#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Of course, the loaves baked in 1945 were not the very first bread in Norilsk. Before that, small bakeries operated at the camp departments, in the villages – Medvezhka, Zapadny, 80th quarter, Kayerkan. But there was not enough bread for everyone.
As eyewitnesses recalled, before the start-up of the plant, a recruitment was announced, and the old Moscow baker Ivan Moiseev in January 1945 taught the technical minimum.
There was a fire in the history of the bakery. The damage was not great, but the furnace equipment was damaged, and the plant stopped.
As a result, all canteens, cafes and restaurants were transferred to baking bread. The bakers worked around the clock, and made pastry even in the food blocks of schools and kindergartens.
The plant was quickly restored, but it could not cope with the growing needs of the city in terms of quantity and especially for the range of bread.
In 1962, a large-scale reconstruction began without stopping the existing production. In the mid-1970s, a new building was built. New ovens were installed at the bakery, their number was increased, and they were switched from coal to electricity.
A confectionery shop with automatic lines for the production of cookies, gingerbread, waffles, cakes was organized in the new additional areas. The combine purchased a foreign packing machine.
There was even a line for the production of pasta at the plant: tubular pasta, egg noodles, ‘shells’ of various configurations. Even in the city restaurants, they were initially served as a special dish – Norilsk-made pasta – and the Norilsk people ate it with pleasure.
In previous issues of the History Spot photo project, we told that the first Norilsk restaurant was opened when the city was still a camp, and in 1969 Taimyr received a prize at VDNKh: Norilsk residents captured Moscow with northern cuisine. The most creatively decorated restaurant was 69 Parallel, and the first children’s cafe in Norilsk was named after Korney Chukovsky’s book From Two to Five.
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Text: Svetlana Samohina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive
