| Moksha | |
| Map: | Mokcha.png |
| Map Size: | 280px |
| Subdivision Type1: | Country |
| Subdivision Name1: | Russia |
| Subdivision Type3: | Region |
| Subdivision Name3: | Penza Oblast, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Republic of Mordovia, Ryazan Oblast |
| Subdivision Type5: | Cities |
| Subdivision Name5: | Temnikov, Krasnoslobodsk, Kovylkino |
| Length: | 656km (408miles) |
| Discharge1 Location: | 72 km from the mouth |
| Discharge1 Avg: | 95m3/s |
| Source1: | Vydygadovka |
| Source1 Location: | Privolzhskaya Upland, Mokshansky District, Penza Oblast |
| Source1 Coordinates: | 53.3202°N 44.5203°W |
| Mouth: | Oka |
| Mouth Location: | Pitelinsky District, Ryazan Oblast |
| Mouth Coordinates: | 54.7431°N 41.8783°W |
| Mouth Elevation: | 79m (259feet) |
| Basin Size: | 51000km2 |
| Tributaries Left: | Vad, Tsna |
| Tributaries Right: | Sivin, Satis |
Moksha is a river in central Russia, a right tributary of the Oka. It flows through Penza Oblast, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Ryazan Oblast and the Republic of Mordovia, and joins the Oka near Pyatnitsky Yar, near the city of Kasimov.
It is in length, and has a drainage basin of .[1]
In the 1950s, several hydroelectric power stations were built in the middle course of the river, but without navigable locks. In 1955, 2 km below the mouth of the river. Prices on the Moksha River built Rasypukhinsky hydro-power plant with a hydroelectric power station and a wooden shipping lock. Navigation on the river was carried out until the mid-1990s.
On the Moksha is the Trinity-Scans monastery, the Nativity-Theotokos Sanaksar Monastery and the Krasnoslobodsky Savior-Transfiguration Monastery.
Although Russian lands with its origins of i.a Slavic, Uralic and Turkic people were in its history a space were Russia developed isolated for a long time and unknown to the eastern, northern, western and southern neighbors, it was a cultural space which in other phases of history was used for interaction from peoples, cultures and tribes from different continents. Russia, Russian culture and its people became somewhat known for its neighbors in the middle and towards the end of 1st millennium AD. During this period in first sources, the terms of Russia, Russkiye appeared.[2]
The name is connected to the ancient Indo-European population of the Pohje, speaking a language close to the Baltic. Hydronym is comparable with the Indo-European basis meksha, meaning "spillage, leakage". It is suggested that in the language of Indo-European aborigines moksha meant "stream, current, river" and as a term entered into a series of hydronyms (Shirmksha, Mamoksha, etc.).[3]
The name "Moksha" is mentioned by the monk-minorite Rubruk, the ambassador of the French King Louis IX to the Mongolian khan Sartak (1253).
In the monograph "The Nature of the Penza Region" it is pointed out that p. Moksha originates from above. Lookout Nechaevsky (now Mokshan district) of the Penza region. According to the latest information, Moksha begins in a ravine from the springs system near the village of Elizavetino. The source of Moksha is on a treeless place. Research conducted in 2009-2010. Showed that from the south with. Lookout among the elevated places stretches low (up to Elizavetino) about long. This site is called "Dry Moksha". In the hollow with a sandy and clay bottom 20- deep, a creeping stream of 0.5- in width runs (the study was conducted in May 2010). The constant flow of water is observed below the confluence of the hollow from the holy spring, where a small extension of the channel also forms. A true watercourse flows towards Vision in a poorly developed channel. In some places, the banks collapse in the face of the knocking out of them groundwater flowing into the channel. The bottom of the lowland where the stream flows is swamped. Along the banks of the stream, shrubs of willows, thickets of broadleaf cattails, reeds of forest and some other moisture-loving plants grow in the water. Thus, the source of Moksha is a drying creek, now fueled by thawed and groundwater. It stretches to c. The look gradually turning into a constant stream.[4]
The Moksha has the following tributaries, from mouth to source:[1]