Ladoga Canal major canals constructed in Russia. It was one of the projects of Peter the Great, who ordered its construction in 1718. Rapid economic development in Russia required a significant expansion of routes, especially waterways. One part of the Vyshny Volochek waterway (1709) linking the Volga river to the Baltic Sea, passed through Lake Ladoga. The Ladoga section of the route was one of the most difficult and dangerous because the lake is prone to winds and storms which destroyed hundreds of cargo ships. Peter the Great decided to avoid the navigation in the huge and stormy lake by building a
Lake Ladoga "neva" "bog, quagmire". Ancient Norse sagas and Hanseatic treaties both mention a city made of lakes named Old Norse Aldeigja or Aldoga. Since the beginning of the 14th century this hydronym was commonly known as "Ladoga". According to T. N. Jackson, it can be taken "almost for granted, that the name of Ladoga first referred to the river, then the city, and only then the lake." Therefore, he considers the primary hydronym Ladoga to originate in the eponymous inflow to the lower reaches of the Volkhov River whose Finnic name was Alodejoki (corresponding to modern ) "river of the lowlands".