Yes, people still swim in the Volga, and I did, too. ... You just forget about heavy metals and the 24 smokestacks vying on the horizon with the awesome Stalingrad memorial. The love of Mother Volga
is real and has priority.
- Mike Edwards, "Mother Russia on a New Course," National Geographic, February 1991

“What problem facing the Volga River is Mike Edwards describing, and what has caused that
problem?”