#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. This settlement, or wintering, as it was also called, was located on the spout of the Rybnaya and Norilsk rivers and was the forerunner of modern Norilsk. There, for the “beyond-tundra peasants and foreigners”, the chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was built. When a mining settlement began to be built under the Norilsk mountains in the early 1930s, it was also called Norilsk. That is, then there were two Norilsks at once, and to avoid confusion, the settlement on Rybnaya was renamed Chapel.
In modern, present-day Norilsk, an Orthodox parish appeared in the late 1980s. But for the first few years it sought shelter “at good people’s”. At first it was located in a residential building on Begichev street, 2, then in a small room in a high-rise building on Urvantsev Naberezhnaya, 49, which was originally designed for dry cleaning. Representatives of other faiths or movements were also housed in apartments or other buildings not suitable for religion. The first specially designed separately constructed religious building in Norilsk was a chapel at the foot of mount Shmidtiha, on the site of an old cemetery. The project and construction of the chapel was undertaken by the Praktik youth center, which, strange as it may sound, operated under the district Komsomol committee. The chapel was consecrated and opened on September 22, 1990.
And the following year, 1991, already within the city limits at 105 Nansen street, a church building for Evangelical Christian Baptists was built. The final stages of construction of this house of prayer are captured in this old photograph.
Meanwhile, discussions were going on in the city: where should the Orthodox church stand? They proposed Komsomolsky park on the mountain, the intersection of Talnahskaya and Ordzhonikidze streets, the Old Town and the site on the corner of Kirov and Pushkin, where there was a fire building in a critical condition. The latter place was ultimately consecrated on July 7, 1991 by Bishop Anthony of Krasnoyarsk and Yeniseisk. A cross was placed at the site where the first stone was laid. According to the canons, after the construction of the temple, the stone had to be buried under the altar, but, taking into account the peculiarities of the pile foundation, it was built into the church’s wall. You can see it now: on the counter-facade of the cathedral, on the altar side, there is a small sign with the inscription: “… this church was founded in honor and memory of the icon Joy of All Who Sorrow… in the summer of Christmas… 1991.VII.7”.
As Archpriest Sergius Shachin, rector of the Church of the Mother of God Icon Joy of All Who Sorrow, recalled in 1997, “in 1991 there were many interesting decisions; we asked for the place on Metallurgists square to build a temple. But the city administration allocated us a place on Pushkin street, and there the first stone was laid for the construction of the Cathedral of All Who Sorrow, Joy of All Who Sorrow.
Construction of the cathedral began with a small church – the Nativity of John the Baptist, popularly known as a small baptismal church. It was erected earlier, and the first services were held there. In 1995, the Christmas service was held within these new walls.
Meanwhile, construction was not going well: either there were no funds, or technical supervision stopped the work. They even announced a fundraising to help the church, and almost the entire city responded to this call. In the fall of 1996, construction came to an end: finishing work was completed, the facade was decorated with lighting, and the domes were covered with thin-sheet copper. All that remained was to crown them with crosses. This happened in front of a huge crowd of people while the troparion was sung.
It is interesting that the cross on the upper dome was installed by Father Sergius himself, raised by the boom of a crane. Although he had no experience of such high-altitude work. As he himself recalled, this happened due to a small incident: the worker felt ill, but the equipment was already standing still. “I had to tie myself up, get up and lower the anchor into the crown – that’s what it’s called – and hook the guy rope chains”.
Local historian Stanislav Stryuchkov: “The projects of the first Norilsk temple were not easy. They were prepared by the Norilskproekt Institute, and about them, especially about the very first one, they said then: “Well, what is this? This is a house of political education with domes. You can’t design like that, well, there are canons. It was an author’s project, there were several authors – about eight or ten people. And the temple opened – maybe I’ll say something funny now – on November 7, 1996. But not because it is the day of the revolution, but because November 6 is the holiday of that very icon Joy to All Who Sorrow. It was just a coincidence, nothing more”.
On the penultimate day of 1996, this building was officially accepted by the state commission. The temple of the icon Joy of All Who Sorrow, designed for 800 people, was given the status of a cathedral. This was the first, but far from the last Orthodox church in the city.
In the previous History Spot’s publication, we talked about how the Norilsk station was changing.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Norilsk residents and Nornickel Polar Branch's archives, Nikolay Shchipko
