The history of Volgograd is closely linked to the Tsaritsa River. Unfortunately, it was not possible to preserve it in its original form, and now it flows underground in a collector built in the 1970s. Only photographs remain of the old river and a significant part of the history of Tsaritsyn, full of details that often remain unknown to modernity.

During the flood period, the Tsaritsa River was impressive: wide and deep, allowing large vessels to enter from the Volga. However, by autumn it turned into a stream. The photograph was taken from the territory of the modern center towards the Voroshilovsky district. The street leading to the river is the former Tsarevskaya Street, now known as Pugachevskaya. It now ends earlier, at the turn near the 'Volzhsky Parusa'. If you look along Tsarevskaya, you can see the massive three-story building, the 'St. Petersburg Rooms' hotel, the only large hotel in the Tsaritsyn part of the city at that time. Surprisingly, there are almost no quality photos of this hotel left, and this is probably the only one. In the left part of the frame, you can see the house of merchant Goldobin, which is now the site of the modern 'Parusa'. The house survived the war, was restored, and was used as a residence until the 1970s.

The second photograph, showing a boat, was taken somewhere on the Volga, possibly in Tsaritsyn or elsewhere. Such vessels were typical for that time and were used everywhere. They were large boats capable of transporting not only people but also horses, cargo, carts, a real small ferry! In Tsaritsyn, they were often used for crossing from the side of the Red Sloboda (then the village of Bukatin), and thanks to the Tsaritsa River, they could penetrate deep into the urban development.