Norilsk Golgotha

Norilsk Golgotha is a memorial complex, dedicated to the prisoners of Norillag.

The history of the Norilsk plant is tightly connected with Norillag. In 30-s the first prisoners were brought here and faced the hardest trials – to set the basis of the industrial giant under the conditions of the High North. At that moment the world had no any experience of constructing venues like this one under such severe conditions. Until 1957, when Norillag was closed. About 300 000 prisoners went through its millstones, 16000 died here. The major part of the prisoners was formed by those sentenced under article 58 counter-revolutionary activities.

After Norillag had been closed, Komsomol members and free employees started to arrive here in search of good salaries and social security, and the new life began in the city. In order not to forget that page of the history, in 90-s on the place of the former Norillag cemetery at the foot of the mountain, where the first ore development had started, the memorial complex Norilsk Golgotha was founded.

The memorial includes: a mass grave In memory of the political repssions victims; three cross monuments to the Baltic officers, died in Norillag;  a monument to the Poles, died in Norilsk, and other places of forced labour during Stalin’s repssions; a belfry in memory of the dead in Norillag; a monument to the Jews – victims of Norillag; a memorial sign to the political repssions victims – a granite stela and final gates.

So, the Museum Memorial Complex Norilsk Golgotha  is a collection of national memorials, separate monuments to the Russians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Poles and Jews.

Text: Sergey Tokarev, Norilskeparhia.ru

Photo: Sergey Tokarev