#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Throughout the city’s history, it has moved about a dozen times, following the changing cultural and social centers. The first public street New Year tree, according to the recollections of Norilsk residents, was erected on December 30, 1939 – in front of the building of the first Norilsk school. This place was located not far from the Zero Point, which in those years was the public center of Norilsk. In the 1940s, the main holiday tree moved to the first Norilsk stadium – Dynamo. Snow towns in the current sense were not built at that time. Under the tree they placed figures of Father Frost and Snow Maiden, deer and squirrels, and also New Year’s decorations, which would now be called the first photo zones.
In the early 1950s, the public center of Norilsk moved from the old town to the new, modern one, and here the main New Year tree square became Gvardeyskaya one. The New Year’s town grew up on the site of the central flowerbed. The tree on Gvardeyskaya square was mixed, half-living and half-artificial: real branches and even whole trees were tied to the metal frame, decorated with flags and garlands. They did this because ordinary living trees did not have enough hight – they would have been lost in the wide space of the square.
In the 1960s, the New Year’s town moved further along Leninsky prospect. In those years, the city Christmas tree was installed in front of the Palace of Culture, on the site near the four kindergartens – where Vlyublennyh boulevard is now, and on Dzerzhinsky square, today’s Teatralnaya. All three of these city locations hosted the tree – often simultaneously. Serious disputes would flare up in Norilsk social networks about where, in the memory of old-timers, there were New Year’s towns in their childhood. They say, I remember well that in the 1970s the Christmas tree was on Leninsky prospekt, and therefore there was none on Metallurgov square back then. But the nuance is that in Soviet times, two or even three city New Year trees were installed at once. For example, the New Year’s town near the four kindergartens was built by employees of the housing and utilities department, and on Metallurgov square – in the same year – it was organized by the Norilsk combine’s department of subsidiary enterprises.
Artists, decorators and snow sculptors competed in the beauty and originality of the sites. Thus, not only New Year trees with Father Frosts appeared, but also elephants with dragons, fortresses with towers, and rockets with robots. The imagination was limited only by the size of the sites. In this regard, at first, Teatralnaya square won, and from the early 1970s – Metallurgov square: in addition to the main New Year’s symbol – a 15- or even 20-meter Christmas tree, there was enough space for snow figures, slides, labyrinths, and sometimes even an ice rink. Fortunately, snow – the main material for building towns – was always in abundance in Norilsk.
Several generations of Norilsk residents, remembering the New Year, talk specifically about the Christmas tree on Metallurgov square. This is not surprising, because it ‘lived’ there longer than anywhere else in Norilsk history, over 30 years, and experienced many adventures. In 2004, due to an unsuccessfully launched firecracker, the New Year’s beauty even burned down halfway – two days before the holiday! The burnt-out tree was heroically restored using parts of old trees. A real record was set – everything was done in 22 hours, in time for the holiday!
In 2005, the New Year’s town was built on Metallurgov square for the last time, and then construction of the Arena sports and entertainment complex began there. The city’s residents celebrated the New Year 2007 at the Zapolyarnik stadium. That year was remembered by Norilsk residents for its skating rink and a festive salute of one hundred fireworks, which lasted 22 minutes. But the nomadic tree did not stay there long either: the following year, due to the reconstruction of the stadium, it moved to Komsomolskaya street – it stood between the court building and the trade house, and then, in December 2008, it moved to Teatralnaya square. On the eve of 2018, the main festive site was set up in the new park near lake Dolgoye. And now the city tree has returned to Teatralnaya square.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Olga Zaderyaka, Norilsk residents and Nornickel’s Polar Division archives
