#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Back in the early 1970s, demographers predicted that 200 thousand people would live in Norilsk by the new millennium.
The demographers miscalculated – already in the mid-1980s, there were almost 300 thousand residents in the NPR. Even by the most modest estimates, it was clear that Norilsk would not have enough of the existing areas. They began to look for a new place for development or even for another satellite city.
There was an idea to build it behind Talnah, on the shore of the Harelah reservoir – but it was too far. They wanted to expand Kayerkan – but the Nadezhda metallurgical plant was already being born nearby. There were vacant areas around Norilsk itself – but with so-called sluggish permafrost. Then they remembered the site reserved for the construction of a new hospital, to the east of the city. Surveyors conducted reconnaissance, drilled – and found basalt foundation at shallow depths. It was decided to build a new city there.
The construction of Oganer began with communications: in 1984, the Norilskproekt institute prepared drawings of heating networks and power lines from TPP-1, branches from the water main in the Nalednaya river area, projects for treatment facilities and an electrical substation. These were the first objects of the new district construction: utility lines had to be completed before the start of houses construction. On January 19, 1985, Fundamentstroy drilled the first meters of the Oganer electrical substation site – GPP-65. In February, the first bulldozers arrived, the first peg was driven in at the site of the future treatment facilities. There was still bare tundra around, the main landmark was the tracks of the Caterpillar tracks. On March 1, specialists from the Stroymehanizatsiya trust, who were working on the treatment pit, nailed the first sign to a tree – Oganer.
In 1985, Norilsk reached the average housing provision for the country – 14.2 square meters per person. But at the same time, 28 thousand families had unsatisfactory housing conditions, of which 21 thousand lived in hotel-type houses. Hotel-type houses, which were once a salvation for young specialists, now became a trap, because this specialist started a family and began to live in 12 square meters with three or even four people. Five thousand families generally lived in communal apartments. “It is impossible to solve the housing problem at the expense of old sites”, the authorities claimed. Oganer was necessary, and it was built.
Housing construction in Oganer began in 1989: the first residential building’s foundation to be laid was the one on Ozernaya street, 46. Street names appeared literally on the eve of settlement. In 1992, when it was necessary to issue housing warrants to the first Oganer residents, the head of the Oganer housing office, Anatoly Deychuk, contacted the administration with an urgent question: postal numbering of houses and street names was needed, and the old city executive committee had not had time to resolve this issue. The Norilskbyt team in that letter also proposed their own versions of names: Ozernaya, Arkticheskaya, Pyasinskaya, Brusnichnaya. Backup options: Kommunalnaya, Norilskaya, Vesennaya, Snezhnaya. As a result, on April 3, 1992, four streets appeared in Oganer: Valkovskaya, Ozernaya, Yugoslavskaya and Brusnichnaya.
Valkovskaya street became an extension of the highway of the same name, connecting Norilsk with Talnah. Only school № 46 and a grocery store were built on it, which was later closed and demolished due to the deformation of the structures. On the street with the most beautiful name – Brusnichnaya – not a single residential building appeared, only pile fields and unfinished boxes. Yugoslavskaya, named after the foreign builders of the hospital, outlived Yugoslavia itself.
Experts tell an interesting legal and toponymic anecdote about Ozernaya street. After the unification of Big Norilsk, two Ozernayas were formed at once: in the Old town and in Oganer. This did not create any address problems, since there were no residential buildings left on the first Ozernaya street. But the most enterprising citizens took permission to build a garage in the Old town, but erected it in Oganer. To avoid such incidents, in 2007 the first Ozernaya street was renamed Old Ozernaya.
At the end of 1992, the central heating substation, utility networks and treatment facilities were put into operation in Oganer. In the last days of December, the fire department, the grocery store, school № 46, kindergarten № 38 and the building for the housing office, which at that time represented all the Oganer authorities at once, were finished. On December 30, the state commission accepted the first seven residential buildings. On February 20, 1993, a historic tea party took place: in the housing office, in a family atmosphere, the first new residents were ceremoniously handed the keys to their apartments, and the head of the housing office, Anatoly Deychuk, got a symbolic key to Oganer. On those days, the first 64 residents moved into their new apartments.
In the History Spot’s previous issue, we talked about Octyabrskaya street.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Olga Zaderyaka, Norilsk residents and Nornickel’s Polar Division’s archives
