#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Bogdan Hmelnitsky street was called Pionerskaya until 1954. It was one of the first – in half with Sevastopolskaya – streets of Gorstroy, the modern part of Norilsk. This area has always been valued and considered prestigious. Although it did not pretend to be as luxurious as Leninsky prospect or as culturally advanced as Sevastopolskaya street, the houses of its historical half were distinguished by their muted elegance. As on Leninsky prospect, until the end of the 1960s, streetlights there stood on the sidewalks.
In the language of city planners, the area depicted in this picture was called quarters No. 12 (between B. Hmelnitsky st. and Leninsky pr.) and No. 21 (between B. Hmelnitsky st. and Kirov st.). Both quarters are built up with five- and four-story Stalin-era buildings. Quarter 21 is interesting because here the builders were faced with the need to ‘lean’ not on a rock, but on permafrost soils. All the first Stalin-era buildings constructed before 1950 were erected on a rock base, although this often required deepening the foundations by 10–15 meters, and in difficult cases, even 20 meters. In other words, the houses went more deep than high.
The houses at the beginning of the street have their own architectural style: arches, complex roof shapes, interesting brick gables. The interior layout was often the same in terms of the arrangement of rooms, but the apartments differed in terms of the volumetric solution. Although they were originally communal apartments, the rooms in them are spacious, with high ceilings and unusual elements such as round windows in the kitchens.
It is interesting that in the 1980s, houses No. 1, 11 and 21 on Bohdan Hmelnitsky were considered architectural monuments of regional significance. They were included in this list as elements of the historical and architectural zone of Leninsky Prospekt. But at present, they have lost their protected status.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we talked about the New Year traditions in Norilsk.
Follow us on Telegram, VKontakte.
Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Norilsk residents and Nornikel’s Polar Division’s archives
