Norilsk - History

History

Norilsk was founded by the end of the 1920s; however, the official date of founding is traditionally set to 1935, when Norilsk was expanded as a settlement for the Norilsk mining-metallurgic complex and became the center of the Norillag system of GULAG labor camps. It was granted the urban-type settlement status in 1939 and town status in 1953.

Norilsk, located between the West Siberian Plain and Central Siberian Plateau at the foot of the 1,700-meter (5,600 ft) high Putoran Mountains, is situated on some of the largest nickel deposits on Earth. Consequently, mining and smelting ore are the major industries. Norilsk is the center of a region where nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum, palladium, and coal are mined. Mineral deposits in the Siberian Craton had been known for two centuries before Norilsk was founded, but mining began only in 1939, when the buried portions of the Norilsk-Talnakh intrusions were found beneath mountainous terrain.

Talnakh is the major mine/enrichment site now from where an enriched ore emulsion is pumped to Norilsk metallurgy plants.

To support the new city a railway to the port of Dudinka on the Yenisei River was established, first as a narrow-gauge line (winter 1935–36), later as Russian Standard gauge (1520 mm) line (in the early 1940s). From the port of Dudinka enriched nickel and copper are transported to Murmansk by sea then to the Monchegorsk enrichment and smelting plant on the Kola Peninsula, while more precious content goes up the river to Krasnoyarsk. This transportation only takes place during the summer: Dudinka port is closed and dismantled during spring's ice barrier floods of up to 20 meters (66 ft) in late May (a typical spring occurrence on all Siberian rivers).

In the early 1950s, another railway was under construction from the European coal city Vorkuta via the Salekhard/Ob River, and Norilsk even got a spacious passenger railway station built in the expectation of direct train service to Moscow, but construction stopped there after Stalin died.

According to the archives of Norillag, 16,806 prisoners died in Norilsk under the conditions of forced labor, starvation, and intense cold throughout the existence of the camp (1935–1956). Fatalities were especially high during the war years of 1942–1944 when food supplies were particularly scarce. The prisoners organised a nonviolent revolt (Norilsk uprising) in 1953. Unknown but significant numbers of prisoners continued to serve and die in the mines until around 1979. Norilsk-Talknakh continues to be a dangerous mine to work in: According to the mining company, there were 2.4 accidents per thousand workers in 2005.

In 2001, Norilsk was decreed a closed city for foreigners (except citizens of Belarus). This is likely because of the sensitive nature of the nickel-platinum-palladium-copper mining, and the ICBM missile silos nestled in the Putoran Mountains nearby.

The mosque of Norilsk, belonging to the local Tatar community, is considered to be the northernmost Muslim prayer house in the world.