#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. This was one of the first orders of the Norilskstroy head Vladimir Matveyev: “For the purpose of introducing physical culture and developing shooting sports, organize a club of the Dynamo sports society”. It is not difficult to guess why it was called Dynamo: in the same year, the combine construction was subordinated to the NKVD, that is why Norilsk athletes had to walk under white and blue flags – “on the departmental basis”.
The first sports facility in the city can be considered the Dynamo stadium, which began to be built and simultaneously operate back in 1942. In the summer, all matches, parades and competitions were held there, and in the winter, an ice rink was made. But there was no indoor gym yet, and with the onset of cold weather, the sportsmen had to share the school gym with the children. A separate hall was urgently needed. The first gym was converted from an old boiler room on the back of Octyabrskaya street in 1944. It was always overcrowded, and spectators sat on the wall bars. Later, the hall would be called small, because in 1948, construction of a new, large gym began next to the stadium.
Today we know it as the house of physical culture. By November 8, 1948, it was ready in rough form. In honor of the revolution holiday, a large sports festival was held. However, this was only half of the current building. The HPhC was built in parts: first the gym itself, and five years later an administrative extension was added to it. At the same time, the main entrance to the building was changed. The stadium in the Old town, built in 1942, operated in Norilsk until the mid-1970s, when the workshops of the Mechanical plant were built on the site of its two fields. But already in the 1950s it became clear that a sports ground was needed in the new part of Norilsk.
The site for it was chosen on the former state farm cattle yards. At first, it was decided to use the well-manured land for green spaces. And in the summer of 1952, a Pushkin square was laid out opposite school No. 4. In 1956, they began to level the territory next to the square for a new stadium. It was opened on July 18, 1959, on Metallurgist’s Day. Our stadium managed to change names three times: during the layout it was called Stroitel, it was opened as Molodezhny, and when in 1961 the city got its own sports club Zapolyarnik, the same name appeared on the stadium’s entrance group. It worked practically around the clock and all year round.
1959 was a year of many new buildings in Norilsk, including sports ones. In November, on a hill where there had been the Komsomol’s 30th Anniversary park, the first swimming pool in the Arctic was opened. It was a gift for the 42nd anniversary of the October Revolution. This was indicated by the illuminated letters and numbers on the still unplastered facade: 42 and October.
“On November 8, from early morning, polar explorers began to flock here. They couldn’t wait to see the beautiful pool”, the city newspaper wrote. “Everything was unusual here. The air was warm, like in the subtropics, the water was greenish-transparent and warm, like in the sea, and small waves were beating against the tiled shores.
“The bright light of the spotlights from the high balconies flooded the ten-meter tower and the pool bath, which held a million liters of water”, recalled its first director Iskander Faizullin.
According to tradition, the first person to be dipped on the opening day was a builder: the Gorstroy head Dmitry Muravyov.
“A loud splash, a fountain of spray, sympathetic laughter from the stands. Seconds pass, the ‘victim’ swims out and, barely feeling solid ground under his feet, thanks for the right to be the first to swim”.
Norilsk became obsessed with hockey back in the 1940s. But there was no indoor rink for a long time: they trained on the ice of the lakes of the Old town and the open areas of Norilsk stadiums. The first indoor hockey rink appeared only in 1969 in Talnah – more precisely in the settlement of Geologov. Talnah residents built the rink with their own hands, and named it after themselves – Geolog (eng.: Geologist).
In 1970, the Shakhtyor indoor skating rink was built in Kayerkan using the same method of public construction.
And what about Norilsk? Norilsk was building the Arctica in the meantime. Back in 1964, the plant’s management commissioned the Norilsk design office to design a sports pavilion: just a hockey field with stands for 1,400 seats, locker rooms, and a refreshment bar. But the USSR Council of Ministers set a different task: to expand the project to a “grandiose sports complex, the northernmost in the world”. Therefore, it was only in 1970 that the unfinished, nameless, and addressless sports palace hosted a ceremonial meeting and the first hockey match between the Shakhtyor (Norilsk) and Geolog (Talnah) teams. The second stage – a building with an arena, gymnastics and wrestling halls – was completed by the end of 1974.
The opening of the Arctica sports palace launched a new round of development of sports in general and hockey in particular in Norilsk. The 1970s were the peak of passion for this sport among both big and small Norilsk residents. At that time, there were about 45 children’s hockey teams in Norilsk – three age groups. All schools in the city were required to teach children to skate. For this purpose, school rinks were made, and the ice field of the Zapolyarnik stadium was also used.
But open boxes were not the best solution in freezing temperatures. Therefore, an indoor rink with natural ice was built especially for young hockey players – between schools No. 2 and No. 7, on Komsomolskaya street, 46a. The indoor rink with a field of 30×60 meters was completed in 1974. The Ice was entirely given over to children: they organized mass skating there, opened skate rental and, of course, began to conduct training: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday were game days. Ice immediately became a favorite place for children to relax, especially for students of two neighboring schools, with which it was connected by passage galleries.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we talked about Norilsk trade.
Follow us on Telegram, VKontakte.
Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Olga Zaderyaka, Norilsk residents and Nornickel Polar Division’s archives
