#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. For the first time in the history of the city, those people received a Soviet award of the highest level – they became laureates of the most prestigious Lenin Prize in the country. As indicated in the diplomas – ‘for the development and implementation of fundamentally new methods of industrial construction in the Far North’.
They developed the theory and practice of erecting buildings on permafrost using the pile foundation method.
The names of the laureates were known in Norilsk: Leonid Anisimov, Mikhail Bitadze, Boris Ermilov, Abram Seidel, Mikhail Kim, Vasily Kolyada, Nikolay Lazarev, Dmitry Muravyov, Vitold Nepoychitsky, Leonid Roiter, Hierohim Epstein.
Most of them were presented with awards right in Norilsk, and a member of the Lenin Prize Committee specially came here.
As the daughter of one of the laureates Natela Bitadze recalled, the financial equivalent was significant: in those years – 7,500 rubles. But the award, divided into 11 people, allowed them to go to a restaurant together – to celebrate in style. A friendly dinner, to which many colleagues of the heroes were invited, was held in the Taimyr restaurant.
Today, the name of the Laureates’ street named after them in 1974 reminds of this award.
There was a legend that the authorities were going to give names of all eleven laureates of the Lenin Prize to eleven streets that would cross the Laureates’ street, and the first of them even managed to be named in honor of Leonid Anisimov as the first alphabetically.
In the last issue of the History spot photo project, we talked about the construction of the Alykel airport in Norilsk for the Nikita Hrushchev’s arrival.
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Text: Svetlana Samohina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive
