Drone Videos of Russia's Urals and Volga Regions

Contributor Vladimir Zhilko created this spectacular drone reel showing the highlights of his work across central Russia.  Most of it was shot around the Ural Mountains, which mark the divide between European and Asian Russia.  Watch it and you'll get a sense of the stunning natural beauty of the area, as well as the range of outdoor activities which take place in its vast open reaches.  Whether it's ATV riding, camping, boating, or any number of other activities, there is something for everyone here.

Nizhny Novgorod is considered one of the great historical and cultural treasures of Russia.  Located at the confluence of the Oka and Volga Rivers, the city was founded in the 13th century.  During much of its history, Nizhny was considered the most important trade center in Russia.  In Soviet times, when it was known as Gorky, the city became one of the country's main industrial centers and was sometimes known as "Russia's Detroit".   In this drone video by VadimUshKa, you'll get a marvelous aerial tour of Russia's fifth-largest city as of 2019.

Prepare to be amazed by this hyperlapse of drone footage from Russia's fourth largest city and one of its most important business centers.  Ekaterinburg lies on the eastern side of the Ural mountains, and is considered the de facto capital of the entire Urals region.  It acts as the key gateway to the vast territory of Siberia which lies to its east.  Famously, it was the site of one of the great crimes of the 20th century: the muder of the Tsar of Russia and his family by Bolshevik revolutionaries in 1918.   

Content creator and drone pilot Maksx created this marvelous video of Samara, an important city in Russia's Volga region.  Samara is the capital of the oblast (state) of the same name, and is one of the ten largest cities in Russia.  The city  is situated where the Samara River joins the Volga, the longest river in Europe and the most important of Russia's waterways.   Samara's position on the great river is roughly midway between Nizhny Novgorod and Volgagrad, two other important Volga cities.  

Here's a spectacular drone video of an important landmark in Russia's Ural Mountains region.  It's called the Kesene Mausoleum, and it's located in the Chelyabinsky Province, near the small town of Varna.  It's also known as the Tower of Tamarlane, named after  Tamerlane, the great Turkic emperor who terrorized Russia in the 14th century in much the same manner as Ghengis Khan in the 13th.  The landmark lies just to the east of the Ural Mountains, which act as the border between European and Asian Russia.  

Contributor krolik2010 created this beautiful drone video of Penza, a city on the Sura River in western Russia.  It's the capital of the oblast (province) of the same name, one of the 14 which make up the official Volga region of the country.   Situated just over 600 km (a bit under 400 mi.) southeast of Moscow, Penza was one of the fortress cities built to protect the capital city from invasion from the Eurasian Steppe.  With a population of about 500,000, it's one of the largest cities in the Volga region.  

Content creator and drone pilot Vladimir Zhilkov created this beautiful drone video of Ufa, the capital city of Russia's Bashkortostan province.  Baskkortostan is one of the 14 provinces which make up the country's Volga region.  It's situated at the confluence of the Ufa and Belaya Rivers, both of which are sourced from the Ural Mountains to the east.  Ufa has a population of over a million; Bashkortostan has a population of over four million and is the largest Russian republic on that measure.  

Amongst European rivers, the Volga is in a class by itself.  It's the longest waterway on the continent and also the Europe's largest as measured by water discharge volume.  Its 3.5k km (almost 2.2k mi.) course lies entirely within Russia, and most of the country's major cities are on the river or its tributaries.  In this drone video from Maksx, you'll get a great view of the river as it winds through Tolyatti, a mid-sized city which lies on one of the rivers great bends in its journey southwards towards the Caspian Sea.    

Russia's "Volga Region" isn't precisely defined, partly because the river (Europe's longest) runs through several different regions in its journey to the Caspian Sea.  At about its halfway point, the Volga forms a giant bend, on which lies storied cities such as Samara, Tolyati, and Kazan.  In this beautiful drone video by Exclusive Login, you'll get a bird's eye view of the oblasts of Samara and Ulyanovsk two of the main provinces in this region, which is in many respects the very heart of Russia.  

Check out this drone video of one of the most important cultural and historical sites in Russia, compliments of bruce.ryan.  It's the kremlin (walled city) of Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tartarstan.  Kazan is situated at the confluence of the Kazanka River with the Volga, the latter being in effect Russia's national waterway.  It's one of Russia's half-dozen largest cities and is sometimes called the country's Third Capital. The kremlin here was built in the mid-16th century on the orders of Tsar Ivan the Terrible.

It would be hard to overstate the importance of the Volga River to Russia.  Europe's longest river runs almost entirely within the borders of Russia, from a source in the hills in the northwestern part of the country to the Caspian Sea.  The majority of the country's largest cities sit on the river or its tributaries, a geographic fact which is tied closely to the arc of Russian history.  In this drone video by Exclusive Login, you'll get an aerial view of the mighty waterway around its midpoint, and in all seasons.  

Ufa is one of the most important cities in the Volga Region of Russia.  It's the capital of the oblast (province) of  Bashkortostan, a province which occupies a kind of  transition zone between the flatness of the Volga and the Ural Mountains.  The city of Ufa has a population of a bit over a million, making it one of the dozen largest in the country.  You can check out this city at the confluence of the Ufa and Belaya Rivers from a bird's eye perspective in this drone video by contributor llgiz.  

The Ural Mountains are traditionally regarded as the border between European and Asian Russia.  Though the peaks of the Urals are not as tall as those of the Alps range to their west, they are one of the most important geographical features in Russia and are incredibly rich in mineral resources.  In this video, contributor and pilot Vladimir Zhilko treats us to a beautiful drone video of hot air balloons floating in the clouds above the mountain range, east of which lies the great expanse of Siberia.

Under Communism, Russia's economic growth was heavily tilted toward industry.  For a variety of reasons, the Volga River became the country's (then part of the USSR) industrial heartland.  As the post-Communist economy shifted toward non-industrial sectors, the industrial cities along the great river, have faced massive displacement.  To see what this looks like on the ground, check out this drone video of the city of Oktyabrsk by contributor ExclusiveLogin.  The city is located about 165 km (100 mi.) downstream from Samara. 

Szyran, Russia is one of the larger cities in the great bend of the River Volga as it winds its way towards the Caspian Sea.  Szyran is the third largest city in the oblast (province) of Samara, the southernmost of the provinces which make up Russia's Volga region.  Like many of the Volga cities, Szyran's initial impetus for being was as a fortress to protect the Russian interior from raids from the south.  Check out this amazing night hyperlapse of this iconic river city, compliments of contributor ExclusiveLogin.  

ExclusiveLogin created this stunning aerial tour of two important Russian provinces that lie on the great bend of the Volga River - Samara and Ulyanovsk.  Both are situated near the eastern extent of this protrusion, in which the river's path shifts hundreds of km/mi. to the east and then back again.  Ulyanovsk is considerably the smaller of the two provinces but perhaps better known as the birthplace of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, who subsequently adopted the revolutionary nickname Lenin.  

Ural is a region around the Ural Mountains in east-central Russia, situated between the East European and West Siberian plains. These lands offer not only stunning natural beauty but a plethora of precious and semi-precious natural resources.  The region also features a number of large rivers, most of which drain northward into the Arctic Ocean. Content creator and pilot ExclusiveLogin experienced the area, falling in love with the region and sharing it in this marvelous 4K drone video.

Syzran, Russia is one of the main cities in the famous "bend" in the Volga River, downstream from Tolyatti and Samara.  Like many of the other cities its life began as a fortress, when the river was the natural boundary between the Kingdom of Rus and the Tatar-controlled regions to the east of the river.  Under Communism, like many of the Volga cities, it became part of the country's industrial heartland.  Check out wintertime Syzran from above in this excellent drone video by AirVuz contributor ExclusiveLogin.  

Check out this beautiful drone video of some stand-up paddleboarding plying the calm waters of Russia's Volga River, compliments of Dronemedia.me.  Europe's longest river, the Volga runs entirely on Russian territory.  It's importance to the history and culture of Russia would be hard to overstate - over half of the country's largest cities lie on the banks of the Volga or its many tributaries.  Frozen (or partly frozen) in winter, during the long summer days it becomes an aquatic paradise.

Conributor Vladimir Zhilko brings us this drone video recording of a rafting trip down Russia's Zilim River.  The river runs about 215 km (about 130 mi.) through the Republic of Bashkortostan.  Bashkortostan is the largest of the 14 Federal subjects which make up the Ural Federal District, and in fact it's the most populous oblast or republic in Russia.  The river flows northward to converge with the Belaya River, which flows through the republic's capital city Ufa before converging with the Volga River.  

Check out this excellent drone reel from the Russian heartland by AirVuz contributor Maksx.  While portions of the footage came from the Black Sea region, the bulk of the reel's scenes are from the Volga Region.  The video features excellent shots of numerous sights along the great waterway, the longest in Europe and arguably Russia's most important geographic feature.  One of the highlights is at the :30 mark, where you'll see the Monument of Glory Statue in Samara, the most important city in the eastern "bend" of the Volga.