Krasna is located on the right shore of the steppe river Kogälnik. Aside from the border rivers of Bessarabia, the Dnjestr and Pruth, it is the most significant Budschak water source. The Kogälnik starts about 100 kilometers to the north of Krasna, northwest of Kischinev. It is just about 200 kilometers in length and at Tartarbunar it flows into the Liman Konduk, also called the Liman Sasik, a lake of the Black Sea.

On this river or its tributaries are the 60 or so Bessarabian mother colonies. The following colonies are either on or near the river:

• Leipzig (eastside) of the river
• Kulm (westside)
• Beresina (eastside)
• Krasna (westside)
• Paris (eastside)
• Frere Champenoise I (westside)
• Teplitz (westside)
• Brienne (westside)
• Arzis (eastside)
• Leipzig (eastside)
• Kulm (westside)
• Beresina (eastside)
• Krasna (westside)
• Paris (eastside)
• Frere Champenoise I (westside)
• Teplitz (westside)
• Brienne (westside)
• Arzis (eastside)
• Gnadental (eastside)

Tributaries of the Kogälnik - more like creeks, in the Budschak area are:

• Skinosa Creek, flows into the Kogälnik at Leipzig
• Antschiokrak Creek flows into the Kogälnik near Krasna (Tarutino is on it)
• Tshaga (Schag) flows into the Kogälnik at Brienne (Borodino, Klöstitz, Friedenstal)
• Dschidlair Creek, flows into the Kogälnik at Gnadental (Neu Arzis)
• Tshiligider, flows into the Kogälnik east of Gnadental (Lichtental)

The Sarata parallels the Kogälnik from the colony of Sarata on and also flows into the Konduk Lake.

Normally, the Kogälnik was a small river, carrying high water in the winters, only. In the summer, after a long dry period, it was barely a trickle. In the spring, at the time of the snowmelt, it swelled up dangerously and overflowed its banks regularly. Sometimes it breeched the colonist-built dams and flooded large parts of the valley bottom. It flooded occasionally in the summer after heavy rains. The big flood of 1927, on September 2, 1927, hit the villages of Leipzig, Beresina and Krasna especially hard. Eduard Ruscheinsky reports about it. ¹⁾)
See 6.1, Catastrophes, Plagues, Failed Harvests, Animal Pests, Earthquakes

Friedrich Matthäi ²⁾) writes about the Kogälnik: Bessarabia is also poor in water. The majestic Dnjestr flows to the east and the Pruth to the west, but both rivers are too far distant from the colonies to benefit them. The rivers, such as Kugelnik and Tschaga, actually benefiting the colonies, barely deserve the name of river since they are shallow and muddy and more like stagnant waters. Their major benefit is to serve as a watering hole for livestock where they are dammed up.

The Kogälnik was part of Krasna life. The children skated on it in the winter, bathed in it in the summer, watered the horses there. Women washed their wool and the water was required to make the clay tiles called Batzen. In early times the reeds from its shores were cut to make roofing. The herb and vegetable gardens were on the Kogälnik, as well. See 4.1, Agriculture in Krasna

Image 30: Cows Graze on the Kogälnik

The colonies constructed dams to hold backwater as a reserve for the dry season (watering livestock and vegetable gardens). Krasna had dams on the Kogälnik as well. The village community provided the required man-hours in compulsory labor.

Max Riehl remembers the dam building in Krasna: In order for the Kogälnik not to dry up entirely in the summer months, dams were constructed in the Bessarabian villages to hold back some water for the dry season. This water was used to water cows, sheep and several thousands of geese. It was also a supply of water for the two vegetable gardens planted on the shore and it served as water source to wash the horses in. Youths and children were refreshed by it in the heat and dryness of the harvest time. The dam holding back the water had to be reconstructed in the spring after the snowmelt every year, since the high water levels in the winter regularly washed the previous dam away. Shoring up the new dam required many cubic meters of the right mix of clay, straw and dung. This mixture was prepared and transported to the river to be on hand as needed. When the water level dropped, the dam regulated just a small trickle of a flow through. The mayor ordered young men to watch around the clock to prevent the dam from being washed away. One had to wait for the exact right moment to close the gap in a mighty “heave-ho” effort. If the dam was closed too soon, there was the danger of the overflow to wash it away, but if one waited too long, the reservoir would not fill up completely and there would be a lack of water in the dry season of the summer months. Once the reservoir was full and spring brought heavy rainfall, the excess water had to be directed out of harm’s way across the pastureland

There were only a few bridges across the river. Most routes forded the waters.
See Bridges of Krasna, section 3, The village

Both vegetable gardens of Krasna (See 4.1.4 Vegetable cultivation) were on the Kogälnik, one where the road to Beresina crosses the river, the other in the direction of Paris. A dipping wheel, operated by a Goepel drive moved by horses, did the watering, using Kogälnik water

Image 31: Watering System for a Vegetable Garden