The Volga is the great river of western Russia. It rises in low hills northwest of Moscow, winds south and east for about 3,500 kilometres past cities such as Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara and Volgograd, and empties into the Caspian Sea. It is the longest river in Europe and the largest by the amount of water it carries. Two things make it worth knowing beyond geography class. First, it has been a working river for centuries — a trade route, a line of dams and reservoirs, a fishing ground famous for sturgeon and caviar — so "the Volga" often stands in for the Russian heartland the way the Mississippi does for America. Second, Russians call it Mother Volga, and it fills their folk songs, novels and paintings; the Battle of Stalingrad, one of the turning points of the Second World War, was fought on its bank at the city now called Volgograd. In English it almost always takes the: the Volga, the Volga River. Note that the Caspian Sea has no outlet to the ocean, so unlike most great rivers the Volga never reaches the sea proper.