#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The decree, issued under the Top Secret heading, stated that the combine with a design capacity of ten thousand tons of nickel per year should be launched in 1938. The construction was recognized as a shock one and transferred from the jurisdiction of the main department of the Northern Sea Route to the Main Directorate of Camps of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD), obliging it to organize a special camp for this purpose.
The combine was built as quickly as possible. This date became the main Norilsk reference point – the polar industrial giant official date of birth. Although construction near the Norilsk mountains had been carried out before the signing of this document.
June 23 was celebrated as the main city holiday – processions, sports parades, dance evenings. Accordingly, in those years, they tried to hand over significant city facilities precisely by mid-June.
City day shifted to July in the 1960s, after the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium established a new holiday – Metallurgist’s day. And given that the status of the city of Norilsk in 1953 was assigned in mid-July, over time, all these three occasions merged into one holiday.
Now the most important city celebrations take place on the third weekend of July. However, the combine’s documented birthday falls on June 23rd.
In the last issue of the History Spot photo project, we told about the fact that modern Norilsk had begun with the construction of several two-story buildings.
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Text: Svetlana Samohina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive
