#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Twenty years ago, on October 17, 2001, at a session of the Dudinka city council, the deputies approved an updated sketch of the city’s coat of arms, which was prepared by specialists from the culture department of the local mayor’s office and the heraldic service of Russia. But the history of the city’s first coat of arms creation began much earlier, in 1992, when a creative competition was announced to make sketches of the future coat of arms.
According to the recollections of Valentin Slabkov, who was in charge of the Dudinka administration culture department in the 90s, there were about 30 people who wanted to draw the coat of arms for the ‘chamomile’ city. The painters presented more than 40 works to the jury.
As a result, they chose one, of the famous artist in Taimyr, Boris Molchanov. The sketch of the Dudinka’s very first coat of arms, which has been preserved in the funds of the Taimyr Museum of Local Lore, schematically depicts a deer and an icebreaker. The deer symbolized the tundra, the icebreaker symbolized the Dudinka seaport.
When choosing and approving the coat of arms at that time, consultations with specialists were not carried out and did not delve into heraldic features. The coat of arms was approved in March 1993 by the decision of the Dudinka City Council.
After a while, they decided to remake it according to heraldic laws. Since the city appeared in the middle of the 17th century, the heraldists suggested replacing the image of the icebreaker with the image of the old Pomor ship – koch.
At the same time, the reindeer was also updated, it was shown more dynamic. But not without incident. Not all the details about the deer were exact. According to eyewitnesses, the first to draw attention to the discrepancy was the mayor of Dudinka, Anatoly Kuznetsov. It turned out that Moscow artists added a solid hoof to the Taimyr deer, while the reindeer is an artiodactyl. They sent a photograph of a reindeer hoof to the Moscow specialists. The sketch was corrected.
For many years, the result of the heraldic service work has adorned not only the Embankment square and the sign at the entrance to the city, but also all business and award documents.
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Text: Ekaterina Maksimova, Photo: Taimyr Museum of Local Lore and the editorial office's archive
