# Siberia from North to East. Part 1 : Norilsk.



## GM (Feb 29, 2004)

Maybe you remember my photo threads last year about my trip across Eurasia by train (if not, take a look at my signature ). 
I decided to come back this summer to Siberia for three weeks. I've just returned back home. 
This time, I didn't only travel by train, but also by boat and car to go from Norilsk to Vladivostok.

Here is the trip that I did in 2010 :










And here is the trip I've just come back from :









So, first step : Norilsk. 
Norilsk is an industrial city, located north of the arctic circle (thus we had 24 hours daylight). It has some 200,000 people and it's officially a forbidden city for foreigners. If you are not Russian, you need special authorizations to enter the city. Needless to say, it's not a very touristic place. Me, the other three tourists who accompanied me and our guide were probably the only international tourists in the city at the time we visited it (and maybe the sole international tourists of the whole year).
Norilsk must be the most fascinating place I've ever visited. It's also very polluted, you could smell (and see) the gaz in the city.

1- Arriving at Norilsk airport :









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3- I don't know why, but 9°C in Norilsk feels a lot colder than anywhere else in the world.









4- Abandonned commieblocks on the way from the airport to Norilsk :









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7- The northenmost railroad in the world, linking Norilsk to Dudinka, the port on the Iennisseï river :









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9- Kayerkan (pop. : 27,000), just before Norilsk :









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12- The tundra :









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16- The HM3 (NMZ) plant, on the way to Norilsk. 









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21- Downtown Norilsk :









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24- The northenmost mosque in the world :









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29- Monument to the victims of the gulag (Norilsk was built by people deported to the Gulag) :









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37- City views from the mountain :









38- Spot the mosque :









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43- The orthodox church :









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48- Some parts of Norilsk have been renovated in recent years, but most of the buildings remain in bad shape :









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52- Thanks to our guide who knew one of the security responsible of the plant, we had the chance to visit the HM3 (NMZ) plant (see also pic 16).
Unfortunately we couldn't take pics of the inside, which was very impressive with large melting metal tanks everywhere and a stifling atmosphere.









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56- Our hotel at Norilsk (actually it's the only one hotel in the city) :









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58- The theatre :









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77- Monument to the soldiers fallen during WW2 :









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83- Because of the permafrost, all buildings are built on pilotis in Norilsk :









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86- The mosque again :









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109- Leaving Norilsk, a little stop to take the pose in front of the sign at the entrance of the city :









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Next step : Dudinka !


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## city_thing (May 25, 2006)

Fantastic! Such a depressing place, but eerily beautiful.


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## eklips (Mar 29, 2005)

Crazy, how did you manage to get the authorization to enter the city?


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## capricorn2000 (Nov 30, 2006)

it's nice sometimes to see some photos of off the beaten places.
just wondering, why some of those residential commie blocks are or seem
to be abandoned and the streets ar almost deserted.
didn't you have the chance to shoot where you can find lots of people
like marketplace or maybe a downtown area?
anyways, you did a great job dude.


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## GM (Feb 29, 2004)

eklips said:


> Crazy, how did you manage to get the authorization to enter the city?


If you don't know anyone living in the city, it's virtually impossible to get an authorization. I had to pass by a specialized swiss travel agency. It's the only one which organizes tour of this city (where tourism is virtually non-existent).



capricorn2000 said:


> it's nice sometimes to see some photos of off the beaten places.
> just wondering, why some of those residential commie blocks are or seem
> to be abandoned and the streets ar almost deserted.
> didn't you have the chance to shoot where you can find lots of people
> ...


Some commieblocks are abandonned because at the time of perestroïka, a lot of new developpments which were going on were suddenly interrupted.
There is more animation on the main street where you can see the theatre and most of the recently renovated buildings, but you have to understand that Norilsk is a very cold city (in winter, temperatures can go down to -60 °C), so people are not used to hang out outside and you will not see people sitting at cafés, etc.


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## madonnagirl (Aug 7, 2011)

it's good to see some pictures of other places
and GM, I really admire your adventurism.


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## orangutangulis (Aug 15, 2011)

capricorn2000 said:


> it's nice sometimes to see some photos of off the beaten places.
> just wondering, why some of those residential commie blocks are or seem
> to be abandoned and the streets ar almost deserted.
> didn't you have the chance to shoot where you can find lots of people
> ...


 well, actually Norilsk is not a city - it is kind of "Arctic base with industrial complex" - nickel smelter and mines that produce 22% of world nickel , 38 % of world palladium etc. Stalin ordered to build it as a gigantic Gulag to build this smelter with the hands of prisoners - so now people come there to earn big money, not to live - the smelter and mines have special retirement plans with buying houses for workers in central Russia and relocating them there to warmer climate. There is also governmental programm of relocating pensioners who worked as teachers, police etc and not covered by smelter's retirement programm. They say it is enough to work there for 3-4 years to be able to buy a decent appartment in little southern Russian town(and no mortgage is needed!) and that is why people still go to work there...So, that is why there are so many abandoned buildings - nobody is anymore exiled there and so population is decreasing as employment is limited to smelter, attached mines and infrastructure around it -there is actually no permanent population there as absolute majority migrate to warmer regions after some period of working there - some work for 3 year, some 10 years, there are some people who live there all their life, but those are weird exeptions.


