#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. June 13, 1929 is considered the founding day of the Igarka setlement. On that day, a hundred men left the steamer Turuhanets on the shore of the Igarskaya channel to build the port for timber export. Previously, there was a camp of Staraya Igarka (Old Igarka) at that place.
In 1930, the management of the Tsvetmetzoloto (the state association for the extraction of non-ferrous metals, gold and platinum) central office, to which the Norilsk industrial office was subordinated, discussed two options for processing Norilsk ores: “building a plant at the deposit or in the village of Igarka on the Yenisey river banks”.
Igarka, a port where ships were loaded with export timber, was also an important transport hub for Norilsk. They even considered the option of connecting two polar settlements by rail.
In the 1940s, the Norilsk combine’s own shipyard was located in Igarka. They built boats, barges. Near Igarka there was also a place for the planned wintering of the Norilsk combine’s ships, and its airport is still a reserve for Norilsk.
On the construction of the Polar railway line – the Stalinist construction site No. 501-503, which was planned to reach Norilsk – Igarka was supposed to become a junction station.
Now the main enterprises of Igarka are the seaport, the airport, and the power industry complex. The Ust-Hantayskaya hydroelectric power station is located 80 kilometers from Igarka, and the Kureyskaya hydroelectric power station is 90 kilometers away. The developed Vankor oil and gas field is located 130 kilometers away. The population of Igarka today is less than five thousand people.
In the last issue of the History Spot photo project, we told that the first Norilsk lawns were planted in the mid-1940s in the center of Sevastopolskaya street.
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Text: Svetlana Samohina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive
