The Daugava, also known as the Western Dvina, is a 630-mile-long river which flows through Russia, Belarus, and Latvia. Its name means "river" in Indo-European, and it was inhabited by hunter-gatherers for millennia. In the 6th century AD, Viking explorers crossed the Baltic Sea and navigated up the Daugava into the Baltic interior. It later became an important trade route for Varangian furs and Byzantine silver, and the city of Daugavpils passed under Slavic, Polish, German, and Russian control until the restoration of Latvian independence in 1990.
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