Norilsk is a city of brave people. If you decide to visit this city, it means you are a brave spirit. It is situated in the Far North in the Arctic on the 69^th parallel. There is nothing around the city, only tundra with a huge amount of small lakes and bogs.

On the score of distance of Norilsk from other cities and absence of land communication, citizens call the rest of Russia “mainland”.

This north city was founded in 1935 by political prisoners. The first house was built by the members of Urvantsev’s expedition in 1921. It still exists as the museum “The first Norilsk house”. In 1953 north Norilsk got a status of a city. Nowadays, according to the census of 2008, the population is about 206 thousand people. Because of different reasons a lot of thousand people leave the city.

The weather is very changeable and harsh. Winter is cold and long. If you like snow it is the best place for admiring it. Land can be covered with snow about 240 days a year. Summer is short. Usually there are two or three weeks of summer. The warmest months are July and August. The average temperature of January is 10 degrees below zero. The average temperature of July is 14 degrees above zero. It is only average temperatures and it doesn’t sound like something unbelievable. But sometimes people, waking up in the morning and going to work or study, listen to a weather forecast and understand that it is better to put warmer clothes on. The reason is that the temperature can be even 60 degrees below zero. Just that temperature was registered like the most minimum one. So, going to Norilsk, don’t forget to take warm clothes and … steady shoes! Imagine you walking in the slick street. It is getting windy and speed of wind can reach 40 km/h. You can’t keep walking; you simply slide as on skates.

If you have ever been in Sankt Petersburg, you can represent the architecture of Norilsk. It is similar, especially the main street, Leninskii prospect. It is also the longest street in Norilsk; its length is about 2 kilometers. It is enough about one hour to walk around the city, because it is very small and compact.

Nowadays there are a lot of places where people go to have a rest. The young population chooses clubs, cinemas, bowling and billiards, the older population goes to the only drama theater in the center of the city. If the weather remains pretty well, fans of winter sport go to countryside. There are a lot of mountains in tundra with beautiful small waterfalls. When these mountains are covered with snow, sportsmen use some of them for descent on alpine skis and snowboards. Have you ever done it with a swimsuit or shorts on? Imagine, today it is 30 below zero and in three days it is going to be 30 degrees above zero!  And it is not a joke.

However, the climate is very severe and it is the main reason why people spend more time indoors. So, if you go to a club, you know that you’ll say “hi” heaps of times. You can meet people from your school, university, job or sport club there. It always happens with every citizen of the city.

Norilsk is famous for its metallurgical complex “Norilsk nickel”, the main center of non-ferrous- metals industry. Nickel, copper, cobalt, gold, silver, iridium and other non-ferrous and precious metals are produced there. The Taimyr tundra is very rich in minerals. You can also find here the “Nadezhda” Metallurgical Plant, one of the biggest in Europe.

With this city names of famous people are connected, such as Vladimir Potanin, Michael Prohorov and many others.