#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. For 20 years after the war, the Norilsk people worked six days a week. And the only day off was regularly spent for public works: the city grew, and the method of people’s construction was very popular.
But in 1966, it was widely announced: the Norilsk Combine, in unison with the whole country, switches to a five-day work.
One more task was no less important – the workers should spend their extra day off usefully, and not on various bad habits.
The concept of a camp site as an easily accessible place of rest, belonging to the team of an enterprise , appeared precisely in those years.
In 1968, the city executive committee allocated land for the first recreation centers. Those were Jubilee, built by the building materials enterprises management, Solnechnaya – the housing and communal administration’s camp site and Blue Lakes – the Nickel Plant’s tourist center.
Here is how the city press wrote about it in 1969:
“The Nikelstroy tourist base opened a month ago. It was called Birch Grove. To be honest, I didn’t want to go there, said Gilmutdinov, a carpenter from Nickelstroy. “I thought I would hardly be able to have a good rest there. But what I saw exceeded all expectations. The base is located on the lake shore, greenery and flowers are all around. There are boats, billiards, chess, table tennis, TV, swings at the base. Everything is taken into account, no one here will be bored”.
“The second Sunday, the workers of the trucking office have a rest at their new tourist base on the banks of the Norilka river. Though the base is being improved there are already five tent houses, a sports ground and a dance floor. And for amateur fishermen, a mooring for motorboats has been made. Since July 1, a five-day working week has been introduced in the motor transport office. Drivers spend their days off at the camp site”.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we told that the Talnah CHPP-2 was designed and built only as a power plant and it worked on coal until 1972.
Follow us on Telegram, VKontakte.
Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive
