Sozh

Sozh 

a river in Smolensk Oblast (RSFSR) and Mogilev and Gomel’ oblasts (Byelorussian SSR); flows partly along the border of Chernigov Oblast (Ukrainian SSR). The Sozh, a left tributary of the Dnieper River, measures 648 km in length and drains an area of 42,100 sq km. It originates on the Smolensk Upland and flows across the Orsha-Mogilev Plain and, in its lower reaches, the Poles’e Lowland. The valley is wide; between the city of Gomel’ and the mouth there is a broad (up to 10 km) swampy floodplain.

The Sozh is fed predominantly by snow. The mean flow rate at Gomel’, 100 km from the mouth, is 207 cu m per sec. The river freezes between November and early January, and the ice breaks up in late March or in April. The main tributaries are the Pronia, on the right, and the Oster, Besed’, and Iput’, on the left. The river is equipped with locks in the upper course. It is used for floating timber and is navigable from Krichev. The cities of Kri-chev, Cherikov, Slavgorod, and Gomel’ are situated on the river.