Of course, children on the northern land were born even before 1946. For example, one of the first Norilsk mothers was the wife of the geologist Alexander Vorontsov, Sofya. In 1932, when Norilsk was not even a village yet, she gave birth to a daughter, Irina, who is considered the first native Norilsk woman.
The first obstetrician-gynecologist, Klavdia Samoilova, arrived in Norilsk in 1939. She insisted on giving a separate building to the women in childbirth; before that, pregnant women lied in a common barrack, often together with infectious patients. At first there was a small temporary house on the Zero Point, then the mothers were given 16 beds in the hotel building converted into a hospital, but that was not a full-fledged maternity hospital.
On March 8, 1945, the head combine hospital physician, Rodionov, wrote a report to the combine’s chief Panyukov: the hospital building promised by May 1 had not even been laid. And it helped: a year later, the first real maternity hospital with 60 beds opened. It was housed in a two-storey building at 11 Yuzhnaya line (later – 60 Let Octyabrya street) and worked there for the next 22 years. Initially, it shared the building with a polyclinic, but later it expanded more and more, so in 1952 the neighboring building at 2 Monchegorskaya street was added to it.
And 50 years ago – in February 1968 – the maternity hospital moved to a building in a hospital area. That is, all the Norilsk people who were born in our city after this date were born there. The exception is the townspeople of 1980-1981 years of birth. In those years the hospital was undergoing sanitation (decontamination), and the mothers were temporarily allocated two new school buildings.
Since October 20, 2018, the Norilsk perinatal center has been operating. In the former maternity hospital, only an urgent maternity service is now working, the main facilities are redirected to the new medical site.
Read other materials of our photo project in the History spot section.
Text: Svetlana Samokhina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive
