A survivor said the two-decked, 56-year-old riverboat sank fast in a thunderstorm after listing onto its side and that many were dead, Interfax news agency reported.
Rescuers searched choppy waters in a broad stretch of the river as daylight faded and tearful survivors, rescued by a passing craft, greeted anxious relatives on shore.
The boat was heading to the Tatarstan regional capital, Kazan, 800 km east of Moscow, when it sank about 3 km from shore in 20 metres of water, the ministry's regional branch said.
The boat "leaned onto its right side, turned over in literally three minutes and went to the bottom," Interfax quoted a man who was rescued by the passing boat as saying after it docked in Kazan.
"There was thunder and heavy rain at the time. There are very many dead," the man, who said his wife and son drowned, was quoted as saying. There were tears and cries of anguish as survivors met relatives waiting at the dock in Kazan.
The man, whose name was not given, said about 30 children had gathered in a playroom near the bow minutes before the boat sank. "I'm afraid many of them dead," Interfax quoted him as saying.
Cruises on the Volga, which cuts through the heart of Russia and drains into the Caspian Sea, are popular among Russians as well as foreigners.
One body was recovered and 85 people were rescued after the two-deck river cruiser, believed to have been carrying 182 people, sank, Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said.
The ministry's regional branch later said on its website that 188 people had been on board, including 150 passengers, and 102 were missing.
The cause of the sinking of the boat, the Bulgaria, was unclear, Andrianova said. It was built in 1955 in Czechoslovakia, then a Soviet satellite.
Russian news agencies said the Bulgaria, which state TV said had dozens of cabins and two restaurants, had taken passengers to a city downriver in Tatarstan on Saturday and was returning to Kazan when it sank.
State television said the boat had only two lifeboats instead of the initial four. Itar-Tass cited the company that owned it as saying it was in working order and had passed inspections.
President Dmitry Medvedev ordered an investigation into the sinking, the Kremlin said in a statement.
The ministry sent a plane to Kazan late on Sunday with teams of divers and other rescuers as well as psychologists to counsel relatives of the dead and missing.
(Additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Alison Williams)
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