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The Yenisey or Yenisei ( ; , ) is the fifth-longest river system in the world, and the largest to drain into the Arctic Ocean.
Rising in Mungaragiyn-gol in Mongolia, it follows a northerly course through Lake Baikal and the Krasnoyarsk Dam before draining into the Yenisey Gulf in the Kara Sea. The Yenisey divides the Western Siberian Plain in the west from the Central Siberian Plateau to the east; it drains a large part of central Siberia. Its delta is formed between the Gyda Peninsula and the Taymyr Peninsula.
It is the central one of three large Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean (the other two being the Ob and the Lena River). The maximum depth of the Yenisey is and the average depth is .
The Yenisey valley is habitat for numerous flora and fauna, with Siberian pine and Siberian larch being notable tree species. In prehistoric times Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris, was abundant in the Yenisey valley .Stein, Ruediger et al. 2003. Siberian river run-off in the Kara Sea, Proceedings in Marine Sciences, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 488 pages There are also numerous bird species present in the watershed, including, for example, the hooded crow, Corvus cornix.C. Michael Hogan. 2009. Hooded Crow: Corvus cornix, GlobalTwitcher.com, ed, N. Stromberg
Imperial Russia placed river steamers on the massive river in an attempt to free up communication with land-locked Siberia. One, St. Nicholas took the future Tsar Nicholas II on his voyage to Siberia, and later conveyed Vladimir Lenin to prison.
Engineers attempted to place river steamers in regular service on the river during the building of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The boats were needed to bring in the rails, engines and supplies. Captain Joseph Wiggins sailed the Orestes with rail in 1893. However, the sea and river route proved very difficult with several ships lost at sea and on the river. Both the Ob and Yenisey mouths feed into very long inlets, several hundred kilometres in length, which are shallow, ice bound and prone to high winds and thus treacherous for navigation. After the completion of the railway, river traffic reduced to only local service as the Arctic route and long river proved much too indirect a route.
The first recreation team to navigate the Yenisey's entire length, including its violent upper tributary in Mongolia, was an Australian-Canadian expedition completed in September 2001. Ben Kozel, Tim Cope, Colin Angus and Remy Quinter were on this team. Both Kozel and Angus wrote books detailing this expedition,Five Months in a Leaky Boat: A River Journey Through Siberia, Kozel, 2003, Pan Macmillan and a documentary was produced for National Geographic Television.
A canal inclined plane was built on the river in 1985 at the Krasnoyarsk Dam.
Permanent International Association of Navigation Congresses. (1989). 9782872230068, PIANC. . ISBN 9782872230068
Some of the earliest known evidence of Turkic peoples origins was found in the Yenisey Valley in the form of stelae, stone monoliths and memorial tablets dating from between the seventh and ninth centuries AD, along with some documents that were found in China's Xinjiang region. The written evidence gathered from these sources tells of battles fought between the Turks and the Chinese people and other legends. There are also examples of Uyghurs poetry, though most have survived only in Chinese translation.
Wheat from the Yenisey was sold by Muslims and Uighurs during inadequate harvests to Bukhara and Soghd during the Tahirid era.
Russians first reached the upper Yenisey in 1605, travelling from the Ob, up the Ket, portaging and then down the Yenisey as far as the Sym River.
In 1862 Paul Theodor von Krusenstern attempted to navigate with two ships from Murmansk through the Kara Sea to the delta of the river Yenissei, but unfortunately was shipwrecked before obtaining success.Naufrage du lieutenant Krusenstern dans les glaces de la mer de Kara (1863, in Le Tour du monde Volume 8 pp.203-208)
During World War II, Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire agreed to divide Asia along a line that followed the Yenisey to the border of China and then along the border of China and the Soviet Union.Gerhard Weinberg. Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders Cambridge, England, United Kingdom:2005--Cambridge University Press [4]
The etymology of Käm is not believed to be of Turkic languages origin,Hambis L. 1956 "Notes sur Käm, nom de l'Yenissei supérieur". Journal Asiatique, vol. 244, 281‒300. and although a Samoyed derivation has been proposed,Vásáry I. 1971 "Käm, an Early Samoyed Name of Yenisey", L. Legeti (ed.) Studia Turcica, Budapest: Akademiai Kiado, 469‒482. its precise origins remain unclear.
Today, the word survives only in Sayan Turkic languages: in Tuvan language as xem хем, meaning "river",Тенишев Э.Р., Тувинско-русский словарь: около 22 000 слов // Москва : Советская энциклопедия. 1968. с. 473. and in its sister language, Tofa language, as hem hем, also meaning "river".Рассадин В. И., Словарь тофаларско-русский и русско-тофаларский // Санкт-Петербург : Дрофа. 2005. с. 55. These languages are considered to have had close contact with those mentioned above in ancient times.Hambis 1956, 282.Vásáry 1971, 475. Additionally, there are just over 50 river names containing the suffix -kem -кем in the Altai Republic,Молчанова О. Т., Топонимический словарь Горного Алтая // Горно-Алтайское отделение Алтайского книжного издательства. 1979. С. 55—62. and the term Kim (Ким) as in Kim suğ (Ким суғ), meaning "Yenisei River" barely exists in Khakas language.Чанков Д. И., Русско-хакасский словарь: 31000 слов // Государственное издательство иностранных и национальных словарей. 1961. с. 960. All of these instances are confined to the region in and around the present-day Republic of Tuva.
Meanwhile, in the 17th century, Russians reached the lower part of the Yenisei River from the northwest; along the way, by 1600, the Tobolsk Cossacks built Fort Mangazeya by the Taz River. It is believed that the name of the Yenisei River was transmitted, either directly or indirectly, from Samoyed-speaking peoples in the region with whom the Russians had contact. This contact eventually led to the adoption of the name "Yenisei", with a Russian accent.Müller G. F. 1778 Sammlung rußischer Geschichte des Herrn Collegienraths Müllers in Moscow; S. 517‒518.
Additionally, by the end of the 16th century, the Yenisei River was already known to Dutch people navigators, who referred to it as "Gilissi", "Gelissi", or "Geniscea", among other names. Although the exact spelling varied, these are phonetically similar to "Yenisei".Бурыкин А. А. 2011 Енисей и Ангара. К истории и этимологии названий гидронимов и изучению перспектив формирования географических представлений о бассейнах рек Южной Сибири // Новые исследования Тувы. 2011, № 2—3. с. 286. In particular, the modern Dutch language pronunciation of "Geniscea" as xɛnisə is quite close to "Yenisei". The term "Yenisei" (Енисей) appeared in Russian literature slightly later, around 1600, in the form that is still used today.Бурыкин 2011, с. 282. Unlike in Dutch, the Russian spelling has been relatively stable since the 17th century, with only minor variations such as "Yeniseya" (Енисея) or "Yenisya" (Енися).Русско-китайские отношения в XVII веке. Том 1 1608—1683 // Наука. 1969. с. 594.
The etymology of "Yenisei" remains unclear.
Renowned linguist Max Vasmer, for instance, has suggested that the Nganasan word "Jentajea", the Enets language "Jeddosi", and the Selkup language "N'andesi", all meaning "Yenisei River", might correspond to unidentified Samoyed languages,Vasmer M. J. Этимологический словарь русского языка. Том 1 (А—Д) // М. Прогресс. 1964 1950—1958. с. 20. probably quoted Matthias Castrén's vocabulary.Castrén, M. 1855 Wörterverzeichnisse aus den samojedischen Sprachen. S. 52, 83, 141, 238. V. K. Nikonov has proposed that the word could derive from "iondessi" (иондесси), meaning "big river" in Selkup, Khanty languages, or even Evenki language.Никонов В. К., Краткий топонимический словарь. // М. Мысль 1966. с. 136. More recently, some have speculated that "Yenisei" is a compound word of unconfirmed Old Turkic (or inspired by Tuvan language?) ene (эне), meaning "great-grandmother; nanny" + say (сай), meaning "gravel; ford".[5].
However, the above considerations, except Vasmer's, remain speculative false etymologies, as they do not refer to the reliable modern dictionaries of the respective languages.Бурыкин 2011 С. 280—281. Researchers are encouraged to conduct more detailed studies based on proper contemporary linguistic sources and historical documents.Бурыкин 2011 С. 279—304.
On 8 June 2025, a ship towing two barges ran aground and broke apart along a section of the river in Kazachinsky District, Krasnoyarsk Krai, spilling around 30 metric tons of diesel fuel and causing an oil spill reaching up to 50 kilometers along the shoreline.
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