#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. When planning the city, greening was supposed to be not only on dividing lawns, but also inside the blocks, between houses and along driveways and passages.
The first lawns were laid out in the mid-1940s in the center of Sevastopolskaya street. It all started with grasses – 50 kilograms of oat seeds were sown there, and gradually they moved on to local shrubs. In the projects, “green improvement” was not only a special item, but was also described in detail, right down to instructions for soil treatment.
The drawings allotted their place to lawns, flower beds, willow hedges, free-standing trees, and even ‘natural turfing’ – this term denoted the delivery of turf from the tundra. Thus, in theory, up to 80 percent of all courtyards were supposed to be green. In reality, of course, everything turned out differently. In winter, flower beds interfered with snow removal, and bushes turned into huge snowdrifts. As a result, landscaping plans focused on dividing lawns and a few parks.
Since the early 1950s, landscaping of the dividing strips of what was then Stalinsky prospect began. In 1957, the entire Research Institute of Agriculture of the Far North moved to Norilsk from Leningrad. The institute opened a whole direction for studying the theory and practice of polar landscaping. 150 varieties of perennial flowers were grown in greenhouses, and a city nursery was established on five hectares to provide planting material. At the same time, the first Hungarian watering machines appeared in the city.
Already in 1960, a list of 74 objects was included in the landscaping plan. It included both large squares of Leninsky prospect and small streets of the new and old city, areas in front of schools, Komsomolsky park and Pushkin square, as well as the territory of the enrichment plant, TPP-1, cobalt and nickel plants. Moreover, workers of these enterprises were supposed to participate in the landscaping, and shirking managers were told off in the city newspaper. The process of landscaping was continuous: in winter, work was carried out in greenhouses and hothouses, in spring – lawns and flowerbeds were plowed by horses, in autumn – trees and shrubs were transplanted.
According to experts, experiments with evergreen, blue and other fir trees brought from mainland nurseries are not successful. Preference should be given to shrubs, and local, tundra ones. Tree-like willow shrubs and alders take root best here – they grow large and have a beautiful appearance. Another successful experiment showed that ordinary grass lawns can be pleasant to the eye.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we told you what could have been built in Norilsk on the site of the city administration building.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: archives of Norilsk residents and the Polar Division of Norilsk Nickel, Denis Kozhevnikov
