#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. In official sources, the date of opening is different – a month earlier, during the celebration of the combine’s 25th anniversary. However, in June the monument was erected, but, apparently, they did not manage to complete it by the deadline. So the report about the grand opening came out only at the end of July.
The chest bust of Zavenyagin, made at the art casting factory in Mytishchi, was installed on a pedestal lined with black marble.
The height of the bust was 1.3 meters, together with the pedestal – 4.5 meters. The author of the monument was a representative of the famous sculptors dynasty Yury Neroda.
In Norilsk, this was the first monument in honor of a Norilsk person, before that, monuments to Lenin, Stalin, Kalinin had been erected in the city.
Here is how the city newspaper reported about this event on July 26, 1960:
“The calendar sheet that day was ordinary, but despite this, the day was special. Festively dressed Norilsk people with bouquets of flowers in their hands walked in slender columns to the Administrative square. The rally was opened by comrade Burmakin, chairman of the City Council of Working People’s Deputies. He speaks brightly, penetratingly about one of the major figures of the Soviet state – A.P. Zavenyagin, who gave a lot of strength and energy to the development of metallurgy in Norilsk and the construction of the city…”
The Administrative square, which, by the way, was the first square in Norilsk, was also, on September 9, 1960, renamed in honor of the first director of the Norilsk combine.
In 1993, the Zavenyagin bust was moved to the combine management office on Gvardeiskaya square.
Now Zavenyagin square is adorned with a smaller copper copy of the sculpture, and the original one stands in the management office foyer, considered a monument of regional significance.
By the way, another bust of Zavenyagin is installed in his homeland – in the city of Uzlovaya, Tula region.
In the last issue of the History Spot photo project, we talked about how Norilsk enterprises switched from black fuel to blue fuel.
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Text: Svetlana Samohina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive
