According to the initial project, the complex consisted of eight buildings: surgical, administrative, obstetric, tuberculosis, children’s somatic, therapeutic, economic and infectious.
The designers then even took into account the wind rose and the relief. The infectious disease building, for example, was placed so that the prevailing south wind would not fan the infection, and the lowering of the soil excluded the penetration of sewage into the ground water.
Construction began in 1956. At the same time – from January 1, 1957 – the sanitary department of the Norilsk combine, which had been responsible for all medicine in Norilsk for 20 years, ceased existing. The city’s hospitals and polyclinics were transferred to the system of the Health Ministry.
This transition, together with the funding growth and the commissioning of the hospital campus first buildings, adapted specifically for medicine and perfectly equipped for that time, significantly improved medical care in Norilsk. Compared to the barracks from which doctors and patients moved, those specialized new buildings were luxurious.
In the summer of 1957, at 19 Kirov street, the first of the buildings was commissioned – a therapeutic one.
In 1959, three more objects were ready: children’s, administrative and infectious diseases ones. In April 1961, the builders handed over the surgical building.
The last building of this specialized campus – the maternity hospital – was built only ten years later, at the end of 1967. Ten years later, the builders connected the hospital buildings by transitional galleries. Only the tuberculosis department was not implemented – it was taken to the outskirts of the city. In its place, in 1983, a new gynecological building was built.
In the last issue of the History spot photo project, we talked about those who came to Norilsk on Komsomol vouchers: in the mid-50s, the main Norilsk residents were young builders from Moscow and Leningrad.
Text: Svetlana Samohina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive