#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. They worked on the combine construction and wrote “under the mattress”: Lev Gumilyov – the son of Anna Ahmatova and Nikolay Gumilyov, Kalmyk poet David Kugultinov, “literary father” of Captain Vrungel Andrey Nekrasov, literary critic and one of the first members of the USSR Writers Union Ivan Makariev, journalist and the Palestine Communist Party founder Joseph Berger, a famous science fiction writer Sergey Snegov. The doctor at the camp hospital was Abram Agranovsky, a journalist from the Pravda newspaper. During the Stalinist railway construction, Robert Shtilmark came up with his Heir from Calcutta. In Norilsk in the 1940s and 1950s, it was time to open a literary association.
Snegov and Gumilyov were friends in Norilsk and even wrote together a historical cartoon that was very colorful in style. This is how Sergey Snegov himself later recalled it.
“We were several friends in the camp, as usual, our own circle, a group of comrades. Who was in this circle? Lev Gumilyov, the son of Anna Ahmatova and Nikolay Gumilyov, great Russian poets, is himself a brilliant poet who abandoned the literary field in favor of science. “Gumilyov alone is more than enough in Russian literature”, he said, laughing. Now Lev Nikolaevich is twice a doctor: historical and geographical sciences, a world-famous scientist.
Evgeny Reyhman, a sweet, silent, intelligent bridge engineer. In his free time from building bridges, he wrote and published a book for the soul about the painting of the Versailles palace halls and the influence of the Italian Renaissance on them…
And my close friend Victor Krasovsky. Professor, Doctor of Economic Sciences… He was Buharin’s favorite and, of course, was imprisoned for this reason. After Norilsk, he was a consultant to Alexey Kosygin for seventeen years…
Writers also lived in the Arctic. Aleksey Garry lived, worked hard and created in Norilsk. In his youth he was Kotovsky’s adjutant and wrote a book about him. Returning to freedom after imprisonment, he published a story about Norilsk – Bunny, which grew into a play. He died early…
Lev Gumilyov and I compiled a Dictionary of the Most Commonly Used Criminal Words and Expressions and even wrote a scientific-historical work in this “foreign language”. It was called The Story of the Netherlands separating from Spain”.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we told how a Norilsk pilot helped launch the first thermal power plant.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive
