There are three geophysical zones: the Pre-Volga Heights(4)--land raised just enough to have been faree of glaciers in the Ice Ages; the hills and plateaus at the end of the Southern(5) Ural Mountains; and the flat plains between.
Two river systems cover this area of 326 thousand square kilometers: the Volga and the Ural.(6) The Volga enters Tatarstan from Kirov Oblast in the north and soon receives the Kama(7) and turns westward. The Kama enters northeast Tatarstan, receiving the Belaya(8) on its left. The Kama receives the Izh(9) and the Vyatka on its right. For the rest of the Volga's course in this area it is lake width, beginning with the backup from the Kuybyshev Reservoir.(10) That reservoir continues up to a great horseshoe bend in Samara Oblast. After that the river heads south into Saratov Oblast. Another piece of the Volga system is the Sura, which starts in eastern Penza and flows in a 'C' to end up heading northeastward, leaving northwest Ulyanovsk Oblast.
The Ural enters eastern Orenburg Oblast from the east side of the Ural crests, and soon turns westward, exiting the oblast to go west southwest.
More than two-thirds of the people speak Russian, less than two in ten Tatar and the rest a miscellany. About eight in ten are Russian Orthodox Christian in background or belief, with the remainder Sunni Moslem.
There are two cities of a million or more people: Samara and Kazan'.
The Volga/ Kama/ Belaya area was home to Uralic people thousands of years ago. Some of the Finno-Permian subgroup moved westward in the third to second millenium B.C.E. Today's Mordvins were among those left behind. In the first millenium C.E., many groups--mostly Turkic and Iranian--passed through the area: the Bulghars established a state; today's Chuvash are their linguistic descendents. Later the Mongols conquered the area and ruled for centuries. Their civil administration and soldiering was conducted by Tatars, who remain today. The Russians conquered the area in the 15th century.
The old Uralic relgiion included a myth of the cosmic dive by birds to explain the origin of evil despite the creator god's intentions. Early Turkic religion recognized a sky-god, Tangri (Tangere in Tatar), who was omnipotent. An offshoot of the Mongol Empire, the Kipchak Empire (Golden Horde) converted to Islam, although they initially also flirted with Nestorian Christianity. Russians introduced Orthodox Christianity, and converted the Chuvash.
north of Penza and Ulyanovsk Oblasts and of Tatarstan
east of Tatarstan, and northeast of western Orenburg Oblast
north of eastern Orenburg Oblast
northeast of eastern, and south of all of, Orenburg Oblast
southwest of Samara Oblast, and south of Penza Oblast
west of Penza Oblast
Volga Federal District
Russo-Eurasia
Asia
(1)Formally transliterated as Rossiya or Rossija.
(2) Formerly Kuybyshev or, with a diacritical on the s, Kujbysev or Kuibyshev.
(3) Also transliterated Uljanovsk.
(4) Privolzhskaya Vozvyshennost' or, with two diacriticals, Privolzskaja Vozvysennost' in transliterated Russian.
(5) Yuzhnyy or, with a diacritical on the z, Juznyj in transliterated Russian.
(6) The first and third longest rivers in Europe, although the Ural is partly outside Europe.
(7) Europe's seventh longest river.
(8) Also transliterated from Russian as Belaja.
(9) Also transliterated From Russian as Iz, with a diacritical on the z.
(10) Vodochranilsce or, with two diacriticals, Vodokhranilishche in transliterated Russian.