#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The telephone exchange in the first decades was manual, that is, it worked through the switchboard, where the telephone operators worked.
In the early 1950s, the equipment for the first automatic station was brought to Norilsk – it was akin to a flight to Mars at that time. It could connect three thousand subscribers.
In March 1961, a new automatic telephone exchange for four thousand numbers was installed in the basement of a new building in the very center of the city – at 2 Gvardeyskaya square, in the current Nornickel administration office. The communications shop neighbored to the Norilsk hotel.
A year later, on March 20, 1962, Norilsk residents had the opportunity to talk not only with local subscribers, but also to call the mainland: the first long-distance connection telephone office was opened in the city. In the last issue of the History Spot photo project, we talked about a Norilsk collector who corresponded with the Belgian queen.
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Text: Svetlana Samohina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive
