#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Thus, Yugoslavskaya, Ozernaya, Valkovskaya and Brusnichnaya streets appeared on the northern city’s map. Those names were hastily given: the postal numbering of the buildings was necessary.
The new district housing office’s head asked the Norilsk new administration deputy head, architect Shikhov, to name Oganer streets.
Arcticheskaya (Arctic), Pyasinskaya (after Pyasino lake), Vesennaya (Spring), Snezhnaya (Snowy) and even Kommunalnaya (Communal) were proposed as names. Finally, the beautiful names Ozernaya and Brusnichnaya, the local toponym – Valkovskaya (after the Valyok river) and thanksgiving – Yugoslavskaya, in honor of the Oganer hospital builders.
Valkovskaya street became a continuation of the highway of the same name connecting Norilsk with Talnah. There was only a school and a grocery store on it.
On the street with the most beautiful name – Brusnichnaya – there is not a single residential building, only pile fields and unfinished boxes that were demolished last winter. Yugoslavskaya street, named after the foreign builders of the hospital, outlived Yugoslavia itself.
An interesting toponymic anecdote is told by experts about Ozernaya street. After the unification of Big Norilsk, two Ozernaya streets were formed at once: in the Old Town and in Oganer. This did not create problems, since there were no residential buildings left on the first Ozernaya one. But they say that some townspeople took permission to build a garage in the Old Town but built it in Oganer. To avoid such incidents, in 2007 the first Ozernaya street was renamed Old Ozernaya street.
In the last issue of the History Spot photo project we told about one of the Norilsk brands – the children’s ensemble School Years.
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Text: Svetlana Samohina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive