
Norilsk: Otherworldly Photos of an Arctic City - dskrvk
http://www.bbc.com/culture/gallery/20190321-norilsk-the-city-where-the-sun-doesnt-rise
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robertelder
I find this city fascinating for some reason. It's something about the fact
that it's so harsh, but humans are still able to live there. Here's a YouTube
video of it that makes it look almost artistic:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks9E9XQp_2k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks9E9XQp_2k)

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antisthenes
Make no mistake - humans are only able to live there while burning copious
amounts of hydrocarbons to stay warm and/or generate electricity. And they
don't live particularly well.

Also at the massive cost to the surrounding environment.

I guess Inuits live in the extreme cold as well, but their entire world
population is smaller than the city of Norilsk.

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Andrew_nenakhov
Trust me, global warming does not sound like something bad for citizens of
Norilsk.

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deforciant
Their buildings are collapsing due to permafrost disappearing :) Also it will
release lots of pollution from the ground which will even further worsen
environmental situation. So on one point yes, it will be warmer but it will
make their life more difficult than it is now :(

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archagon
I recommend watching the documentary “A Moon of Nickel and Ice” about some of
the varied inhabitants of this city. Interesting interviews and great
cinematography. Free for Prime members: [https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Nickel-
Ice-François-Jacob/dp/B07...](https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Nickel-Ice-François-
Jacob/dp/B07592GDWN)

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PopeDotNinja
My favorite Norilsk trivia is that the topsoil is so polluted that it'd be
profitable to mine it for heavy metals. [1]

[1] [https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15120490-300-rich-
pic...](https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15120490-300-rich-pickings-
from-russias-polluted-soils/)

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nnq
Wow. I find these places amazing. I don't understand how they can "work".

Like in... why do people stay?! Russia's a huge country and with free movement
you'd imagine such places would get depopulated quickly...

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rinchik
"free movement" \- false.

Why did people stay in Detroit when it was down? Moving is not as easy as it
seems. Only very few have courage to leave their nest. But that's a whole
different story.

In Russia, besides the fact that movement is not "free" because of propiska (
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propiska_in_the_Soviet_Union](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propiska_in_the_Soviet_Union)
), general conservative propaganda highly encourages pin-pointed
"nationalism". You leave your city - you are a traitor, how could you leave
your friends and family.

~~~
netsuileo
Well, "propiska" in Russia is a dying institution, actually no one is really
interested where your "propiska" is. In recent past there were some troubles
finding job without "propiska" in region, but it passed. We have fees for
people, who do live outside of their "propiska" region and do not tell
government where they live, but these fees applied to people extremely rarely.

About "traitor" thing - well, usually everybody understand that there are
better places to live than small city in Siberia. People move very often. For
example, after school 20% of my classmates moved outside of Siberia and almost
everybody left my small city and moved to a bigger one. I were born in Siberia
and moved to Saint-Petersburg a year ago -- no one called me a traitor. They
even come as guests, stay in my apartment and sometimes think about moving
too.

I've met a couple of people from Norilsk - they are glad they moved out, but
proud of the place of their origin. Which I consider pretty healthy position.

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Merrill
Sudbury Ontario is farther south and has a warmer climate. However, it is of a
similar size, fairly isolated, and has severe environmental problems due to a
history of nickel mining and smelting.

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pmoriarty
Shame that this is yet another website that requires Javascript to simply to
display some static images.

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MagnumPIG
Much less cyclopean than I expected!

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tomohawk
Its amazing what unfettered socialism can lead to.

~~~
delibash___
Actually, it's unfettered state capitalism in this case. Stalin mandated
Norilsk's development to enrich the state. Similar to the modern Chinese
model. So socialism has little to nothing to do with it.

