#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. In the Old City on lake Krasivoye, for example, there was a swimming station with paths and a makeshift diving tower. And nearby, on lake Rudnoye, there was a boat and rowing station.
But the largest was the water station with a yacht club (!) on the Norilka river in the Valyok village. In the early 1950s, the water station itself and the Taimyr summer restaurant were located there in wooden two-story houses with carved balusters and balconies.
Nearby was a wooden pier where boats moored. The Norilsk people willingly rented wooden rowing boats and swam without fear to the right bank of the Norilka river, where they could walk along the untrodden tundra.
In 1950, a fee was set for sailing on weekends:
to the opposite bank of the Norilka river and back – 3 rubles;
Valyok – water intake and back – 5 rubles;
Valyok – Cheres village and back – 15 rubles.
Passengers with cargo on non-self-propelled vessels (barges):
to the rest house on lake Lama – 35 rubles 10 kopecks;
to the end of lake Lama – 45 rubles 90 kopecks;
to cape Vhodnoy – 270 rubles.
In Valyok in those years there was a real recreation area with a stage, a wooden dance floor, a volleyball court, gazebos and benches.
On the opening day of the summer season, hundreds of Norilsk people came to Valyok to dance to the brass band and watch performances by the artists of the Trade Unions club and the Engineers’ House (DITR), which was the first real center of culture.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we talked about the peak of Norilsk construction in the 1980s.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive
