The Volga Hydroelectric Station or Volga GES () also known as the 22nd Congress of the CPSU Stalingrad/Volgograd Hydroelectric Power Station (), is the largest hydroelectric station in Europe, and it is the last of the Volga-Kama Cascade of dams, immediately before the Volga River flows into the Caspian Sea. It was the largest powerstation in the world between 1960 and 1963. Today, it is operated by the electricity company RusHydro. History Built as part of a massive postwar effort known as the Great Construction Projects of Communism, it was authorized by Joseph Stalin signing the Council of Ministers of the USSR order #3555 on 6 August 1950. The plan called for building a station north of the city of Stalingrad (modern Volgograd) with a minimum storage capacity of 1.7 million kWh. Ten thousand youths from the Komsomol league participated in the construction, and the city of Volzhsky was formed on the left bank of the river to provide housing. Machinery was sent from all corners of the country; Moscow, Tashkent, Chelyabinsk and Kharkov, and forestry from Karelia. New electrical equipment came from Zaporozhye and Sverdlovsk. The turbines and generators were built in Leningrad. In total more than 1,500 individual plants and dozens of research institutes sent equipment and specialists. The first powerhouse came online on 22 December 1958, and the plant was declared complete on 10 September 1961. Technologically the station broke much new ground. In 1959 a new Moscow-Stalingrad 500 kV high voltage line power came into operation. Several years later, for the first time in the world, an experimental 800 kV DC line, Donbas to Volgograd, was successfully tested and later became operational. During the 1960s and 1970s several new types of electrotechnical and hydromechanical machines were tested for future Siberian and foreign stations. Technical details Today the station is the largest in Europe. It consists of a 725-metre long, 44-metre high concrete dam that crosses the Volga river. Supporting it is a 3250-metre-long landfilled dam with a maximum height of 47 metres. The station also offers railway and road crossings of the Volga. The present power rating of the station is 2,734 MW and annual energy output of ~12 billion kilowatt hours. There are a total of 22 generators. One generator produce 115 MW each, 16 produce 125.5 MW each, and five produce 120 MW apiece. There is an additional 11 MW unit. The 4.9 kilometre