Now you know!
I go by surface area, not volume. 
And given the vast amount of pollution that was dumped into it during the Soviet days (and may still be dumping into it), I would hesitate to call it “fresh” water.
I knew of it as the deepest lake in the world and remembered that it was banana shaped, but I didn’t know the name nor that it held the “volume” record.
wonders vaguely when and for how long mankind has been to the bottom of the Baikal Lake…
The Russians always claim theirs is the biggest. They’re like Texans!
Besides… Fresh? Jeez, the thing has been through 70 years of industrial communism. Is battery acid “fresh”? 
Didn’t it used to be much bigger? Didn’t I read that the Soviets drained away much of the water for failed irrigation projects?
You’re probably thinking of the Aral Sea. Although Baikal has suffered from the government’s depradations too.
No, I think that was Lake Aral which had two rivers diverted away from it.
Never, according to this link. (first thing I found on Google news)
In Russia, lakes reach YOUR bottom for 20 minutes!
Ah, thanks. I loaned out my copy of The Great Lakes Water Wars, it’s been over a year since I read it.
And here I thought Ricki Lake was the biggest lake.
Yeah, but she is full of hot air, not fresh water.
Joke of the day.
You might be surprised - I was actually on Lake Baikal in a boat (and in Lake Baikal in my swimsuit, but just for a couple of minutes - even in August, that lake is cold!) in 1995. Although there is a fairly large city (Irkutsk) on the shores of Lake Baikal, there is a fair amount of ecotourism in the area; our hotel had all signage translated into Japanese, for example. And the water was clear as glass; even 40 feet down, you could see every single pebble on the floor of the lake.
The tour guide at the Limnological Institute on the shores of the lake told us that there are something like 4,000 species in and around Lake Baikal, many of which (like freshwater seals) aren’t found anywhere else. Pretty cool, no?
I suppose it’s possible the Russians have trashed the place since then, but even the Russians, as environmentally desctructive as some of their governmental ecological policies have been, didn’t manage to trash the entire country.
My parents just came back from a train trip across Russia which included a stop at Lake Baikal. Mom swam for about 45 minutes and only got out because lunch was served. My co-worker is Russian and says there was a big effort to clean up the lake, and the parents said it looked great.
Oh, and they saw the seals too–Mom said they looked like balloons with faces, they were so round! Hee hee.
Yes. The Amu Darya and Syr Drya were diverted. The town of Moynaq in Uzbekistan used to be on the shore and had a population of 60,000. Now the population is a few hundred and the water is more then 100 miles away. The old fishing fleet is resting in the sand. It is an other-worldly place.
I was there in 1998… I am sure it is worse today.
I’ve never been to Baikal… surely a much nicer place.
I’m jealous! My group stupidly arranged for a huge motor boat, so I’m sure the noise scared the seals away. I’d love to go back sometime and try in a canoe, but when the hell am I going to be in that neck of the woods again?
I’d love to visit Lake Baikal, and take a dip. I’ve sailed and swum in all 5 Great Lakes, so that would be the crowning feature to top my freshwater list with!
[showing off]And I’ve known about the lake, and its status as the largest freshwater lake by volume in the world, for decades[/showing off]
Now I’m somewhat disenchanted with our “Great” Lakes. Maybe they should be called the Pretty Good Lakes