The first city shops, with glass showcases, stucco moldings and chandeliers on high ceilings, appeared in the late 1940s on Octyabrskaya square. The future Shining store was at first modestly called Tissues. The Moscow grocery store and the Posuda store initially had even more modest inscriptions: store number 22, Grocery-Gastronomy, and Meat-Fish.
Until the mid-1960s, the Norilsk stores did not have their own names. Groceries most often had only a number, and manufactured goods shops were named according to their assortment. So, Severyanka used to be Shoes, Severok was the Children’s world, on Svyatoslav there was a long inscription Clothes, hats, furs, and Space was called Cultural goods.
One of the first shops to get its own name was the department store Talnah in 1963. In 1964 the grocery store No.1 was renamed Yenisey, and the manufactured goods shop Fur products and hats became Hantayka.
Read other materials of our photo project in the History spot section.
Text: Svetlana Samokhina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive
