The Irtysh ( otk, 𐰼𐱅𐰾:𐰇𐰏𐰕𐰏, Ertis ügüzüg, mn, Эрчис мөрөн, ''Erchis mörön'', "erchleh", "twirl"; russian: Иртыш; kk, Ертіс, Ertis, ; Chinese: 额尔齐斯河,

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...

: ''É'ěrqísī hé'', Xiao'erjing: عَعَرٿِسِ حْ; ug, إيرتيش, Әртиш, ''Ertish''; tt-Cyrl, Иртеш, , ,

Siberian Tatar Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

: Эйәртеш, ''Eya’rtes’'') is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, and

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. It is the chief tributary of the Ob and is also the second longest tributary river in the world after

Paraná River The Paraná River ( es, Río Paraná, links=no , pt, Rio Paraná, gn, Ysyry Parana) is a river in south-central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina for some ."Parana River". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Br ...

. The river's source lies in the

Mongolian Altai The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob have their headwaters. The massif merges with the S ...

Dzungaria Dzungaria (; from the Mongolian words , meaning 'left hand') is a geographical subregion in Northwest China that corresponds to the northern half of Xinjiang. It is thus also known as Beijiang, which means "Northern Xinjiang". Bounded by the ...

(the northern part of

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwes ...

, China) close to the border with

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million ...

. The Irtysh's main tributaries include the Tobol, Demyanka and the Ishim. The Ob-Irtysh system forms a major

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, encompassing most of

Western Siberia Western Siberia or West Siberia (russian: Западная Сибирь, Zapadnaya Sibir'; kk, Батыс Сібір) is a part of the larger region of Siberia that is mostly located in the Russian Federation. It lies between the Ural region ...

and the Altai Mountains.

Geography

Operational Navigation Chart D-5, 6th edition

From its origins as the ''Kara-Irtysh'' (Vast Irtysh, kara means Vast in Turkic languages but also black. But in the context and geographic terms usually refers vast) in the

n Altay mountains in

, the Irtysh flows northwest through Lake Zaysan in

, meeting the Ishim and Tobol rivers before merging with the Ob near Khanty-Mansiysk in western Siberia,

after . The name Black Irtysh (''Kara-Irtysh'' in Kazakh, or ''Cherny Irtysh'' in Russian) is applied by some authors, especially in Russia and Kazakhstan, to the upper course of the river, from its source entering Lake Zaysan. The term White Irtysh, in opposition to the Black Irtysh, was occasionally used in the past to refer to the Irtysh below lake Zaysan; now this usage is largely obsolete.

Main tributaries

The largest tributaries of the Irtysh are, from source to mouth: * Kelan (right) * Burqin (right) * Kalzhyr (right) * Kürshim (right) * Naryn (right) *

Bukhtarma The Bukhtarma ( kk, Бұқтырма, translit=Būqtyrma, بۇقتىرما, ; russian: Бухтарма, translit=Bukhtarma) is a river of Kazakhstan. It flows through East Kazakhstan Region, and is a right tributary of the Irtysh. The river is lo ...

(right) * Ulba (right) * Uba (right) * Chagan (left) * Om (right) * Tara (right) * Uy (right) * Osha (left) * Shish (right) * Ishim (left) * Tobol (left) *

Noska The Noska is a river in Tyumen Oblast, Russia.Article
in the

Demyanka (right) * Konda (left)

Economic use

In Kazakhstan and Russia, tankers, passenger and

Cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usu ...

s navigate the river during the ice-free season, between April and October.

Omsk Omsk (; rus, Омск, p=omsk) is the administrative center and largest city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia, and has a population of over 1.1 million. Omsk is the third largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk a ...

, home to the headquarters of the state-owned Irtysh River Shipping Company, functions as the largest

river port An inland port is a port on an inland waterway, such as a river, lake, or canal, which may or may not be connected to the sea. The term "inland port" is also used to refer to a dry port. Examples The United States Army Corps of Engineers ...

in Western Siberia. On the Kazakhstan section of the river there are presently three major

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

plants, namely at

Ust-Kamenogorsk Oskemen ( kk, Өскемен, translit=Öskemen ), or Ust-Kamenogorsk (russian: Усть-Каменого́рск), is the administrative center of East Kazakhstan Region of Kazakhstan. Population: Name The city has two official names. In th ...

and Shulbinsk. The world's deepest lock, with a drop of , allows river traffic to by-pass the dam at

. Plans exist for the construction of several more dams. Gorskii 04668u

Three dams have been constructed on the Chinese section of the Irtysh as well: the Keketuohai (可可托海) Dam (), the Kalasuke (喀腊塑克) Dam (), and the

Project 635 Dam The Project 635 Dam () is one of the three dams constructed on the Irtysh River in China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. The embankment dam is located in Fuhai County, about 56 km east of Beitun. It creates a reservoir (the Project 635 ...

. There are also the

Burqin Chonghu'er Dam The Chonghu'er Dam is a gravity dam on the river Burqin in Burqin County of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China. The tall dam is constructed with roller-compacted concrete and supports a 110 MW hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydr ...

and the

Burqin Shankou Dam The Burqin Shankou Dam () is an arch dam in Burqin County of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China. The Burqin Shankou Dam is constructed in the narrow gorge of the Burqin, a right tributary of the Irtysh, in the area where it leaves the A ...

on the Irtysh's right tributary, the

Burqin River Burqin may refer to: China *Burqin County, a county in Xinjiang * (布尔津镇), a town and the seat of Burqin County * (布尔津河), in Xinjiang Palestine * Burqin, Palestine * Burqin Church The Burqin Church ( ar, كنيسة برقين), al ...

and the

Jilebulake Dam The Jilebulake Dam () is a concrete-face rock-fill dam on the Haba River, a tributary of the Irtysh, in Habahe County of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. The primary purpose of the dam is hydroelectric power generation and it sup ...

and

Haba River Shankou Dam The Haba River Shankou Dam (, Haba River Shankou Hydroelectric Station) is a concrete-face rock-fill dam on the Haba River, a tributary of the Irtysh. It is located in Habahe County of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. The primary ...

on another right tributary, the Haba River. The

Northern river reversal The Northern river reversal or Siberian river reversal was an ambitious project to divert the flow of the Northern rivers in the Soviet Union, which "uselessly" drain into the Arctic Ocean, southwards towards the populated agricultural areas of C ...

proposals, widely discussed by the USSR planners and scientists in the 1960s and 1970s, would send some of the Irtysh's (and possibly Ob's) water to the water-deficient regions of central Kazakhstan and

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...

. Some versions of this project would have seen the direction of flow of the Irtysh reversed in its section between the mouth of the Tobol (at

Tobolsk Tobolsk (russian: Тобо́льск) is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh rivers. Founded in 1590, Tobolsk is the second-oldest Russian settlement east of the Ural Mountains in Asian Russia, ...

) and the confluence of the Irtysh with the Ob at Khanty-Mansiysk, thus creating an "Anti-Irtysh". While these gigantic

interbasin transfer Interbasin transfer or transbasin diversion are (often hyphenated) terms used to describe man-made conveyance schemes which move water from one river basin where it is available, to another basin where water is less available or could be utilized ...

schemes were not implemented, a smaller Irtysh–Karaganda Canal was built between 1962 and 1974 to supply water to the dry Kazakh

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate gras ...

s and to one of the country's main industrial center, Karaganda. In 2002, pipelines were constructed to supply water from the canal to the Ishim and Kazakhstan's capital,

Nur-Sultan Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, tho ...

. In China, a short canal was constructed in 1987 (water intake at ) to divert some of the Irtysh water to the endorrheic

Lake Ulungur A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a Depression (geology), basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the World Ocean, oce ...

, whose level had been falling precipitously due to the increasing irrigation use of the lake's main affluent, the Ulungur River. (An English translation of the original paper published in the ''Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta'' in 1979). In the last years of the 20th century and the early 2000s, a much more major project, the Irtysh–Karamay–Urümqi Canal was completed. Increased water use in China has caused significant concerns among Kazakh and Russian environmentalists. According to a report published by Kazakhstan fishery researchers in 2013, the total Irtysh water use in China is about per year; as a result, only about 2/3 of what would be the river's "natural" flow (6 km³ out of 9 km³) reach the Kazakh border.

Cities

Major cities along the Irtysh, from source to mouth, include: * in China: Fuyun, Beitun, Burqin * in Kazakhstan:

Oskemen Oskemen ( kk, Өскемен, translit=Öskemen ), or Ust-Kamenogorsk (russian: Усть-Каменого́рск), is the administrative center of East Kazakhstan Region of Kazakhstan. Population: Name The city has two official names. In th ...

Semey Semey ( kk, Семей, Semei, سەمەي; cyrl, Семей ), until 2007 known as Semipalatinsk (russian: Семипала́тинск) and in 1917–1920 as Alash-kala ( kk, Алаш-қала, ''Alaş-qala''), is a city in eastern Kazakhs ...

, Aksu,

Pavlodar Pavlodar ( ; ) is a city in northeastern Kazakhstan and the capital of Pavlodar Region. It is located 450 km northeast of the national capital Astana and 405 km southeast of the Russian city of Omsk along the Irtysh River. , the ci ...

* in Russia:

, Tara,

, Khanty-Mansiysk

Bridges

Seven railway bridges span the Irtysh. They are located in the following cities: * About 15 km downstream from

Serebryansk Serebryansk ( kz, Серебрянск, ''Serebriansk''; russian: Серебрянск) is a town in Zyryan District in East Kazakhstan Region of eastern Kazakhstan. Population: The town is located on the right bank of the Irtysh River, downstr ...

(on the dead-end branch line from

Zyryanovsk Altai ( kk, Алтай, translit=Altai, russian: Алтай, translit=Altai), until 2019 known as Zyryan ( kk, Зырян, ''Zyrian'') or Zyryanovsk (russian: Зыряновск) is a town of regional significance in East Kazakhstan Region of ...

) *

, on the Turkestan–Siberia Railway *

, on the South Siberian rail line (

Barnaul Barnaul ( rus, Барнау́л, p=bərnɐˈul) is the largest city and administrative centre of Altai Krai, Russia, located at the confluence of the Barnaulka and Ob Rivers in the West Siberian Plain. As of the 2021 Census, its population was ...

) * near

Cherlak Cherlak (russian: Черлак) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia. ;Urban localities *Cherlak, Cherlaksky District, Omsk Oblast, a work settlement in Cherlaksky District of Omsk Oblast ;Rural localities * Cherlak, Republic ...

, on the Middle Siberian rail line ( Среднесибирская магистраль) *

, on the

Trans-Siberian Railway The Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR; , , ) connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway line in the world. It runs from the city of Moscow in the west to the city of Vladivostok in the ea ...

. Opened in 1896, this is the oldest bridge on the river. *

, on the

Tyumen Tyumen ( ; rus, Тюмень, p=tʲʉˈmʲenʲ, a=Ru-Tyumen.ogg) is the administrative center and largest city of Tyumen Oblast, Russia. It is situated just east of the Ural Mountains, along the Tura River. Fueled by the Russian oil and gas in ...

Surgut Surgut ( rus, Сургу́т, p=sʊrˈgut; Khanty: Сәрханӆ, ''Sərhanł'') is a city in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located on the Ob River near its junction with the Irtysh River. It is one of the few cities in Russia to be ...

line As the Kuytun–Beitun Railway in China's Xinjiang is being extended toward Altay City, a railway bridge over the Irtysh at Beitun will need to be constructed as well. Numerous highway bridges over the Irtysh exist in China, Kazakhstan, and Russia. The last bridge downstream on the Irtysh, a highway bridge opened in 2004, can be found at Khanty-Mansiysk, right before the river's confluence with Ob.

History

A number of

Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...

and Turkic peoples occupied the river banks for many centuries. In 657,

Tang Dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

general

Su Dingfang Su Dingfang () (591–667), formal name Su Lie () but went by the courtesy name of Dingfang, formally Duke Zhuang of Xing (), was a Chinese military general of the Tang Dynasty who succeeded in destroying the Western Turkic Khaganate in 657. He wa ...

defeated Ashina Helu, qaghan of the

Western Turkic Khaganate The Western Turkic Khaganate () or Onoq Khaganate ( otk, 𐰆𐰣:𐰸:𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣, On oq budun, Ten arrow people) was a Turkic khaganate in Eurasia, formed as a result of the wars in the beginning of the 7th century (593–603 CE) after ...

, at the

Battle of Irtysh River The Battle of Irtysh River () or Battle of Yexi River () was a battle in 657 between Tang Dynasty general Su Dingfang and the Western Turkic Khaganate qaghan Ashina Helu during the Tang campaign against the Western Turks. It was fought along the ...

, ending the

Tang campaign against the Western Turks The Tang campaigns against the Western Turks, known as the Western Tujue in Chinese sources, were a series of military campaigns conducted by the Tang dynasty against the Western Turkic Khaganate in the 7th century AD. Early military conflicts we ...

. Helu's defeat ended the Khaganate, strengthened Tang control of

, and led to Tang suzerainty over the western Turks. In the 15th and 16th centuries the lower and middle courses of the Irtysh lay within the Tatar Khanate of Sibir; its capital, Qashliq (also known as Sibir) was located on the Irtysh a few kilometres upstream from the mouth of the Tobol (where today's

is situated). The Khanate of Sibir was conquered by the Russians in the 1580s. The Russians started building fortresses and towns next to the sites of former Tatar towns; one of the first Russian towns in Siberia (after

) was

, founded in 1587 at the fall of the Tobol into the Irtysh, downstream from the former Qashliq. Farther east, Tara was founded in 1594, roughly at the border of the

taiga Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, sp ...

belt (to the north) and the

to the south. In the 17th century the Dzungar Khanate, formed by the Mongol Oirat people, became Russia's southern neighbor, and controlled the upper Irtysh. As a result of Russia's confrontation with the Dzungars in the

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

's era, the Russians founded the cities of

in 1716, Semipalatinsk in 1718,

in 1720, and

Petropavl Petropavl ( kk, Петропавл, Petropavl ) or Petropavlovsk () is a city on the Ishim River in northern Kazakhstan close to the border with Russia. It is the capital of the North Kazakhstan Region. Population: 218,956. The city is also kn ...

ovsk in 1752. The Chinese

Qing Empire The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu people, Manchu-led Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin (1616–1636), La ...

conquered

in the 1750s. This prompted an increase in the Russian authorities' attention to their borderland; in 1756, the

Orenburg Orenburg (russian: Оренбу́рг, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Ural River, southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is also very close to the border with Kazakhst ...

Governor

Ivan Neplyuyev Ivan Ivanovich Neplyuyev (russian: Ива́н Ива́нович Неплю́ев; 15 November 1693 – 22 November 1773) was a Russian diplomat and administrator prominent in the service of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. His memoirs wer ...

even proposed the annexation of the Lake Zaysan region, but this project was forestalled by Chinese successes. Concerns were raised in Russia (1759) about the (theoretical) possibility of a Chinese fleet sailing from Lake Zaysan down the Irtysh and into Western Siberia. A Russian expedition visited Lake Zaysan in 1764, and concluded that such a riverine invasion would not be likely. Nonetheless, a chain of Russian pickets was established on the

Bukhtarma River The Bukhtarma ( kk, Бұқтырма, translit=Būqtyrma, بۇقتىرما, ; russian: Бухтарма, translit=Bukhtarma) is a river of Kazakhstan. It flows through East Kazakhstan Region, and is a right tributary of the Irtysh. The river is lo ...

, north of Lake Zaysan. Thus the border between the two empires in the Irtysh basin became roughly delineated, with a (sparse) chain of guard posts on both sides. The situation in the borderlands in the mid-19th century is described in a report by A. Abramof ( ru; 1865). Even though the Zaysan region was recognized by both parties as part of the

Qing empire The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu people, Manchu-led Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin (1616–1636), La ...

, it had been annually used, by fishing expeditions sent by the

Siberian Cossack Host Siberian Cossacks were Cossacks who settled in the Siberian region of Russia from the end of the 16th century, following Yermak Timofeyevich's conquest of Siberia. In early periods, practically the whole Russian population in Siberia, especially ...

. The summer expeditions started in 1803, and in 1822–25 their range was expanded through the entire Lake Zaysan and to the mouth of the Black Irtysh. Through the mid-19th century, the Qing presence on the upper Irtysh was mostly limited to the annual visit of the Qing ''

amban Amban ( Manchu and Mongol: ''Amban'', Tibetan: ་''am ben'', , Uighur:''am ben'') is a Manchu language term meaning "high official", corresponding to a number of different official titles in the imperial government of Qing China. For insta ...

'' from

Chuguchak TachengThe official spelling according to (), as the official romanized name, also transliterated from Mongolian as Qoqak, is a county-level city (1994 est. pop. 56,400) and the administrative seat of Tacheng Prefecture, in northern Ili Kazakh ...

to one of the Cossacks' fishing stations (''Batavski Piket''). The border between the Russian and the Qing empires in the Irtysh basin was established along the line fairly similar to China's modern border with Russia and Kazakhstan by the

Convention of Peking The Convention of Peking or First Convention of Peking is an agreement comprising three distinct treaties concluded between the Qing dynasty of China and Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire in 1860. In China, they are regarded as amo ...

of 1860. The actual border line pursuant to the convention was drawn by the Protocol of Chuguchak (1864), leaving Lake Zaysan on the Russian side. The Qing empire's military presence in the Irtysh basin crumbled during the 1862–77 Dungan Revolt. After the fall of the rebellion and the reconquest of Xinjiang by Zuo Zongtang, the border between the Russian and the Qing empires in the Irtysh basin was further slightly readjusted, in Russia's favor, by the

Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881) The Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881) (), also known as Treaty of Ili (), was a treaty between the Russian Empire and the Qing dynasty that was signed in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on . It provided for the return to China of the eastern part of ...

Cultural references

The Irtysh River serves as a backdrop in the epilogue of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1866 novel ''

Crime and Punishment ''Crime and Punishment'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Преступление и наказание, Prestupléniye i nakazániye, prʲɪstʊˈplʲenʲɪje ɪ nəkɐˈzanʲɪje) is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. ...

''. In Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's ''

The GULAG Archipelago ''The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation'' (russian: Архипелаг ГУЛАГ, ''Arkhipelag GULAG'') is a three-volume non-fiction text written between 1958 and 1968 by Russian writer and Soviet dissident Aleksandr So ...

'', the chapter "The White Kitten" details Georgi Tenno's escape from a camp along this river.

Other uses

* FC Irtysh Omsk, a soccer team in

, Russia. * FC Irtysh Pavlodar, a soccer team in

, Kazakhstan. *''Irtysh'' (''Иртыш''), a Russian military hospital ship, used at the Bering Strait Swim 2013.

Citations

General literature

* ''

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...

'' *

External links

* {{Authority control Altai Mountains Braided rivers in Russia International rivers of Asia Rivers of China Rivers of Kazakhstan Rivers of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug Rivers of Omsk Oblast Rivers of Tyumen Oblast Rivers of Xinjiang Turkic toponyms West Siberian Plain