#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The First House of Norilsk prepared a museum performance for its hundredth winter. The organizers warmed the guests with tea and jam and stories about the history of the centenary.
The old house ‘spoke’ with the voice of its builder Nikolay Urvantsev. Short videos showed the history of wintering in the house in 1923-1924 and the epic of its journey from the Old Town to Leninsky prospect.
The voiced recollections the participants told about the expedition, in which the First House was built. These are still unpublished memoirs and diary entries from the Norilsk Museum’s collection. For reading, the organizers chose stories that are relevant today. For example, the memoirs of Victor Koreshkov (a participant of geological exploration expeditions to Norilsk in the 1920s, author of the Dudinka Merchants and Their Customs essay kept in the Norilsk Museum) about how to competently organize the expedition’s supply and set up the northern ‘vegetable garden on the roof of Potanin’s hut’, how to cook venison and fish, how to get to the Norilsk Mountains and not to get frozen, how to escape from scurvy.
The first house became a museum in 1978. Another date is not far off. In the 70th anniversary of Norilsk’s city status, the house as a museum will turn 45. Having closed the windows for the winter, one of the most significant historical monuments of Norilsk after the anniversary celebration, as always, will continue to welcome Norilsk residents and the city’s guests.
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Text: Varvara Sosnovskaya, Photo: Norilsk Museum
