Meshchera Lowlands (Meshchyora Lowlands) (), also referred to as simply Meshchera/Meshchyora, is a spacious

lowland Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland. Definitions Upland and lowland are portions of a ...

in the middle of the

European Russia European Russia is the western and most populated part of the Russia, Russian Federation. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the country's sparsely populated and vastly larger eastern part, Siberia, which is situated in Asia ...

. It is named after the Finnic Meshchera people, which used to live there (later mixing with neighbouring

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

and Slavic tribes). It occupies parts of

Moscow Oblast Moscow Oblast (, , informally known as , ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). With a population of 8,524,665 (Russian Census (2021), 2021 Census) living in an area of , it is one of the most densely populate ...

Vladimir Oblast Vladimir Oblast () is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Vladimir, which is located east of Moscow. As of the 2010 Census, the oblast's population was 1,443,693. The UNESCO World Heritage L ...

and

Ryazan Oblast Ryazan Oblast (, ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Ryazan, which is also the oblast's largest city. Geography Ryazan Oblast ...

, as well as eastern districts of

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

proper; respectively, it is called the Moscow, Vladimir and Ryazan Meshcheras.MESHCHERA by Alexei Markov, Senior Lecturer Modern University for the Humanities
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Geography

Meshchera is a

plain In geography, a plain, commonly known as flatland, is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and ...

of roughly triangular shape bounded by rivers Oka from the South,

Moskva River The Moskva (, ''Moskva-reka'') is a river that flows through western Russia. It rises about west of Moscow and flows roughly east through the Smolensk and Moscow Oblasts, passing through central Moscow. About southeast of Moscow, at the cit ...

from the Southwest,

Klyazma The Klyazma (, ''Klyaz'ma'' or ''Kliazma''), a river in the Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Ivanovo and Vladimir Oblasts in Russia, forms a left tributary of the Oka.

from the North and Sudogda and Kolp/Kolpna (Колпь, Колпна) from the East. Elevation: 80–130 metres. Climate of Meshchera is

humid continental Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present. Humidity depe ...

with long, cold and snowy winters, and short, warm and rainy summers. Annual average temperature is . The coldest month is February with average temperature of . During severe winters, temperatures can go as low as . Summers are warm, sometimes hot, with average July temperature of , and in extremely hot summers temperature can rise up to . It is covered by mixed forests,

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

forests in sandy areas, with many

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s and

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

References

Geography of Russia Geography of Vladimir Oblast Geography of Moscow Oblast Geography of Ryazan Oblast {{VladimirOblast-geo-stub