AT A GLANCE
Why go?
The Vorona River is a 454-kilometre waterway threading through the Penza, Tambov, and Voronezh oblasts of central Russia, widely celebrated as the most beautiful river in Tambov Oblast. A right tributary of the Khopyor (itself feeding the Don), the Vorona flows gently through a valley of ancient oak forests, scattered floodplain lakes, and open meadows that have drawn nature lovers, anglers, and kayakers for generations.↗↗
The middle stretch of the river, in the Tambov Oblast town of Kirsanovsky and Inzhavinsky districts, sits within the Voroninsky Nature Reserve — a 10,320-hectare protected area established in 1994 to safeguard the unique forest-steppe ecosystems of the region. Here, the river alternates between broad, slow pools and narrow, swift channels, offering a living laboratory of central Russian wilderness.↗↗
A River of Forest and Still Water
The Vorona begins as a cluster of springs on the Keren-Chembar Upland in Penza Oblast and flows south-southwest toward the Khopyor, which it joins at the city of Borisoglebsk. Along the way it passes the towns of Kirsanov and Uvarovo. The right bank is generally steep and wooded, the left bank lower and more open. At its widest the floodplain stretches up to three kilometres, dotted with oxbow lakes, willow islands, and shrubby patches that give the river a soft, unspoilt character almost everywhere.
