#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The calls, slogans and portraits placed on the twin towers and adjacent houses were clearly visible from afar, from the old town, and near the train station, which was located next to the square.
In the early 1960s, the huge letters Glory of the CPSU and the profiles of the communism ideologists Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin were placed on the pedestals of Octyabrskaya square. They were made luminous, so that they were clearly visible in the polar night.
The letters and portraits hung for a long time – until 1993. And then due to corrosion of metal structures – and the entire political system – they were quietly dismantled.
There were also longer slogans on Octyabrskaya square. In the 1960s, the roof of the house No. 1 on the Southern Line was decorated with the inscription “Norilsk people, fight for the city of communist labor, culture and comfortable life!”, and the neighboring building on Bogdan Hmelnitsky street, 1, – with the slogan “We will achieve the high title of the communist labor combine!”. In the 1970s, these appeals were replaced by the grotesque “Lenin is with us! Lenin is alive!”
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we told about why the monument to Lenin is standing with its back to Norilsk.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive