Hydrology of the Yenisey River
About half of the Yenisey’s water comes from snow, a little more than one-third from rainwater, and the remainder from groundwater. For the greater part of the system, the eastern Siberian hydrologic regime prevails: violent spring floods are followed first by a rapid fall of levels, then by a slower fall, with summer and autumn rain floods punctuating the sequence; in winter the runoff is reduced sharply, but levels remain high as ice jams are formed. In terms of runoff, the Yenisey is the largest river in Russia, with about 150 cubic miles (620 cubic kilometres) annually. It carries about 10.5 million tons of alluvium into the Kara Sea every year, in addition to nearly 30 million tons of dissolved mineral substances. In midsummer the water temperature varies from 57 °F (14 °C) to 66 °F (19 °C), but freezing begins on the lower Yenisey early in October and affects the entire river by mid-November; ice jams and underwater ice are characteristic. Thawing occurs toward the end of April on the upper reaches, in May on the middle, and from May to mid-June on the lower. The water of the middle Yenisey is highly turbid in spring and summer and contrasts sharply with the limpid water of the Angara; and in summer the two streams flow in the same bed without mingling for 9 miles (14 km) or so from their confluence.
Climate
The Yenisey basin has a subarctic climate in its northern part and markedly continental conditions in the middle and southern portions. The cold season prevails from late September to mid-June in the north and from mid-October to late April in the south. Even summer is cool in the northern basin, with average temperatures of 46 to 54 °F (8 to 12 °C) in July, when frosts may still occur; but summer is warm in the south, with July averages between 64 and 68 °F (18 and 20 °C). The average temperature for January in the north ranges from −25 to −18 °F (−32 to −28 °C) and in the south warms to about −4 °F (−20 °C). Annual precipitation averages 16 to 20 inches (400 to 500 mm) in the north; 20 to more than 30 inches (500 to more than 750 mm) in the central portion, and up to 47 inches (1,190 mm) in the mountains south of the basin. The closed depressions in the upper basin receive from less than 8 to about 12 inches (less than 200 to about 300 mm) annually. Most of the rain (80 to 90 percent) falls in the warmer months, chiefly in late summer and early autumn. Snow cover is light in most of the basin, averaging 16 inches (40 cm) in the south, 24 inches (60 cm) in the north, and 35 inches (90 cm) on the Yenisey Ridge. Because the light snow offers little insulation, the soil and subsoil are frozen to a considerable depth for long periods over most of the basin. Permafrost is prevalent north of the Lower Tunguska.
Plant and animal life
Most of the basin is covered with taiga (marshy, primarily coniferous forest), with Siberian spruce, fir, and cedar predominating in the south and larch farther north. In Mongolia, Transbaikalia, and Tyva there are also steppe grasslands, bordered in the extreme south of the Selenga River basin by semidesert. In the far north of the basin, taiga is superseded by tundra (marshy plain covered with moss and other low, cold-tolerant plants).
The Yenisey and its tributaries are rich in fish: the mountain streams of the headwaters support grayling, trout, lenok, roach, and dace; the middle course has sterlet, trout, goldilocks, several species of whitefish (genus Coregonus), and grayling; the lower course has Siberian lamprey, Siberian sturgeon, sterlet, Alpine char, trout, gold and silver carp, pike, and many others. The estuary has fewer species of fish but is rich in the economically valuable sturgeon. The lower reaches of the Yenisey are also much favoured in summer by migrant waterfowl from the south; the small lakes and islands support ducks, geese, and swans; and the muskrat has adapted to the channels of the delta.
People
The peoples of the Yenisey valley are diverse. Around the western headwaters (Great and Little Yenisey), Tyvans (Tuvans) predominate in the rural areas, but they are joined by significant numbers of Russians in Kyzyl, the capital of Tyva. To the north of Tyva the Krasnoyarsk kray (territory) of Russia extends down the entire valley northward to the Kara Sea; its population comprises Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, and numerous other indigenous peoples. The Khakass people occupy Khakassia southwest of Krasnoyarsk. The vast Evenk autonomous okrug (district), extending from south of the Stony Tunguska to north of the Kureyka, is inhabited both by the Evenk people and by Russians from the west and Sakha (Yakut) from the east. In the far north, the Taymyr autonomous okrug has a majority of Russians and some Evenk but also the Sakha, Dolgan, Nenets, and Nganasan peoples.
Economy
Hunting, fishing, the breeding of reindeer, and fur farming are the traditional occupations of the more northerly peoples, and there is some mining of coal and nonferrous ores (copper, nickel) around Norilsk. Considerable industrial development has occurred in the south, with major centres at Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, and Bratsk. The hydroelectric potential of the Yenisey and its major tributary, the Angara—the greatest of any river system in Russia—is also among the most heavily exploited. Since the 1950s, power stations have been built on the Angara at Irkutsk, Bratsk, and Ust-Ilimsk and on the upper and middle Yenisey at Krasnoyarsk and Sayan, with a combined total generating capacity exceeding 25 million kilowatts. Another station on the Angara, at Boguchany, was completed in the late 1980s.
The Yenisey is regularly navigated between Oznachennoye and the sea. A great elevator capable of lifting ships along an inclined railroad between the upper and lower waters of the Krasnoyarsk Hydroelectric Station has been constructed to permit through traffic. The chief ports are Krasnoyarsk, Strelka (at the Angara confluence), Yeniseysk, Igarka, Dudinka, and Ust-Port; seagoing vessels sail up to Igarka. Lumber is the main cargo. Some of the cargo goes upstream to Krasnoyarsk, but the downstream traffic carries bread, coal, petroleum products, and machinery, as well as lumber.
Study and exploration
Russians first settled on the Yenisey in 1607, when a winter station was established on the Turukhan River (a left-bank tributary joining the Yenisey just below the Lower Tunguska confluence). Novgorod merchants, however, may have been trading with peoples of the valley as early as the 11th century. In 1619 a fort was built at Yeniseysk. Nine years later Krasny Yar (now Krasnoyarsk) was founded, and Irkutsk was settled in 1652. From these places roads went eastward into the Buryat country and southward into the fertile Minusinsk Basin. The Russian hold on the line of the Yenisey was definitively secured early in the 18th century. Exploration of the rivers was then initiated, with a detachment of the Great Northern Expedition (1733–42) operating on the Yenisey. Later, the lower Yenisey was explored by an expedition of 1894–96; and from 1907 to 1912 a party made a more thorough investigation of the entire river. Studies for development plans or for scientific purposes continued throughout the 20th century.
Constantine Gennadiyevich Tikhotskiy Philip P. Micklin Lewis Owen