#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. In the background, you can see the city blocks under construction, while in the foreground there are the recently built structures of the Norilsk state farm, featuring wide doorways designed for livestock. Children from the first houses loved to run into the state farm’s territory to see the animals and treat themselves to briquettes of sunflower cake and chunks of citric acid, which were part of the cows’ diet.
We’ve previously talked about the first houses built in the construction project, known at the time as Gorstroi, in our History Spot publications. Today, we’ll focus on the livestock farm that was situated nearby.
In 1938, Avraamy Zavenyagin ordered the establishment of a fully-fledged gardening and livestock state farm in Norilsk, which included two farms – one in Norilsk and another in Valyok. At the same time, construction was underway for the first real cow barns, pigsties, and greenhouses. The location for these facilities was chosen by the state farm director, Nikolay Ievsky: the farm and its administrative center were placed in what is now the city, specifically where the future Pushkin square and the Zapolyarnik stadium would be built. Back then, though, it was just barren tundra.
Here’s how the first workers of the state farm remembered it: “Where the old bathhouse stood, there was once a spring with clean, remarkably tasty water. In 1938, a dugout for 18 people was built by the spring for the first builders of the Norilsk state farm… Building materials were readily available – the forest was right next to the city. They cut the cow barn from local larch, warming the ground with fires beforehand. The logs were laid carefully to ensure the animals wouldn’t suffer from wind in the winter. However, the cows took a long time to acclimatize and often fell ill. There was also a shortage of feed. Hay wasn’t brought in; it was mowed in the tundra. If the summer’s supply ran low, they would even mow in winter, shoveling through two meters of snow. When the cows heard the creaking of the cart bringing hay and branches from the tundra, they would start to bellow…”
By 1945, to feed the polar cows, hay was harvested in the southern state farms of the Norilsk combine, such as Taezhny, Shushensky, and Kureika. In Norilsk itself, they were preparing silage from tundra grasses, collecting branch feed, and conducting winter harvesting of sedge. There were even agricultural experiments: by crossbreeding turnips with cabbage, they developed frost-resistant fodder root vegetables and cultivated cold-resistant clover. Meanwhile, the Norilsk herd grew to 350 cows, breeding well and producing milk consistently. The names of the record-breaking cows have been preserved to this day: the cows Shalunya and Geisha produced over 25 liters of milk per day, while the leader, Shumovka, yielded up to 36!
The livestock farm remained adjacent to the developing Norilsk until the early 1950s. In 1952, the city’s residents helped relocate the farms out of town to the settlement of Semerka during community work days, clearing space for the future Pushkin square, which began to be laid out that same year. Interestingly, it was said that this is why northern shrubs thrived so well in the square – the soil there was well-fertilized.
In the previous History Spot’s publication, we discussed the wooden bus pavilion in Valyok.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Zapolyarny branch and Norilsk residents’ archives.
