#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. On that day, the Ministry of Gas Industry of the USSR issued an order on measures to prepare for the construction of the Messoyaha-Norilsk gas pipeline and the development of gas fields in the Ust-Yenisey depression. The same order created the management of Zapolyaryegaz, the predecessor of Norilskgazprom. It was supposed to act as a customer for the construction of the northernmost gas pipeline in the world.
In August, the first builders landed on the gas pipeline route, in July, the first barges with building materials arrived, and in October, the first piles were driven. On November 19, the USSR Ministry of Non-Ferrous Metallurgy approved the project assignment for the Norilsk combine gasification.
In the same 1968, a new settlement appeared on the Bolshaya Heta river’s banks, which became the first point of the future gas pipeline. Nenets reindeer herders called this place Sour cape (Kisly cape). When the village grew, it was given a name in the spirit of socialist realism – Torch (Fackel). Later it became Tuhard, translated from the Nenets “tu” – “fire”, “harad” – “house, village”.
Another important event for Norilsk took place in 1968: the visit of the Soviet prime minister – chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers – Alexey Kosygin, the first government guest of this level in our city. At that time, oil and gas fields were discovered in Western Siberia, it was necessary to increase the production of copper and nickel many times over for the production of pipes for gas pipelines, and Kosygin personally visited the regions where these metals were produced.
He did not stay in Norilsk for long, from January 7 to 9, but he managed to delve into the main problems and left important orders: from the gas pipeline construction to the housing design and the overalls development for the Far North.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we told that 1963 became the year of the Norilsk transport sector development.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive
