#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. In 1988, the construction of the microdistrict began, which was called Norilsk-State Farm in the documents. That year, the Zapolyarnaya Pravda local newspaper turned to readers: “Give a name to the street!” The Norilsk people suggested the names Sovhoznaya, Teplichnaya, 1st Theater, or in the spirit of the time – Perspective, Perestroika, Democracy, Dawn, Our Hopes, Gorbachev.
Other readers asked to perpetuate the names of singer Vladimir Vysotsky, writer Elizaveta Drabkina, combine director Boris Kolesnikov, explorer Fyodor (Friedrich) Schmidt, cosmonaut Yury Gagarin, scout Sorge, polar explorer Ushakov.
The street was named Veterans, and not only in honor of war and labor veterans, but also in honor of internationalist soldiers – the Norilsk people fought in Afghanistan at that time.
From 1988 to 1991, five nine-story buildings, a school, a kindergarten and a fire station were built on Veterans street. The fire station No. 35 moved into it, which had previously been housed in the old fire department building at 14 Kirova street. By the end of the 1980s, the old fire station building was about breaking down, and in 1989 a new depot for ten cars began to be built on Veterans street.
A residential nine-story building was built nearby for the firefighters’ families, with a fire inspection on the ground floor. The buildings are connected by a passage to a residential building, but now mostly ordinary citizens live there. And the old, memorable to the Norilsk people “firehouse with a watchtower” was demolished, in its place stands the Church of All Who Sorrow Joy.
Today Veterans street on the southwestern outskirts of Norilsk is one of the smallest streets in the Central district of the city.
In the History Spot photo project previous publication, we told that Andrey Govorov, a production worker, was the last secretary of the Norilsk city CPSU committee. In 1991, he ordered to remove all posters with party symbols in the city in one night.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive
