Norilsk

I was born in the city of Norilsk in the middle of the XX century. Business was in the middle of September. As mother told, there was a dry warm sunny weather, and in a week when we were discharged from maternity hospital, piled snow knee-deep. Yes, Norilsk to you it not Sochi, and even not Siberia. It is Far North, the 69th parallel. Behind the Polar circle.

The absolute minimum of temperature is registered here in February, 1967 — minus 64 degrees Celsius. But Far North not only by hard frosts and furious «black» snowstorm, but also shortage of oxygen in the atmosphere, magnetic storms and a lack of a sunlight in winter time is dangerous. At polar night the period when the Sun more than days don’t appear over the horizon is called. In Norilsk it proceeds 45 days. When the sun appears in the middle of for January about 3 of minute, all very much rejoice. And natives celebrate a festival of the sun — «хейро».

Separately I want to tell about the Polar lights, this very beautiful show. Happens seldom. I remember once appeared directly over the city and it is very low. On snow multi-colored patches of light flashed. And we boys ran behind them, trying to catch. It was very cheerful…

About Norilsk it is mountain — iron and steel works, it is much written, it is much removed movies. He is a leader of nonferrous metallurgy in Russia and around the world.

I as the radical resident of Norilsk, will tell about history of his formation, having collected materials from various sources: from books, the museums and first of all from stories of eyewitnesses — people who built combine…

At the beginning of the last century the successful merchant Alexander Kipryanovich Sotnikov melted the first 200 poods of copper. To bake he constructed of a stone, the become useless church in the item Dudinka. The furnace too collapsed, without having sustained artful influence of permafrost, but as they say precedent was received. Revolution and Civil war, didn’t allow this talented person to realize the plans. About it there was a memory — the rivulet on the suburb of Norilsk — the Merchant is called

In 1919 expedition led by N. N. Urvantsev was organized to Taimyr. The admiral A. Kolchak financed it. He wasn’t interested during that time copper and nickel. The task urgently to find coalfields was set. Coal was necessary for construction of Ust — Port on Yenisei and for advance of troops of the Entente through the Northern Sea Route to the Central Siberia. Urvantsev excellent coped with the task — coal was found. In 1920 White troops suffered defeat, A. Kolchak shot, and N. Urvantsev continued the research on Taimyr already under a red flag. In 1922 expedition finished the work. Collected materials confirmed industrial reserves of copper and nickel in a Norilsk promregion.