#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Organized by the trade union, social activists themselves surrounded the territory with a fence, put sports equipment and swings, made a football field and a run path.
Several thousand people gathered for the openning celebration. The sportsmen held a trade union-Komsomol cross, volleyball and township competitions, and in the evening, the first football match took place.
Every summer, in front of the stadium, flowerbeds were made, fountains and park sculptures were installed. Sports competitions were held there.
The first stadium was located in the Old Town, opposite the most beautiful building of the 1940s – the House of Engineering and Technical Workers.
The stadium had two fields – an upper and a lower one, because the landscape in this place has a quite noticeable slope. The footballers, before the start of the match, always drew lots: to play ‘uphill’ or ‘downhill’. It played the role of not only the main sports ground, but also a public center, where rallies, celebrations and festivities were held.
The stadium has had three names throughout its history. It changed them depending on the sports and political situation. In the 1940s, when the combine was under the authority of the NKVD, the Norilsk people went under the flags of the Dynamo sports community, and the stadium was also called Dynamo.
With the transfer to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Metallurgical Industry, it was renamed Metallurg, and when the athletes were united by the Trud sports union, it changed his name again.
In 1959, a new stadium Zapolyarnik was opened in Norilsk, which is still in operation. In the mid-1970s, the construction of the Mechanical plant workshops began on the site of the first Norilsk stadium.
For other issues of our photo project about the history of the city and the combine, go to the History spot section.
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Text: Svetlana Samohina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive
