#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. It is impossible to list what was built during that period. But Smolov paid special attention to the most difficult city problem – housing construction, landscaping, housing and communal services because Smolov started as a senior mechanic in the mechanized snow control workshop, since 1962 he was its boss, and in 1969 he headed the municipal services of the city.
He began his beautification program with a sanitation, a massive rat-baiting operation. Under him, instead of Khrushchev houses, they began to build improved block-of-flats, and in 1975 they built a road to the Alykel settlement.
Under Smolov, supermarkets opened in Norilsk, canteens became restaurants, the Service House appeared on Komsomolskaya street, and in general Norilsk occupied a leading position in the region in terms of the household services number provided to the population.
Under the leadership of Smolov, streets named after Norilsk residents appeared in our city: Anisimov, Mikhailichenko, Fedorovsky, Maslov, Laureates, Urvantsev, Veterans. Local patriotism was at a high level, and the words ‘Norilsk citizen’ really sounded proud.
In 1987, the Norilsk youth turned to Smolov with a request to turn Leninsky prospect into a pedestrian zone on weekends. He liked that idea very much, and since then we can walk along Leninsky prospect without cars on holidays. In general, for the Norilsk people, the ‘Smolov’s epoch’ was a golden one in many ways.
In one of the issues of the History Spot photo project, we told about the ‘Budargin’s era’.
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Text: Svetlana Samohina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive
