It is symbolic that the event took place in the year of the 60th anniversary of the Talnah deposit discovery and the 55th anniversary of Talnah’s status of a working village.
Opening the restored monument of local history, the acting head of Norilsk Nikolay Timofeev reminded that thanks to geologists six decades ago the mining and metallurgical combine and the entire Norilsk industrial region received a second life. Nikolay Timofeev thanked the participants of the project for the reconstruction of the historic site where the first Talnah well was drilled.
“Thanks to you, Norilsk has not only the past, but also the future”, concluded the acting mayor.
Honestly speaking, the complex itself has the past and the future. For the first time, a model of an oil rig, baloks, in which workers lived, and a concrete slab with the inscription ‘Talnakh started here’ were installed in 1970, on the site of the very KZ-21 well, which, having passed six-meter sediments, opened the ore body. The stylized upper part of the oil rig stood in a prominent place – along the road to the Krasnye Kamni waterfall. But in the summer of 1993, when clearing the territory for the needs of the ski base, the memorial sign was demolished by a bulldozer.
The local history monument was lost and partially returned to us in August 2010. In the year of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the Talnah deposit, the regional administration and the youth council of Talnah, within the Save the Monuments campaign, initiated the improvement of the territory of the memorial sign symbolizing the victory of geologists and prospectors.
The Nornickel Polar Division also provided funds to repair the site and upgrade the drilling rig. The project was implemented with the support of the Mechanical plant – a metal plate was made there, the Zapolyarny mine, members of the Talnah youth council and young specialists who were doing practical work at the company’s enterprises under the Professional Start program.
In the current, also jubilee year, the territory that is significant for Bolshoy Norilsk was beautified again, the composition was completely restored, however, 150 meters from the KZ-21 well.
The initiative belongs to the deputy head of the city – the head of the Talnah territorial administration Mikhail Shevchenko. The idea was supported by the Department of Culture and Arts and the Norilsk City Social and Educational Foundation – Yubileiny. The monument was made by the individual entrepreneur Yuri Milchenko. Thanks to these people, the memorial sign has been completely restored.
“When in August 1960 geologists raised the first ore core, it became clear that the Talnah land had prospects”, Mikhail Shevchenko addressed the event participants. “In 1962, a settlement of geologists was formed here, its first street appeared – Krasivaya (beautiful). A year later, another one – Vesyolaya (merry)”.
The head of the Talnah territorial administration also mentioned other facts of the ore capital’s history and congratulated the participants of the ceremony on the unveiling the memorial sign ‘Talnah began here’.
The fact that the memorial sign is located 150 meters from the KZ-21 well is written on the plate on the geological party drillers’ balok. They decided to move the composition in order to preserve the shrubs that have grown in recent years at the foot of Otdelnaya mount.
In summer, when it is possible to take excursions to Krasnye Kamni, it will be easy to climb to the place of the first memorial sign. In the future, it is planned to equip a tourist trail there.
Text: Larisa Fedishina, Photo: author and open sources
