#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR.
This photo shows the first “real” multi-story building built in the modern part of Norilsk. It began to be built in 1941. In this photo there are no streets around it yet, but it would give birth to them. Since the building was a corner one, Sevastopolskaya street lay along one of its wings, and Pionerskaya street, later Bogdan Hmelnitsky, ran along the other. The area, in the early 1940s, looked like a swampy construction site along which wooden walkways were laid, but on the approach to it there was an arch with the inscription “Gorstroy” proudly displayed. The address of this house was at first unusual for modern ears: Gorstroy, building 9. It is ninth because it had eight predecessors – two-story barracks-type buildings built nearby. Those nine houses have not survived to this day; they remain only in photographs. House No. 9 was demolished in the mid-1980s.
Sevastopolskaya became a full-fledged city street before all others. First of all, the roadway was paved and asphalt sidewalks were made; it was there that the first lawns and fountains appeared in the courtyards. So the Old Town and villages’ residents came to Gorstroy just to stroll along the elegant street. In this photo from the late 1940s, it stretched out to its full length, which was originally even longer than it is now. Sevastopolskaya did not abut Kirov street, but crossed it and went further, to the future Talnahskaya. In addition, according to architect Nepokochitsky’s first plan, it should have crossed Leninsky prospect and reach the main staircase, which led to school No. 1. If you look closely, you can see that in this photo there is no house No. 3 on the avenue yet, and the school is visible.
House No. 7 has survived to this day, although it has lost one of its wings. Initially there was a hostel for young specialists and a school for working youth. But after redevelopment in 1953, it became the main administrative building of Norilsk. All city power was concentrated there: the city party and Komsomol committees, the city executive committee and the city council, the district trade union committee, the city military registration and enlistment office, housing and communal services, the united Norilsk air squad and the city newspaper’s editorial office. Authorities’ cars ran along Sevastopolskaya street. True, the townspeople were more interested in the trade union cinema hall and library located in this house, as well as the buffet, the only one in the area that was open until ten o’clock in the evening.
Sevastopolskaya street was a stronghold of the city culture and life. At the end of the street – where Talnahskaya now begins – a cinema hall was opened in the mid-1940s, which in 1953 became home to the Norilsk drama theater. And along the Norilsk Broadway women ran to performances in nylon stockings, despite the frost. The theater was located on Sevastopolskaya for more than 30 years. In 1987, when the Melpomene temple had already moved to a modern building, a fire broke out in the old one. And now in this courtyard, it would seem, there is nothing reminiscent of the theater. However, this small brick building in the modern photo once housed the theater administration, accounting, technical services and even a small stage!
The unusual architecture added special chic to Sevastopolskaya street. For three houses on this street, Norilsk specialists received in 1946 the second prize of the RSFSR in the competition for the best residential, social, cultural and domestic building. True, the list of those awarded included only civilian architects, and the prisoners, whose names were also on the project drawings, were forgotten. The architects of Sevastopolskaya street were a married couple – Vitold Nepokoychitsky and Larisa Minenko, but they were helped by imprisoned architects Mikael Mazmanyan and Gevorg Kochar. Considering the southern, “veranda” style of the buildings on Sevastopolskaya street, this subsequently caused controversy about the houses authorship. There are still no exact answers to this question. And today only three houses remain: No. 1 and 2, which are seen in the photo, and house No. 7.
The monument-memorial Heroes of War and Labor was built in the year of the Victory’s 30th anniversary. In 1975, the section of Sevastopolskaya between houses No. 7, 8, 10 was given the name Heroes Memory Square. The project authors were craftsmen from Norilsk art and production workshops Ragim Seifullaev, Boris Paley and Valery Bandyakin. The entire city took part in the construction of the memorial complex: Norilsk residents took part in cleanup days in order to transfer the money they earned to the fund for the monument construction. The monument parts were made at Norilsk enterprises. For example, the star of the Eternal Flame was cast in bronze at the Mechanical plant. At the grand opening on May 9, 1975, the first secretary of the CPSU Civil Code, Boris Blagih, cut the ribbon at the monument and lit the Eternal Flame.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we told you about services offered to Norilsk residents in shops and cafes on the city’s main street.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive and Nikolay Shchipko
