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Exhibition devoted to Norilsk’s jubilee opens in St. Petersburg

Norilsk celebrated the 65th birthday last weekend

ST. PETERSBURG, July 17. /TASS/. The Presidential Library in St. Petersburg opens on Tuesday a photo exhibition - Northern Flowers - devoted to Norilsk’s 65th anniversary, the Library’s press service said.

"The exposition is organized jointly with the Nornickel Company and is devoted to the 65th anniversary of Norilsk, a northernmost city with the population of more than 100,000," the press service said. "On the plasma panels along the multimedia gallery visitors will see Norilsk from an unexpected angle: not the technical power of a global leader in mining and metallurgy, but the fragile and tender nature of that severe northern area, the life of people there."

Norilsk celebrated the 65th birthday last weekend. The local people organized a costume parade, where every column demonstrated an image of the city’s certain historic period.

Norilsk is 300km north of the Polar Circle and 2,400 km from the North Pole. It is among the world’s five northernmost cities with the population over 100,000. The name comes from the word "norilo" - a pole, which the northern people use in fishing.

The area was mentioned for the first time in written reports by expeditions, which were searching for a sea route along Siberia’s northern shores in the XVIII century. The first expedition to explore Norilsk’s deposits was in 1920. In 1939, it was a workers’ settlement, and from 1953 it is a city.