#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The bears adorned the Trud stadium, Komsomol park, and even – for a short time – Gvardeiskaya square.
In our time, this tradition has continued. Today in the Big Norilsk you can meet at least four bears – both polar and brown.
In addition to two Aikas – on Metallurgists square and in front of the new sports hall – one more polar bear can be seen at the entrance to Talnah. And the brown bear is sitting in the industrial area – in front of the building at Nansen, 5b.
One of the most popular city sculptures in Norilsk is a life-sized polar deer on Leninsky prospekt.
It appeared first as part of the Parallel World project in June 2006. Deer antlers are natural, so the vandals tore them off three times.
In June 2007, a sculpture of a walrus, who was nicknamed Andryusha, was placed near the building of the swimming pool. In order not to repeat mistakes, it was made anti-vandal. The authors of this figure, like the deer and the she-bear on Metallurgists square, are designer Alexander Sobolev and architect Irina Soboleva.
In 2013, a bronze sculpture of storks appeared near the maternity hospital. The author was the Moscow sculptor Andrey Orlov. As Irina Soboleva, the chief Norilsk architect, explained, in the center of the composition is a Möbius strip, symbolizing the infinity of a person’s life path. In the lower part, the tape forms a nest, which houses three chicks. And if you look at the composition from the side, the ribbon folds into two wedding rings. After the maternity hospital moved to the perinatal center in Oganer, the Storks were also transferred there.
In the last issue of the History Spot photo project we told about the Monchegorsk combine Severonickel, which was evacuated to Norilsk in 1941.
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Text: Svetlana Samohina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive