KRASNOYARSK, July 13. /TASS /. The city of Norilsk in the north of Russia’s Krasnoyarsk Region will celebrate on Saturday, July 14, the 65th jubilee by a costume parade, concerts and children’s performances. Administration of the city, which lies north of the Polar Circle, told TASS about the planned celebration.
Parade and popular stars
First events began on Friday. The celebration’s guests saw a ceremony of cancelling a postal stamp, issued for the jubilee. In downtown Norilsk, guests attended a food fair to try and buy traditional food of the Far North’s peoples. Main events are scheduled for Saturday.
"On Saturday, the costume parade, uniting more than 3,500 people, will walk along the central street," the city administration said. "The parade’s participants are state employees, Nornickel’s staff, representatives of private businesses, public, ethnic-cultural organizations, and anyone willing to attend."
The participants will form columns, each of them representing a certain historical period. They will wear costumes of the 50s, 60s, and following decades in the city’s history.
Russian popular singers, children’s and circus performances will continue the celebration.
Traditionally, the city’s birthday is celebrated on the professional Day of Metallurgists, as the city had developed around metallurgy plants. On Friday, Nornickel will present awards to outstanding professionals at its Polar Branch.
The city’s history
Norilsk’s history is connected with development of the metallurgical sector. In 1920, an expedition, led by geologist Nikolai Urvantsev, came to Taimyr to study local deposits of copper-nickel ores. In 1921, during the second expedition, Urvantsev’s group built the first wooden house there. In 1939, Norilsk grew into workers’ settlement, and a metallurgical plant began working in that year. In 1953, Norilsk was granted the status of a city.
Archeologists, however, say the first settlement appeared earlier than in 1921. In 2016, artefacts, found during digging there, proved a settlement must have been in that area in the XIX century already.
A few days earlier, head of the Archaeology Projection and Research Union Danil Lysenko told the local audience about the studies’ results.
"From the scientific point of view, the settlement of Norilsk and the modern city are one and the same city, and here we can speak about at least the XVIII century," the scientist said.
Norilsk’s future
The polar city’s future is connected with the Arctic’s development, experts say.
"In the Russian Federation’s policy, Norilsk is a milestone in development of the Krasnoyarsk Region’s Arctic. This refers not only to nickel and other metals, but also to coal, oil, and gas. Besides, in future, Norilsk will be a center for professional training. Here, at the Norilsk Industrial Institute will be a center for training engineers for all sectors, related to development of the Arctic zone," speaker of the Krasnoyarsk Region’s legislation Dmitry Sviridov told reporters.
Nornickel’s Vice President Vladislav Gasumyanov stressed the fiber-optic communication line and the high-speed Internet in the city had offered new living standards to the locals.
"It is the second wind for the Southern cluster, from where Norilsk has grown," he said. "It is a part of the Yenisei Siberia big investment program (a project on development of Central Siberian districts, which the Yenisei River crosses - TASS), which will attract big investments and will offer new jobs."
About the city
Norilsk is 300 km north of the Polar Circle; 2,400 km from the North Pole. The distance to the Region’s capital, Krasnoyarsk, is 1,500 km. Norilsk is among the world’s five northernmost cities with the population over 100,000 (Norilsk’s population is 170,000). The other northernmost cities are Russia’s Murmansk, Norway’s Hammerfest, Anchorage in Alaska and the capital of Finland’s Lapand - Rovaniemi.