Sergey Bibik is an assistant professor at the Mineral Recourses Mining Department at the Norilsk State Industrial Institute. He has lived in Norilsk for more than half a century. He has studied the city and Taimyr from the outside and from the inside. He is still showing young miners the approach to the chosen profession and to life in general.
Sergey Bibik himself was among the first graduates of the institute (Norilsk Part-time Industrial Institute at that time), and now the assistant professor of the department is one of the most popular teachers, to whom eminent specialists with the Northern Alma Mater diplomas send their greetings and warm wishes.
There is no doubt that it is not easy to gain such popularity and respect among students of different generations, and there must be some secret. Sergey Bibik believes that the secret is his attitude towards work: “justice and an honest approach”.
After graduating from the Tashkent Mining College, he arrived in Norilsk in 1957 as a young specialist. For more than 13 years he worked in coal mines. He built the Anhydrite mine, where he worked for 15 years as a chief engineer. His professional biography counts years of work in the Copper Plant ventilation tunnels, where he provided the enterprise’s shops with fresh air. For 20 years he has been teaching at one of the most important departments of the main Norilsk institute – the Mineral Recourses Mining.
One of Sergey Bibik’s principles of dealing with students is to explain and work individually.
“When the teacher says that the student has done something wrong, he should explain how to do this or that right to make the student aware and understand, and not let things take their own course. Help is important. I try to discuss term papers with the authors. The numbers and terms are already familiar, you know them by heart, and it is important to make adjustments as you work. Modern students are different from those of the Soviet Union. New technologies help them. Previously, the slide rule was the pinnacle of this kind of helpers. Everything had to be done manually. Now there is the Internet and modern technical means. But one thing remains unchanged: if a student seeks to study, tries his best, writes down the lectures, performs the tasks diligently, everything is easy for him. If not, the result is sad”, Sergey Bibik contemplates.
To practice the knowledge Sergey takes the future miners into the Norilsk mines. One day in the Oktyabrsky mine he met his former student, who was not very good at grades. They talked. The teacher recalled how he brought the student up and made him learn the material. The answer was: “I have just realized that I did not take it serious enough”. By the way, now this graduate is a worthy enterprise employee.
Sergey Bibik has several government awards: Personnel Employee, The Enterprise Labor Veteran, medals and the Order of Miner’s Glory of the III degree and many appreciation certificates. Communicating with students, he teaches them not only what the program prescribes. Who, if not an experienced miner, will explain to students who have not been to underground workings yet, what “to feel the roof” means?
By the graduation day students receive knowledge about human qualities, the rules of team working, the ability to see the world thanks to joint trips to the tundra. In winter they spend time together with the teacher at the Ol-Gul ski center and in the hut which is tens kilometers from Norilsk. In summer – at the waterfalls between Hrebtovaya and Sokol mounts. During such trips, a full palette of the connection between their profession and nature is revealed to young people.
Read about other unique Taimyr people by the Territory genius tag.
Text: Julia Gubeladze, Photo: Sergey Bibik's family archive
