#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Tungbass – by analogy with Kuzbass or Donbass – meant the Tunguska basin.
From the Workdays book, published in Norilsk in 1944:
“Arctic geologists are discovering new treasures in the Far North. Norilsk becomes a stronghold of its development, joins the great industrialization of the North. In the spring of 1943, fifteen geological detachments were equipped and sent to the field by the Norilsk сombine.
Now some of the geologists have returned from exploration areas to Norilsk. Preliminary data are striking by their colossal volumes. Hundreds of millions of tons of graphite, refractory clays, quartz sands – innumerable, untouched wealth, lurk in the tundra.
Discovered and partially explored in the lower reaches of the Pyasina river, near lake Taimyr, on the Taimyr river and in the Yenisey bay, coal reserves amount to hundreds of millions of tons. Sulphide ores were found near lake Taimyr, iron and salt near the Hantayka river. Soil geology tells scouts about the presence of tin, tungsten, gold and rare metals”.
The war would end, and the Tungbass territory, many times larger than the lands of several European states, would be covered with a dense network of automobile, air and water roads, the designers were sure at that time.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we told about what the regional press had written about Norilsk almost a century ago.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive
