#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. It was supposed to become the new social and cultural center of the city, but city planners could not decide for a long time what exactly its face should be.
According to the first plans for the Norilsk development, this square was supposed to look and be called differently. In the general plan of 1943, the arrow of Leninsky prospekt ends in a semicircular square, which they wanted to name the Constitution. It was supposed to be bordered by five buildings: the city council house, the press house, the court and prosecutor’s office house, the communications house, and the government agencies house.
By the mid-1960s, Leninsky prospect had already stretched out to its full length, and Metallurgists square remained a vacant lot, albeit a very picturesque one. There was a small lake there where boys floated on rafts and played pirates, and nearby rocks came to the surface, on the stones of which the boys dried their pants and lit fires. In the distance, beyond the vacant site, new buildings on Nansen and Begichev streets were already visible. In 1967, the undeveloped area of the new community center was named after Metallurgists. But another five years passed before its first building was erected: a nine-story building at 1 Metallurgists square, with a post office and savings bank on the ground floor.
In 1968, for the 50th anniversary of the Komsomol, a composition of 15 pipes was erected at the intersection in front of Metallurgists square, which were used as flagpoles. According to one version, the number of pipes corresponded to the number of Komsomol-youth shock brigades that were working at the Norilsk combine at that time. According to legend, Komsomol members of the 1960s placed a capsule with a letter addressed to Komsomol members of the future under the monument. People nicknamed it the ‘singing monument’ because it made long sounds during a snowstorm. The composition was created in the combine’s industrial aesthetics department. By the way, not all Norilsk residents liked that new thing. In the newspapers, readers sarcastically noted that the monument was dedicated to nothing less than the pipe-rolling industry. But they got used to it and fell in love. When the ‘singing monument’ was reconstructed in 2009, the new structure almost repeated the old one. But the Komsomol time capsule was never taken out, apparently because the foundation remained the same.
In the 1960s, they were going to place a whole complex of cultural and sports facilities on the square – a new drama theater with a transformable hall, a movie theater, a Palace of Pioneers, a swimming pool, a restaurant. Urban planning competitions were held in the city, projects were proposed, lances were broken, but none of the options satisfied the architectural community and the authorities and, apparently, for this reason, they were never implemented. For ten years, while the debates were going on, Metallurgists square itself stayed empty. In 1975, they began to level the construction site. Construction began on the first object – a new movie theater – even a super-cinema for 800 spectators. Two years later, it became a gift for the anniversary of the October Revolution and wide-format equipment was installed in it – for 70-millimeter film. Before the movie theater opening, a competition for the best name was announced, Norilsk residents came up with 80 options, including Metallurgist, Aurora, Zvezda. But the round date obliged, so the ideological 60 Years of October appeared, or as the townspeople later simplified it – Six-Zero. In 2003, after a long renovation, the cinema was renamed Cinema-ART-Hall.
And again, projects were proposed, this time with an eye to new realities. In the 1970s, they were going to build a multi-story hotel for foreign specialists there – the Nadezhda metallurgical plant was being built in Norilsk, in which Finnish specialists took part. An entire sports town was placed on Whatman paper nearby: a skating rink with artificial ice, a swimming pool, a multi-purpose gym and a youth center. Meanwhile, construction was only going on around the square perimeter. In 1975, dormitories were commissioned at Metallurgists square, 19, 25 and 29, and Kotulsky passage, 6.
Since the early 1970s, the main city Christmas tree began was installed on Metallurgists square. Moreover, New Year ice sites were built there during the years of the 60 Years of October movie theater construction. There was space for a Christmas tree, several slides, and snow figures and houses. And in the summer, all city holidays were celebrated on the square, headed by Metallurgist Day. A stage was installed there, a summer cafe and children’s attractions were set up. Holidays were celebrated on Metallurgists square for about 30 years. In December 2005, a Christmas tree was installed there for the last time, and then construction of Arena-Norilsk sports and leisure center began.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we wrote about Norilsk’s sports victories.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Olga Zaderyaka, Norilsk residents and the Nornickel’s Polar Division’s archives
