#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Norilsk was built in the 20th century from local building materials. In February 1945, in the structure of the Norilsk combine and the forced labor camp, the management of local building materials enterprises was organized. It was the tenth year of the combine and the city construction. By that time, brick-block, gypsum-anhydrite and cement plants, an office of nonmetallic minerals and a plant for building parts were already functioning. Mostly the prisoners of the Norillag worked at those semi-handicraft enterprises. All the first heads of the department came from the repressed, starting with Mikhail Ioffe and ending with Abram Weishenker, who also initiated the construction of tourist centers in the NID.
The central laboratory of building materials, created in February 1956, at the end of the camp history of Norilsk, played an important role in the formation and development of the northern city’s construction industry. 65 years ago, all technologies were first developed in a laboratory way.
The raw material base of the Norilsk industrial region made it possible to produce practically all construction materials on site, and until the end of the last century, the local construction industry developed very actively. The combine was provided with building materials almost in full until a decline in production volumes began at the giant of domestic metallurgy. In the late 1990s, the production of ceramic tiles, lightweight aggregates, foam concrete, ceramics and bricks was discontinued.
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Text: Varvara Sosnovskaya, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive