losses of ships, goods and human lives. The relatively shallow water depth of eight to ten meters on the southern shore of the lake creates characteristic short, steep waves that often made it impossible for even larger ships of the shallow design that were common at the time to enter the lake from the Neva and Swir rivers .
With the increase in the movement of goods from the core areas of the Russian Empire to the new capital Saint Petersburg and to the Baltic Sea region, demands for safer waterways increased. Engineers were busy planning the expansion and construction of waterways .
Old Ladoga Canal
On May 22nd, 1719, Tsar Peter I had the construction of a canal begin near Novaya Ladoga , about four kilometers above the confluence of the Volkhov River into Lake Ladoga.
The governor-general of Saint Petersburg, Alexander Danilowitsch Menshikov , was in charge of the construction of the canal ; Major General Grigory Skornjakow-Pisarew was entrusted with the management of the work. The work dragged on for years without any notable progress being made. After doubts about the professional management of Pisarev were expressed and the responsible Senate of Saint Petersburg rejected a final assessment at the end of 1722, the Tsar decided to carry out the inspection himself.
When the tsar had personally convinced himself in 1723 that the work that had been done so far was rudimentary, he had Skornjakow-Pisarev arrested and entrusted the management of the sewer works to the Oldenburg engineer and politician Count Burkhard Christoph von Münnich , who was in Russian service as Lieutenant General . Until then, Münnich had proven his skills by planning new fortifications for the Kronstadt harbor, making the Neva navigable and building a lock in this river.
From then on, the work went quickly, but Münnich was repeatedly confronted with Menshikov's intrigues. When Tsarina Catherine I came to power , payments were withheld due to the Menshikov, who had now increased in influence, and workers were withdrawn contrary to promises. At times, 15,000 soldiers and free people were called in to build the canal systems. Their mortality was extremely high; the dead were buried on the spot in the dam.
Shipping on the canal began as early as 1728. In 1732, now in the reign of Tsarina Anna I , it was opened to traffic over its entire length of 110 kilometers and with 32 locks . The canal runs over long stretches in the immediate vicinity of the southern bank of Lake Ladoga. It is about 20 meters wide and originally had a water depth of more than two meters. On his way he crosses several rivers and marshland rich in lakes.
To improve the efficiency of the canal, its confluence with the Neva was redesigned in 1734. In 1736 a four-chamber lock made of granite was built and an additional breakthrough to the Neva ( Small Neva Canal , "Малоневский канал") was created with a two-chamber lock.
The construction of the 100 werst (about 107 kilometers) long towpath along this canal on both sides took almost 13 years with the most primitive work equipment.
Another section of the canal (the old Sjaskanal "Старосясьский канал") between the Volkhov and Sjas rivers was created between 1766 and 1802. From 1802 to 1810, the Ladogaumgehung was completed with the creation of a third section of the canal (the Old Swirk Canal "Старосвирский канал") from the mouth of the Sjas to the mouth of the River Swir.
New Ladoga Canal
At the latest when the first steamers sailed on Lake Ladoga around 1842 , the old channel became too narrow and too shallow. So it was expanded again and again.
From 1866 to 1883 a new, wider canal was built. It runs north of the old canal and follows the lakeshore, partly in the immediate vicinity. In some sections it is only separated from the lake by a dam . The new canal now also offered shipping the advantage of faster passage, as it was implemented without locks.
When this waterway, called the New Ladoga Canal , from the Volkhov to the Swir was completed, the entire south coast of Lake Ladoga offered a safe shipping route. It was part of the Mariinsky Canal - a forerunner of today's Volga-Baltic Sea Canal.
Modern times
In 1953 was in the then in Petrokrepost renamed city Schlüsselburg the Newafähre on the old canal lock a monument of Peter the Great as a gift to the city from the pier Leningrad erected on the occasion of its 250th anniversary.
The new Ladoga canal is still in operation today (2010), while the old canal is falling into disrepair. Whole sections of the canal trench have been filled in, littered, or are used as clarification basins for neighboring companies. Although there are plans to maintain and renew the old canal and lock systems, their implementation is suffering from inconsistent funding.
literature
- Brigitta Berg : Burchard Christoph von Münnich. The assessment, presentation and research of his work in Russia in German and Russian historiography. The attempt of a perspective study on the basis of examples (= Oldenburg studies. Vol. 45). Isensee, Oldenburg 2001, ISBN 3-89598-771-9 (also: Oldenburg, University, dissertation, 2000).
- Gerhard Ant. Von Halem : Description of the life of the Russian Imperial General Field Marshal BC Count von Münnich. Schulze, Oldenburg 1803 ( digitized ; also reprint for his 325th birthday, edited by Ulrich Wilke. Make a Book publisher, Neukirchen 2008, ISBN 978-3-940218-12-4 ).
- Francis Ley: Le Maréchal de Münnich et la Russie au XVIIe Siècle. Plon, Paris 1959, (also: Paris, dissertation, 1957).
- Ernst von Münnich: The memoirs of Count Ernst von Münnich. With a portrait of Count Münnich and a facsimile of the manuscript. Edited from the original German manuscript and provided with an introduction and a biography of the author by Arved Jürgensohn. Cotta, Stuttgart 1896, (reprint, edited by Ulrich Wilke. Make a Book publishing house, Neukirchen 2006, ISBN 3-939119-37-7 ).
- Melchior Vischer : Münnich. Engineer / general / traitor. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1938.
- Ulrich Wilke: From the Hunte to the Neva. Burchard Christoph von Münnich and Christina Lucretia von Witzleben. Videel, Niebüll 2005, ISBN 3-89906-970-6 .