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## Aokromes (Jan 5, 2005)

Interesting to see how high buildings are made over pilons.


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## Escher (Jan 17, 2005)

Congratulations for such unique trip!! Waiting now for the rest of the journey!!


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## [email protected] (Oct 1, 2008)

Thank you for sharing your journey with us. Norilsk is fascinating. I didn't know it was forbidden to foreigners though, this place is on many high school geography books.


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## THINK€R (Sep 20, 2004)

I’m horribly fascinated.. I’ll go in winter!


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## Assurbanipal (Oct 30, 2005)

Truly inspiring report! What a place and photos, man!


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## P05 (Aug 24, 2005)

Love the pictures, and love Siberia, really looking forward for the rest of your trip. I envy you, going to Siberia is one of my dream trips.


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## Jennifat (Aug 7, 2005)

Fascinating photo tour, GM! I think it's really awesome that you're interested in exploring areas of the world that most people would never even joke about going.

Norilsk looks like an extremely depressing, barren, and polluted place. That being said, some of the architecture is gorgeous! I love those turquoise buildings and other vividly-colored buildings in the downtown area. Just goes to show what a fresh coat of paint can do! I'm sure those vibrant colors help to warm the city up a bit.

Did you talk to any of the people in the city? What was their reaction to seeing foreigners walking around town? Were they shocked?


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

What are the cranes for? You seem to see cranes of the types used for loading ships. Is there a river with barges there?


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## Linguine (Aug 10, 2009)

Interesting place I would say, pretty depressing looking at the pics of the abandoned buildings but lots of thanks for sharing your pics.:cheers2:


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## MyNameIsK (Feb 1, 2011)

#77 is monument to fallen soldiers in Afghanistan, Abkhazia, Angola, Chechnya, Cuba, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Yugoslavia


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## AlekseyVT (Dec 21, 2009)

MyNameIsK said:


> #77 is monument to fallen soldiers in Afghanistan, Abkhazia, Angola, Chechnya, Cuba, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Yugoslavia


And memorial decks with the names of soldiers from Norilsk, who died at those conflicts.


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## orangutangulis (Aug 15, 2011)

the most interesting thing about Norilsk seams to escape discussion here - it is unic in a way that in planing the concept for its future it is not considered as a place of permanent living of population. In 2005 the concept of development of Norilsk-Nickel and the city itself was published and according to it the priority for the authorities there is facilitating for relocation of population from the city to southerm regions of the country - only temporary workers and engineers needed for maintaining smelter and mines functioning will reside over there - so to call Norilsk a city would be a bit of a stretch- a city is a place where people come to live permanently - we don't call Antarctic base as a city , neither do we call a military base in remoute north as a city - people come to work or shift service to such places, there may be schools and shops there but people don't buy real estate there and all their plans for future are connected with other places - I am not sure that there are any other places of that kind anywhere in the world (exept for Antarctida)


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

orangutangulis said:


> the most interesting thing about Norilsk seams to escape discussion here - it is unic in a way that in planing the concept for its future it is not considered as a place of permanent living of population. In 2005 the concept of development of Norilsk-Nickel and the city itself was published and according to it the priority for the authorities there is facilitating for relocation of population from the city to southerm regions of the country - only temporary workers and engineers needed for maintaining smelter and mines functioning will reside over there - so to call Norilsk a city would be a bit of a stretch- a city is a place where people come to live permanently - we don't call Antarctic base as a city , neither do we call a military base in remoute north as a city - people come to work or shift service to such places, there may be schools and shops there but people don't buy real estate there and all their plans for future are connected with other places - I am not sure that there are any other places of that kind anywhere in the world (exept for Antarctida)



Actually, it would seem to me what is unique about Norilsk is that it is populated as a city. This is different from places like Pruhdoe Bay in the United States which are also way above the Arctic Circle but have no permanent population. In Pruhdoe Bay all the workers cycle through for two weeks on/two weeks off schedules. So there are almost now woman there, no children or old people at all, no schools, no grocery stores (the workers stay in company housing for their shifts and eat in the company cafeteria, etc.).

Are you saying that Norilsk is moving towards that? If so the city will lose some of its character. To see a regular city like this so far north is amazing.


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