#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. They had to pitch the first tents, start building the first barracks, roll out a snowy airfield for the An-2 aircraft.
When the spring ‘ate’ that first runway, building materials were dropped from the air, ‘bombarding’ the bare shores with them. So, from scratch, from the first peg, they began to settle in Hantaika.
In the same 1963, the newborn village received its name. But it did not immediately become Snezhnogorsk. There were other variants as well. You can read about them in the very first book about the village by journalist Boris Ivanov “Hello, Hantaika!”:
“…Shortly after the first ships arrival, a radiogram came from Norilsk to one of the radio communication sessions: “Gather people, discuss the village name”. The meeting was held right among the tents. There was no presidium. It was necessary to smoke diligently in order to somehow scare away the midge that was not invited to the meeting. There was only one task: we’ve been born, what will we be called? And it rained down:
– Polar Star!
– The village named after S. Ya. Zhuk!
– Hantaisk!
– The village named after Academician Vedeneyev!
– Ilyich’s Iskra!
– Snezhgorod!”
This is a literary version of the village name, but indeed, judging by the first documents, at first they wanted to name the village Snezhgorod, not Snezhnogorsk.
By the end of the first navigation, there were already about 500 people at Hantaika. Snezhnogorsk received the official status of an urban settlement only at the end of 1964, and since that time its chronology has been conducted.
In the History Spot photo project previous publication, we told that in the early years alcohol was prohibited at the Ust-Hantaiskaya hydroelectric power station construction and hydro-constructors were not allowed to start families.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive
