Born From Gulags, This Ex-USSR City Is The Most Depressing Place on Earth | Norilsk Russia
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- Опубликовано: 20 июн 2024
- Located in the heart of Northern Siberia, sitting deep inside the Arctic permafrost, lies Norilsk, one of the northernmost inhabited cities in the world. Norilsk is Russia's most polluted city. It's nearly completely isolated, restricted from tourists, cannot be reached by road, and was built on the ruins of a forced labor camp. It inhabits 177,000 people.
Timestamps:
0:00 Norilsk, Russia
0:35 Stalin, Gulags, USSR
1:47 Why Do People Live Here?
3:14 Climate
4:05 Civilian Life
5:09 Blood River
This Stubborn Homeowner Refused To Move So They Demolished His House...
• This Stubborn Homeowne...
Intro Song: Molchat doma - Kletka
• Molchat doma - Kletka
Background Music: Russian Doomer Music - Ambient
• Doomer Music - Ambient
December 21st 2012, I was on a plane from Japan to Europe. When it had become dark, about halfway home, I thought to my self: «wasn’t this the day the world was going to end?». I opened the window blind and looked out into the darkness. There I saw a giant fireball. It looked like the gates to hell had been opened. Turns out, it was just some factory in the city of Norilsk.
pucker factor 9.0 baby!
You got me in the first half
You are very good storyteller
Cringe af
@@jsl2411 explain further.
I live there, in a satellite town of Talnakh. Nearly untouched forest, mountains, thousands of lakes, rivers, creeks and cabins - I'm an outdoor guy and love all that. Winters are monstrous yet summers are heavenly. All the industrial decay lies 30 miles to the south, in the Central district, and I barely visit that part of the city
I heard your mosquitoes are so bad they make animals commit suicide. Herd that about Alaska too.
@@patrickmcglynn5383They're pure hell sometimes but I'm used to them and frequent high winds help a lot. Non-natives sometimes go hysteric though
@@ofacid3439 Or go missing; the mosquitoes carry them away. 🙃
When the conquistadors made their way north from Mexico the Comanches stopped them in Texas but it was the mosquitos that stopped them in Florida. They had to sleep covered in dirt breathing through a reed.
Ого а ты в Москве когда нибудь был?
Почему не переехать?
There is something facinating and aluring about this town.
Edit: i am from bulgaria a nation thousands of kilometers away in a city of 136k people if i took pictures from certain spots in the city you would not be able to guess that you are not in russia.
Would make a nice landscape for an apocalyptic movie.
I hear you
You know, as funny as it sounds, I thought the same thing, lol.
it's like the setting of a stephen king or lovecraft story, we are kind of expecting something fishy to be going on in the city since it doesn't quite make sense why so many people live there etc. like a creepy cult or witches or whatever
@@Bolaniullen the only problems seem to be the polution and transportation
I'm glad someone looks deeper inside Russia not staying in Moscow and Petersburg. Keep up the good work!
you mean Saint Petersburg?
@@wessorensen27 Petrograd
It’s strange because even a lot of Russians act like Moscow is the only city, even their government seems to act like an oversized city-state in a lot of ways. Everything revolves around Moscow, and usually for Moscow’s benefit, regardless of the cost to elsewhere.
@@fromthefire4176 actually, Russians don’t consider Moscow to be Russia; mostly because it is just THAT different, compared to the rest of the country’s cities.
@@notnth false
One of my friend is from Norilsk and her grandmother was a Ukrainian Gulag prisoner.
What liberation was she part of
@@joetomczyk7893 she stole a table spoon full of sour cream from a Soviet factory
@@claireh.7605 🥵
Это хорошо, продолжайте проживать никчёмные жизни, работая на олигархов и поливая грязью союз, которого нет уже 30 лет, рассказывая всё более страшные сказки.
@@HulioMorjoui ...А ты на олигархов не работаешь, я так понимаю? Да у тебя в стране первое место по числу миллиардеров на душу населения в мире, клоун.
I lived in Chelyabinsk for a while, everyone told me that was the most polluted city in Russia, I think they were probably wrong.
I heard that Dherzhinsk (IDK how to spell it.) Was the most polluted city in Russia because it was home to a chemical weapons manufacturing plant during Soviet times.
I was in Chelyabinsk once, the metallic smell in the air was disgusting,
@@jabato9779 Never noticed that to tell you the truth, but I was mostly in the centre and at the University end of the city.
@@TheHookahSmokingCaterpillar I think it's the chelyabinsk region due to the majak nuclear accident.
That's where NFRKZ Bangers is from, he now lives in Georgia.
I visited Norilsk for a couple of days back in 2011. One of the most fascinating place I've ever seen, and definitely the eeriest.
Eyyy, you too have an Edward England flag. Glad to see the mood kindred
Isnt it a closed city
@@HandleSergio Yes indeed, but you can still enter it with the right authorizations.
@@Charette44 can foreigners get them
@@HandleSergio Yes they can. I don't exactly remember how it works, because it was someone else who arranged that for me, but I am not Russian and I could.
I live in this city, we do not have acid rains, all nature (trees and other plants) is destroyed due to sulfuric gas that is released every week and because of the "wind rose" it often hits the city.
We are killing ourselves with all the chemicals....😢going to the rivers, oceans, land and the air.
Man I hope and wish you all good 😊 one day to leave this terrible place
Sick, dude. That is really insane what you are experiencing!
What do you think happens to the sulfur gases? They mix with water in the air and turn into sulfuric acid.
@@Football__Junkie From contact with sulfuric acid, people will have burns and other skin problems, but for almost 30 years of my life and my parents who live here, there was nothing like this, I'm not trying to deceive you.
How can one place be so depressing yet in a way so beautiful
you wouldn't be saying that if you lived there
Taimyr is a beautiful place, but Norilsk depressing city
This place looks depressing and in a way, still depressing
As an Eastern European i can say for sure It’s not beautiful at all
I guess it's the strength of the people
The Gulag prisoners not only established and worked in the mines, they also built all the city infrastructure, including its subway system. That system is vital as often it is too cold to wait for a bus outdoors.
There is no subway in Norilsk, as far as I know.
there is no subway in Norilsk
@@littlezhuchara726 Gulag prisoner, Rev. Walter Ciszek, SJ mentions in both of his books: “With God in Russia” and “He Leadeth Me” working building a subway system there. Maybe they never finished it? Or maybe it was too expensive to maintain in that location and now closed?
There is a Norilisk railroad that runs to Dudinka and it had passenger service until 1998. Stalin had a plan to build a railway from there to connect to the Russian rail grid but it was abandoned at his death- maybe the same with subway?
@@JJosephS1 Yeah, maybe the subway was planned but never finished. Maybe there are some problems with translation in those books you read. But the fact is, in Norilsk, there is no subway that could be "vital as often it is too cold to wait for a bus outdoors".
As the proverb says: "Norilsk, no fun"
That building with the 17 on it looks straight out of half life 2, the entire town has that dystopia theme.
All post Gulag Russia - anti utopia. With + and -
Lmao half of Russia looking like that
Russia is city17
Communist aparment planning are nice, just need a good maintanace.
Where I used to live, all neighborhood have access to public transports. Kindergarden, schools, clinics, grocery store are near home, many green park with trees and flower. (But I can't speak for region where there are harsh winter and no trees tho)
You don't need a car.
@@TheKaMeLRo You don’t need a car in Singapore or Tokyo either.
Would love to see you upload more, it’s clear you put a lot of effort into these videos and try to get to the facts, good luck on building this channel, people are going to love it!
Your pfp brings back such nostalgia lol
as a matter of fact The Most Depressing Place on Earth is Kensington ave., Philadelphia
Detroit and Baltimore are also really bad. The Russians have their problems, but at least their cities don't have hordes of homeless drug addicts and a certain minority constantly shooting each other and assaulting people on the subway.
Kensington is a result of the 80s drug epidemic. But Kensington is slowly getting better and better. The addicted are either being forced to jail and rehab or they are dieing. Then people are moving in and cleaning up the area and creating businesses. Also Kensington is small. It is a sub city in the Philadelphia area. It is just under like 30 blocks.
East hastings, Vancouver BC
Morrissey, New Order and Oasis are all from Manchester in the UK. I rest my case.
Weirdly enough Russia and the USA have a lot in common. Both are former economically prosperous superpowers that are rapidly falling apart because they're being bled dry by corrupt oligarchs that seek to enrich themselves off the labor of others.
Thanks to this video, i just watched this guy's entire channel. Great stuff!!
Props for the Burzum starting soundtrack!
A friend of mine who was raised in one of Stalin's gulag cities said coming to St. Louis, Missouri is like being in a tropical climate.
He would die here in Florida and I would die in the far north of Russia.
No offense but you might want to look up the climate of st louis sometime.
It's sometimes humid, but still has four seasons - not tropical.@@BryanSalyersXD
@@BryanSalyersXD It seems like this comment went way over your head. He is saying St Louis, a not particularly tropical place by most people's standards, was much warmer and sunnier to this individual compared to the Gulag city in Siberia that he came from.
Жил в Инте (можешь загуглить) я переехал в Вологду и уже впринцепе считаю это югом
Cheers for the video! Just one note - there's no such thing as 'Gulags', it's 'Gulag', or rather 'GULAG' - it's acronym, stand for Glavnoye Upravleniye LAGerei, means Chief Department of Camps (concentration/working), so if you're speaking about particular camp, it would be correct to refer to it as a GULAG camp, not just GULAG - because GULAG was a name of the whole organization that managed concentration/working camps.
Are you from Norilsk?
@@1.zibexasus455 He says that the "G.U.L.A.G" (General Directorate of Camps) was an administrative body located only in Moscow. Labor camps for criminals were simply called camps
huh. learned something new and interesting today. that doesn't happen often. thank you!
@@TIMOFEY_31 this is not quite right - Siblag/Kraslag/Amurlag/Belbaltlag/Zheldorlag etc (Siberian/Krasnoyarsk/Amurskiy/Belomoro-Baltiyskiy and even - Zheleznodorozhniy - Railway LAGer) - they called ИТЛ - ITL's - Ispravyitel'no-Trudovoy Lager - Correction and Labor Camp (later - ИТК - ITK - "Correction and Labor Colony".
Fun fact: all gulag commanders were of a certain abrahamic origin
Bro, this is such good content. Thank you for covering this, keep up this work
thanks for the video this is more informative than anything anyone else has made. Very fascinating place
amazing summary, pics and videos were well-picked. script with simple smooth transitions. underrated creator
Seems like his first video. But what an amazing start!
Really informative, thanks 😊
Рад видеть то,что про мой город знают за границей,привет с Норильска!
Hello from USA!
*Хаха, привет из Норильска*
Добро пожаловать в город с суровыми условиями, но теплыми сердцами у людей*
are you able to acces RUclips in rUSIA?
@@Ciumpalacu in Russia*
lol of course
Cheers! Pretty good video, great job!
Little amendment - labor camps were not called GULAGS. GULAG (rus - ГУЛАГ) is transliterrated abbreveature , that means Главное Управление ЛАГерей (General Directorate of Camps) it is a name of main Government devision , just like Federal Bureau of Prisons in USA. And the camps, well they were called just camps...
Good job bro we also have the department of corrections too
To be fair even if it ain't the dictionary definition of Gulags' it's the commonly used term, at least for those brought there and in history books.
@@Utrilus yes, it is widely used term :)
Our favorite of these closed cities/towns is Zheleznogorsk in Krasnoyarsk Krai. While the Soviets used Norilsk to the extraction of its nickel, they used Zheleznogorsk for the extraction of plutonium (which is viewed as the good stuff in our country). But the best part about it is the flag. It's a bear splitting the nucleus of an atom, representing nuclear fission for Zheleznogorsk's nuclear value. While their last operational reactor closed in April 2010, the city remains closed and people still live there.
Там не просто все еще живут, там 100 000 человек. Я один из них, кстати. Классный город, тихий, спокойный.
I collect flags and I have this one. It's one of my fav. Next is Ozyorsk, the nuclear salamander.
Есть два города с названием "Железногорск". Интересно.
Я не знаю если я написал неправильно. Извините за мой русский.
Seems like the google streetview car has driven on almost all roads there at least. Looks depressing.
@@antifa4138 oh cute, a russian nationalist with an anti israel opinion....how original
Just went to check out your other videos and I realized this is your first. Very good format and delivery. Keep it up.
Quality video, nice work!
I like to learn about places and do often with random youtube clips like this (interesting!), so thanks and subscribed! A note: please try to enunciate with your narration a bit more or slow it down a notch for your audience... thanks
I would love to visit places like this. Going to places infested with tourists is so boring. Like, there is not a single person that I know that never went to Greece. Yet, no one I know has ever visited Norilsk. It amazes me in what conditions can people survive in.
Thats how people are different. I'm German and from West-Germany and I've never been to Greece but have some Greek friends and even two ex-gfs who are Greek, so I got in touch with the culture and the lifestyle of the people and I have to say that I love the Greek lifestyle. Its a very heartwarming and rich culture and I really love your people and their habits and admire your peoples attitude to life. :) I often thought about moving to Greece or at least planning for to retire there.
Not that I wouldn't enjoy a two-week trip to Norilsk ;)
@@anokata-kd8oc Living in greece is odd. Foreigners think of Greece like this heavenly place with no problems but thats far from the truth. The economic crisis and the corrupt party officials plague this land. Also global warming has transformed Greece into an oven in the summers. Thats why I was always interested in countries like Ukraine, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, The Netherlands and so on. The only thing thats keeps us living here is our culture and our relationship with our fellow people.
@@vaggeelakis2242 i m living in Moscow and in the july-august you are feeling like in at oven too(((
@@vaggeelakis2242 Living anywhere will be good if you are rich, especially Greece.
Well, maybe because people want to come back safely from a foreign country
This is a really great video. Can’t wait to see the next one. Subbed
Dude, this video is brilliant. You have so much potential for being a great Lemmino-Style RUclipsr.
I would also watch a hour-long documentary from your channel, because your voice is very calming. Keep it up!
Aside from the terrible pollution, it's objectively quite beautiful.
I love the quote about the river, "on one hand its beautiful, on the other its chemical"
No, it is not objective, it can be, but according to your SUBJECTIVE opinion
It's fucking Mordor, how on Earth it's remotely beautiful to you?
@@MJ-uk6luMordor is beautiful too
Photographs at 1:12 to 1:16 show prisoners with German Nazi guards, not Russian Gulag guards. This makes me wonder whether the rest of the video is true.
That was stock footage that shave not have been used!
yeah, now due to a video on youtube we cannot be sure if stalin did genocide on it's own ppl, we cannot know if gulags were real.
@@charon7320 Oh! They were real for sure. He killed more ppl than Hitler!
@@ChefKevinRiese I know, actually they lost more ppl than whole world war combined.
it was just to show that Germany invaded the Soviet Union, its labeled as "1941"
Such a well produced video you've made my friend.
really well done, thanks!
People from Norilsk go to Gary, Indiana on vacation.
Lol yikes
You earned a subs l, great content 😊
Epic video man! Love it!
great vid, you got yourself a sub, more content on this city and similar stuff
Sound completely cuts in the first minute for nearly 30 seconds...
It looks strangely beautiful from a distance, something about those buildings captivates me.
The yellow and blue commie blocks are probably the reason
your videos are awesome, very conscice and a very depressing/interesting atmosphere. I love the molchat doma in the beginning
greetings from Norilsk)
Clicked on this video thinking that it was from a well established channel. I was immediately hooked by the topic, quality, and format. Very informative and well made, and I’m excited to see what else will come from you 👍
“This comment section is amazing eco system where Uralisk natives, Russians, normal clueless people, and religious russophobes all live in peace in harmony.”
great job,keep it up
Dude please make more videos, you should have like 500k subs. Editing is on point and you got that monotone youtube voice that's perfect for these kinds of videos.
Yep this a quality vid, I agree.
yooo, I live here! Nice video, dude!
Are you depressed about that?
@@mikeoglen6848 not really. You only get one hometown per life, y'know :)
Great first video mate! Keep it up
would love to go to that area one day, from that city you can discover plato Putorana, one of the most beautiful places in the country, but thats too expensive)
Привет из Норильска
К вам в Норилск не приедет Леди Гага никогда .
ёу))
@@user-ib3qb5zn8u фарту масти ауе ✋
@@user-ib3qb5zn8u ну на день города к нам приезжают русские певцы и группы. Недавно Шнур приезжал.
@@loggeruncle6869 А я такими шнурами не питаюсь ..это говно .
It's still so fascinating. If I wasn't such a frail human, I'd love to visit such a place.
Wow , using Burzum as the intro music was totally unexpected. Quite a bold move. And totally fitting for this video. Interesting that you don’t link it in the description...
Love the burzum soundtrack. Fitting
boy you should visit Philly, that is depressing.
Primarily Kensington.
bro how can you compare norilsk to philadelphia
or may be Detroit
@@zgudarac86 you can just take out the weather
@@qjtvaddict living anywhere in the us is better than living in this hellhole, im not from russia but i understand what a bad place this could be i know a few places like this in my country
it's like Molchat Doma has become the theme song for all things Slavic. When I first heard them, I couldn't find them again because it the entire album, title and description was in Cryillic. But I knew it was gold. This is in like 2018.
It was like discovering Grimes or The XX for the first time all those years ago.
NGL they do set that bloc mood and USSR mindest. Solid slavic vibes, and have it on my playlist as soon as this war ends and I mission around the former USSR.
molchat doma is one of the ehhh russian post-punk groups though
@@coel3572 They are belarusian.
@@moosesnWoop who asked
@@unknownuntitled5341 your mother?
@@moosesnWoop so funny, haha LMAO
Sounds like burzum for the music. Great video!
Fascinating video.
It’s like living on a different planet
Not really it’s like a colder West Virginia
there's audio issues from 00:19 till 00:35, try to fix if possible
Hey , this video was very informative , entertaining and beautifull at the same time , i just subbed just to see another one like this
Nice touch of Burzum briefly in the intro.
We need more - I bet there's some great videos you could make about downtrodden, forgotten areas of the US, UK and China as well.
Nice video, just curious why when you were talking about the gulag systems at around 1:16 you were showing nazis and their POWs?
Because it is important to show communists as inhuman as the fascists were. Otherwise we would have to admit that Norilsk is a symbol of Soviet scientific and technological achievement. To build such a large city in such harsh conditions is amazing.
I just found your Channel. I love it.❤
"Beauty at low temperatures is beauty" Joseph Brodsky
Mate I love the music.. Australia started as a sort of gulag for naughty pommys.. regards Australia
In school in Australia we were taught that the convicts sent out from England had usually committed pretty minor crimes. But what is really interesting is that so many of them happened to have technical skills the new colony needed - stone masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, even chaps with architecture knowledge.
I've always thought that Stalin had the same idea for developing Siberia. His minions sent plenty of women, not just men, so that it would continue.
@@keithammleter3824 Siberia was colonized way before Stalin was even alive
@@Dexusaz : Not to a useful degree. It was Stalin who developed it with gulags. For that matter, Australia didn't begin with Britain sending out minor criminals either. Dark skinned people with stone-age tools had occupied it in small numbers for at least 60,000 years. There is pretty much no place on Earth, apart from Antarctica, that has seen humans before the modern era.
OP should do a video on Hillbrow in Johannesburg.
Subscribed. Keep it up kid
Please keep making your content.
Reminds me of how I created the city of the future in Civ. I establish a city in a snowy tundra with iron and urainiam. I basically subsidized it with food shipments and great people to create tile improvements.
Damn, it makes Yakutsk look like Monte Carlo.
Wow. Glad to see this video. I'm from Norilsk.
please share your experience here so everyone can learn what the reality of living in Norilsk is. Read how many comments there are about it being like heaven/paradise/beautiful/somewhere they can't wait to visit or wish they could move to.
Look at what this "person" has commented:
Da Cat: If i was a millionaire i would buy a small studio there just to experience that place from time to time. It has its charm 😬
Great song choice at the start
Consider the pollution released from just this one city next time some American politician rails about US air quality. This city, today, reminds me of my hometown Pittsburgh PA, in the 1950s. Not as cold, of course, but dreary, smoky, grey, with air you could taste and some days cut with a knife.
Why did the audio cut out in the beginning?
Is this your first video? Keep it up, I think you can hit it big.
I heard some time ago in another video that it is not even that bad there. Obviously it's a dreadful thought to live there, but I heard the polution aspect is blown out of proportions according to someone that lives there.
Honestly I think this place is beautiful
Normal Nothern city like in Alaska, Iceland, Canadian North or North Norway. Nothing depressing is there. Special buety of Arctic, tundra. ocean. By the way, one of the highest wages of Russia are there. City grows. Fishing. berries, hunting, snow scooters if you want. Normal life inside city - night clubs, restos, concert halls.
....but pollution...
фарту масти ауе ✋
This city looks nothing like Iceland, Alaska, Canada or Norway. Those places don't have ruined buildings or high pollution. The nature surrounding the city is beautiful, but the city itself is depressing. I live at the Arctic circle myself, but not in Russia, and my town is nothing like Norilsk.
@@karjalatakaisin where did you see ruined buildings in Norilsk? Give me exact address, at least names of streets. I'll check.
@@AlexanderTch сенд ми локейшн
excellently made
Places like this make me wish the cold couldn't affect me because they are so beautiful and i wish i could see visit and explore them.
Do you get a good view of the aurora?
what do you think. look at the smog and pollution..
Literally every other comment here is just saying "Heh, what about Chicago or Detroit"
You have to be genuinely ignorant to believe that.
To be honest i have yet to see a place that felt bad as Detroit, maybe North Korea?
Detroit is a shi*hole
In Norilsk you don't feel scared for your life just being out on the streets with shady junkies snooping around you. Unlike Detroit.
Brilliant video! You should check out Cannibal Island (Nazino) in the Ob River or the Kolyma Gulag.
I'm glad that you make more views with my videos...you are a lucky bastard that I don't report this video :)))
0:04 If you look carefully on the map of soil, you can see that Norilsk is surrounded by permafrost, but is not built on it. This explains why the buildings do not have pillars underneath them, as in Yakutsk for example.
Actually, buildings in Norilsk are built on top of pillars
ive been there and its a good city!
Heyo I just stumbled over this and it seems from Second 17 to 30 youtube removed all sounds because of copyrighted stuff.
Maybe you can change that in a way your voice is hearable, sadly the subtitles don't grab for that section as well :/
Except that little tumble stone this video is pretty good! Have my sub 👍
It has been well over six weeks since the release of this video? Will any more videos be released?
Where there are beautiful women it's never cold.
Talks about gulags and shows an American POW in German custody… 1:15
Great content
The main reason why it gets that cold is because it’s so far inland. In arctic Norway temperatures don’t get nearly as cold because of “warm” maritime moderation. Of course the daylight is the same, with polar night in winter and midnight sun in summer, but of course only above the arctic circle
Many inaccuracies both in the text and the video during the first part. The Gulag (which aren't the camps but the penitentiary system itself) weren't introduced by Stalin. They reused camps and methods already in fashion during the Czars era.
Photo at 0:57 isn't of political dissidents but of German POWs, most of which actually came back from the Gulag as opposed to what's often said (out of the 3,000,000 POWs sent to the Gulag by the Soviets, between 300,000 and 700,000 died).
Photo at 1:13, 1:15 and 1:20 is of Soviet POWs taken by the Germans.
I can't identify the uniforms at 1:22 but they're neither Soviet or German.Edit: They're British POWs, which I realised because they're doing the Victory sign, which the Soviets didn't do. Also the uniforms are British, based on the shoulder pads and chest pouches.
🤓
@@notbryan255 And? Would you rather LACK education? It's important to be informed and call out BS. American moment
@@wdwfanatic1394 its nerd shit only nerds care about "identifying uniforms"
Russian cities do not look that great, and the govt is bad, but they are full of very friendly people and very beautiful ladies. And that is total and everywhere around Russia. Also, outside you have lots of great natural sceneries and places to explore. Winter sports and hunting are superb.
I lived in Russia as a teen and I was really happy with all the great friends I had there and the cute girls that had crushes on me. Socially, a very happy place.
If Russia had a better government, I would be very happy to live there again.
Of what use are other countries where cities look good but whose people are mean
Russia has the best government
American car-centric suburbs don't look great either
@@KateeAngel You know there more than american car-centric suburbs and Russian commieblocks
ага щас
Russian government doesn't require you to work 3 jobs to pay rent
Obrigado!
Cool video. Will you be exploring other cities in more videos?
Life at the extremes.