river in western Russia. It is the largest right-bank tributary of the Volga. Rising in the Central Russian Upland, it flows 932 miles (1,500 km), first north in a rather narrow, winding valley to Kaluga, then sharply eastward across a broad lowland to join the Volga at Nizhny Novgorod. The area of its drainage basin is 94,600 square miles (245,000 square km). Freeze-up lasts from early December to late March or early May.