#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. “The tundra near the Zarya sanatorium (behind the current Laureate street) was filled with construction noise”, the city newspaper Zapolyarnaya Pravda wrote about that event. “Jackhammers bite into the permafrost, bulldozers push back the snowy hills. One by one, dump trucks come and go back. The canvas for the first rails of the Norilsk-Talnah railway is being built here. The first eight road builders made a tie-in turnout switch to the new branch”.
Three years later, on March 29, 1966, on the opening day of the XVIII CPSU Congress, the Norilsk-Talnah railway was opened for train traffic. The first diesel locomotive was decorated with a banner: “Talnah Ore – to the Congress!”
And in Moscow that day, the congress delegates applauded the news that the firstborn industrial ore of the Mayak mine had gone to Norilsk. In 1966, Mayak was already producing more rich ore than all the mines of the Norilsk-1 deposit. The official delivery of its first stage took place on December 31, 1966.
In the last issue of the History Spot photo project we told about the mayor who had led Norilsk for 17 years.
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Text: Svetlana Samohina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive
