#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. In the same year, the Norilsk combine was transferred from the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Metallurgical Industry Ministry. At the same time, the vast majority of Norilsk residents were prisoners. And yet every innovation made Norilsk a little more of a city and a little less of a camp.
In total, 82 thousand people lived in Norilsk at that time, 2493 children were born in the maternity hospital in 1953.
By the way, in the same year, the Norilsk maternity hospital was expanded by 150 beds. It was located in a building on the South Line, 11 (now – 50 Years of October street) where the maternity hospital was located until 1968, until it moved to Bohdan Hmelnitsky street. And this is another event of 1953 – the construction of the hospital campus began, though the first buildings – therapeutic, children’s and economic – were handed over only by the end of the 1950s.
With the acquisition of a new status, Norilsk got the attributes attached to it. For example, on September 26–27, the first city party conference was held, and on October 18, the first elections to the city council of deputies took place.
In 1953, the authorities of the new city received a new building. Instead of a small one on Gornaya street, where the council was located with several other offices such as a registry office and a military registry office, house No. 7 on Sevastopolskaya street was replanned for the executive committee of the new city council.
It was the first administrative building in Norilsk, where all the city authorities were concentrated. And later the editorial office of the new city newspaper Zapolyarnaya Pravda was located in the right wing, the first issue of which was also published in 1953.
The new buildings of 1953 were Stalin type houses at 15, 17 and 19 Pionerskaya (now Bohdan Hmelnitsky street), as well as Komsomolskaya street, 14.
Back in 1953, school No. 6 accepted the first students, and the front building of the station got the first passengers.
In the same year, railroad workers celebrated another important event – a wide gauge railway from Dudinka to Norilsk was put into operation.
In the History Spot photo project previous publications, we told about Komsomolskaya square which was also a market place in the 1960s.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive