#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. In the 1950s, the number of personal vehicles began to grow in Norilsk, and as a result, there were not enough garages for cars. To meet the needs of the population within the city, they even built a box for 16 individual cars, but it was quickly occupied by the transport of various institutions.
The first car owners began to build spontaneous self-construction in the yards. Even the arch of a residential building on Bohdan Hmelnitsky street, 1, was equipped under the garage.
Then the city planners proposed the idea of garages built into the residential buildings basements. Here is how the architect Vitold Nepokoichitsky wrote about it in 1957:
“The problem of arranging garages for individual cars built into residential buildings has been resolved in general positively. In all newly built up quarters, their placement is envisaged by reducing the height of the ventilated basement. The storage of motorcycles, bicycles, prams and household equipment is organized according to the same principle, which creates additional convenience for the population.
The construction of residential buildings with the listed premises is carried out in blocks No. 29 and No. 31. Some of them will be put into operation this year. In separate residential buildings of quarters 18 and 21 there are also some utility rooms. For example, in house No. 68 (Leninsky Prospekt, 13. – Author), the main construction work on the arrangement of four garages for individual cars has been completed in rough outline”.
So, in the houses on Leninsky prospekt, Komsomolskaya, Sovetskaya and Zavenyagin streets, built-in garages appeared. However, they did not solve the problem, and the shortage of space for vehicles remained. The garage issue in Norilsk is still acute.
In the last issue of the photo project History Spot, we talked about how Norilsk fought dysentery: in the 1950s, the living conditions of a significant part of the population, especially those living in the huts, did not meet basic sanitary requirements.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive
