1) Basic economics. Most people around the world do not have the means to uproot their lives and move. It's a big
2) Momentum and roots. Norilsk was founded in 1935, which means at this point you have multiple generations of families for whom it's their home.
3) Work and money. Norilsk exists because of mining. It continues to employ mostly people in mining, and pays them reasonably well for the harsh environment.
I think your comment #2 is the most important one. Basically, people just get used to it. I think this way about a lot of cities that are basically awful when it comes to human habitation. For example, New Delhi. I visited New Delhi a couple of times for work and I couldn't imagine why anyone with means wouldn't get the hell out of there ASAP. Especially the area around Gurgaon reminded me of something out of Bladerunner. The pollution was just so ungodly indescribable I couldn't stand being outside for even a couple minutes. But a lot of my Indian colleagues stayed there by choice. They thought the pollution was bad, too, but they looked at it in more of a "pros vs cons" mindset, where I looked at it in a "not being able to see the sun at noon due to smog is a deal breaker for me" mindset.
Very good compensation, you can retire earlier, etc.
Talking about living in other places - you can leave in Siberia believe Arctic circle and still have -40C for a long time, etc.
"Very good compensation" - haha, unfortunately not true.
Well... they get "milk coupons" though (to literally get a couple liters of free milk per month), as a "sorry" for the exposure to the dangerous environments and toxins at work. It's more a legacy inherited from USSR where it was largely believed that milk reduces the danger of hard work envs, removes toxins:
Russian north is either industrial (mining, oil and gas), commercial (sea ports) or military and have enough money for people to spend some part of their life there. Norilsk is not the only city on the far north, though probably one of the most notable ones along with Mirny (huge diamond mine).
It has the richest nickel-copper reserves in the world. Sulfide deposits from the vents of the largest large igneous province known (Siberian traps). People would be paid whatever is necessary to stay.
The plants and mines around the city have a double digit percentage share of the world production of platinum, palladium, nickel, rhodium, cobalt and other metals.
The area is extremely rich in resources. Looking at the way people live they definitely deserve a bigger share of those resources. The company that produces those metals and spoils the environment is owned by billionaires Vladimir Potanin, Oleg Deripaska and others, closely associated with Putin.
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 ), general conservative propaganda highly encourages pin-pointed "nationalism". You leave your city - you are a traitor, how could you leave your friends and family.
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.
„Propiska“ was a Soviet thing and it no longer exists in the same form - in no way it restricts free movement. It is called now a registration on a place of residence and it is a thing that exists in many countries. There’s no difference between the Russian registration and German Anmeldung - they restrict your life in a similar way (though in Russia you have much more time to register).
Comments
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...
1) Basic economics. Most people around the world do not have the means to uproot their lives and move. It's a big
2) Momentum and roots. Norilsk was founded in 1935, which means at this point you have multiple generations of families for whom it's their home.
3) Work and money. Norilsk exists because of mining. It continues to employ mostly people in mining, and pays them reasonably well for the harsh environment.
I think your comment #2 is the most important one. Basically, people just get used to it. I think this way about a lot of cities that are basically awful when it comes to human habitation. For example, New Delhi. I visited New Delhi a couple of times for work and I couldn't imagine why anyone with means wouldn't get the hell out of there ASAP. Especially the area around Gurgaon reminded me of something out of Bladerunner. The pollution was just so ungodly indescribable I couldn't stand being outside for even a couple minutes. But a lot of my Indian colleagues stayed there by choice. They thought the pollution was bad, too, but they looked at it in more of a "pros vs cons" mindset, where I looked at it in a "not being able to see the sun at noon due to smog is a deal breaker for me" mindset.
Very good compensation, you can retire earlier, etc. Talking about living in other places - you can leave in Siberia believe Arctic circle and still have -40C for a long time, etc.
"Very good compensation" - haha, unfortunately not true.
Well... they get "milk coupons" though (to literally get a couple liters of free milk per month), as a "sorry" for the exposure to the dangerous environments and toxins at work. It's more a legacy inherited from USSR where it was largely believed that milk reduces the danger of hard work envs, removes toxins:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%BA...
Salaries in Norilsk are really 2-3 times more high than in Krasnoyarsk, for example. But same applies to prices too, unfortunately.
And that is true about milk thing in USSR, people actually still believe that milk removes toxins.
In Minecraft milk removes potion and poison effects
Typos?
Russian north is either industrial (mining, oil and gas), commercial (sea ports) or military and have enough money for people to spend some part of their life there. Norilsk is not the only city on the far north, though probably one of the most notable ones along with Mirny (huge diamond mine).
It has the richest nickel-copper reserves in the world. Sulfide deposits from the vents of the largest large igneous province known (Siberian traps). People would be paid whatever is necessary to stay.
In the gallery it says just outside Norilsk is the biggest metallurgical mine in the world.
So it's an industrial city.
The plants and mines around the city have a double digit percentage share of the world production of platinum, palladium, nickel, rhodium, cobalt and other metals.
The area is extremely rich in resources. Looking at the way people live they definitely deserve a bigger share of those resources. The company that produces those metals and spoils the environment is owned by billionaires Vladimir Potanin, Oleg Deripaska and others, closely associated with Putin.
"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 ), general conservative propaganda highly encourages pin-pointed "nationalism". You leave your city - you are a traitor, how could you leave your friends and family.
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.
„Propiska“ was a Soviet thing and it no longer exists in the same form - in no way it restricts free movement. It is called now a registration on a place of residence and it is a thing that exists in many countries. There’s no difference between the Russian registration and German Anmeldung - they restrict your life in a similar way (though in Russia you have much more time to register).
Strange fantasy