#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. School №1, the only school at that time, was located in a wooden building at the Zero Point. It was not easy to study during the Great Patriotic War years. Schoolchildren helped adults. The first students recalled:
“They gave us the task to collect warm clothes from each apartment to be sent to the front. We, pioneers and Komsomol members, not only collected things, but also knitted mittens and socks. Then we received letters in which soldiers wrote to us: “Your mittens keep us warm, and it is easier to beat the enemy in them”.
Therefore, the real graduation balls in Norilsk schools began much later. True, to today’s eleventh graders, the holidays during the 50s would seem very frugal. Graduation banquets at that time, of course, were not held in restaurants and cafes. Tables were laid in school canteens but even champagne was served.
The outfits of the graduates were also much more simple than today. Someone managed to find a more or less suitable light dress in a store. The luckiest girls made tailor-made outfits from dressmakers, taking a line for six months, or even more.
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Text: Svetlana Samohina, Photo: Norinickel Polar Division archive
