#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. There were light, cargo and duty horses. It was forbidden to use them for other purposes.
In the 1930s, Norilsk and Dudinka were connected by a horse-drawn road: the fare was 70 rubles and 70 kopecks per kilogram of luggage.
Horses were involved in everything. When the fire station appeared, a horse-drawn fire wagon arose. Ambulances and police patrols were mounted.
Horses also delivered the first Norilsk bread and milk to the nursery. There were even personal traveling horses and a horse-drawn taxi.
Each horse was registered by name by the department of horse-drawn transport. If in 1936 there were 140 horses, in 1944 there were already 310.
Nicknames differed in variety and didn’t resembled horse ones: Screw, Fine, Verochka, Icebreaker, Samovar, Mahorka, American.
But at the same time, they took care of the horses, and even more than of people, because it was not easy to deliver them to the Far North. For a rude attitude towards a horse, the driver was removed from work and sent to a punishment cell.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we told that the Norilsk mountains Shmidtiha and Gudchiha were named after scientists.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive
