The Sudzha () is a river in Russia, a right

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the Psel, which flows through the Bolshesoldatsky and Sudzhansky districts (

raion A raion (also spelt rayon) is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet states. The term is used for both a type of subnational entity and a division of a city. The word is from the French (meaning 'honeycomb, department'), and is c ...

s) of

Kursk Oblast Kursk 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 Kursk. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, Kursk Oblast had a pop ...

. It is long, and the basin area is . The river flows for a considerable distance through wetlands with a large number of

oxbow lake An oxbow lake is a U-shaped lake or stream pool, pool that forms when a wide meander of a river is meander cutoff, cut off, creating a free-standing body of water. The word "oxbow" can also refer to a U-shaped bend in a river or stream, whether ...

s. Its tributaries include: Skorodnaya – 22 km, Vorobzha – 28 km, Ivnitsa – 23 km, Loknya – 26 km, Malaya Loknya – 24 km, Smerditsa – 17 km, Rzhava – 9 km, Oleshnya – 12 km, and Konopelka – 16 km. The biggest settlement on the river is the identically-named town of Sudzha.

History

The Sudzha River is mentioned in descriptions of Polish roads of 1584–1598 and in

chronicle A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events ...

s of the 16th century. Archaeological data indicates that in the 7th century, hoards of items were deposited in this area, which are part of the Dnieper group of early medieval hoards, or the "antiquities of the

Antae The Antes or Antae () were an early Slavic tribal polity of the 6th century CE. They lived on the lower Danube River, in the northwestern Black Sea region (present-day Moldova and central Ukraine), and in the regions around the Don River (in ...

". It is possible that in the 7th century, one of the centers of power of the Dnieper tribal union was located on the Lower Sudzha. From the 8th century, Slavs of the tribal union of the

Severians The Severians, also Severyans, Siverians, or Siverianians (; ; ; ) were a tribe or tribal confederation of early East Slavs occupying areas to the east of the middle Dnieper River and southeast of the Danube River. They are mentioned by the Bav ...

inhabited these lands, having fortified towns near the present-day village of Gornal and several settlements across the modern

Sudzhansky District Sudzhansky District () is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the twenty-eight in Kursk Oblast, Russia. Its administrative center is the town of Sudzha. It has a population of 25,119. Geography The area of the district is ...

. Settlements of the

Cumans The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic people, Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cumania, Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Ru ...

, who were allied with the Russian princes, were also located in this area.

Hydronym

Presumably the name Sudzha comes from the Turkic words "su" — water and "ja" — place; that is, a watery place. The name is also compared with the ancient Indian ''śudhyati'' "to become pure" and ''śuddhá'' "pure".

References

{{reflist Rivers of Kursk Oblast