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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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 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 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.
@@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.
@@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.
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.
@@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".
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
@@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
@@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".
@@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.
чему ты радуешься этот клоун автор несет чушь и показывает фотки немецких нацистов заместо гулага , вообщем обычное русофобское брехло и дно, а не видео про реальный Норильск
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.
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.
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...
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"
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.
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
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.
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.
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 👍
Norilsk: Our river turned blood red Cleveland, whose river was once on fire: That's rough, buddy Closed cities like Norilsk were created in the Soviet Union for places of value from sensitive military establishments to important mines. Called a closed city because you can only get in if you're a resident or if you have special authorization to do so (puts into perspective just how isolated Norilsk is besides its location). In the case of Norilsk, it was for its nickel, and it has been closed since 1956. Many of these closed cities were very secretive and were only acknowledged of their existence by the government after the union collapsed.
“This comment section is amazing eco system where Uralisk natives, Russians, normal clueless people, and religious russophobes all live in peace in harmony.”
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.
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
I doesn't matter how shit a place looks, if you have good friends and community. I bet the community in places like this is tight with friends and extended families spending time together while we in the West live lonely lives with only TH-cam and a Netflix subscription for company.
@@yoshiaphryabskir3097 Russian fascists man....why dont they surrender already they realy cant break through for like 7 months and are utter losers Like you
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.
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.
@@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
Dude, this video is brilliant. You have so much potential for being a great Lemmino-Style TH-camr. I would also watch a hour-long documentary from your channel, because your voice is very calming. Keep it up!
Norilsk, Russia most depressing place on earth..Really? I guess the video poster has never been to Abilene, Texas, USA. NOW that is a truly depressing place.🤨
@@daveb.4268 Wow, Memphis TX as a former truck driver when I lived in the USA that place is also depressing. I forgot about Memphis. If I had a Colorado run to Denver I would have to go thru there.
When I first started trucking, I ran for Swift delivering Coors down to Dallas. Man that was a long stretch from Amarillo to Dallas! If I was lucky I could stop in Witcha Falls instead. I was trucking for six miserable years. Paid the support and saw the country. Even if it wasn't the United States you see on post cards.😕
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...
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.
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.
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 👍
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.
@@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.
>Labor camps called GULAGs This is untrue. GULAG is an acronym, meaning GLavnoye Upravleniye LAGeryami (The main camp HQ). It was a government institution created as a central HQ for the labor camps and not the labor camps themselves
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)
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
Putin’s Paradise! Apart from the city’s horrific past and cancerous present, it’s a great place to live! Back in 2008 CNN ran a series on Russia’s “new economy” and “great wealth.” The only city it bothered to cover was Moscow which is quite beautiful and certainly wealthy, or at least parts of it. The distorted truth of conditions in other parts of Russia ignored. If a foreign news channel never left Manhattan, then it would miss the poverty and ugliness of many parts of the US. Stalin lives in the propaganda spewed out by many corporate entertainment entities.
@@claireh.7605 Was the same means nothing lol you degenerate anglo. Churchill was the same too then since he's responsible for the death of millions of Bengalis or Truman is the same because he incinerated hundreds of thousands of women and children in Japan. Stalin didn't plan to extinct a whole category of people.
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 😬
@@unknowninfinium4353 I would like sell it or offer for a donation.. otherwise.. it is like my family's private tapes.. nothing that can't be shown though.
I heard it's very expensive to extract content from those tapes onto modern solutions so if you do end up doing it that footage might be of help to documentary or something.
@@nikolajovic1500 No, it was only $400 to transfer those tapes onto VHS, and we then put them on CDs and I uploaded them on TH-cam as a private video.. I am not sure if I should release them for free or if my family would want private family tapes released publicly. But it just basically shows the Soviet workers (not the prisoners who weren't sent there anymore at that time) going on ski trips, fishing, collecting berries, having fun, etc.
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.
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.
You should. No community is perfect and healthy criticism helps to make it better. Many people in Russia don't complain and live in shitholes. I'm telling you this as Russian. Please complain. People deserve best conditions they can get
You needed 6 minutes of Gulag scenes yet half your screentime is german and american soldiers from WW2 Sets the base for your "good video" - must be well researched
Im born here, im leve here. My father came here to earn money, and worked for Norilsk Nickel for 32 years, died in poverty, at the age of 58, from cancer. 3 years after retirement. Seriously, don't listen to those who are trying to find the positives here, it's something like Stockholm Syndrome.
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?
@@333romani 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 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.
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.
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".
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
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.
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.
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!
there's audio issues from 00:19 till 00:35, try to fix if possible
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
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
*Хаха, привет из Норильска*
Добро пожаловать в город с суровыми условиями, но теплыми сердцами у людей*
are you able to acces TH-cam in rUSIA?
@@Ciumpalacu in Russia*
lol of course
Hello, my Russian friend!
чему ты радуешься этот клоун автор несет чушь и показывает фотки немецких нацистов заместо гулага , вообщем обычное русофобское брехло и дно, а не видео про реальный Норильск
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
Sound completely cuts in the first minute for nearly 30 seconds...
Thanks to this video, i just watched this guy's entire channel. Great stuff!!
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"
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 :)
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
People from Norilsk go to Gary, Indiana on vacation.
Lol yikes
Рад видеть то,что про мой город знают за границей,привет с Норильска!
Hello from USA!
Hello from New Zealand 🇳🇿
Why did the audio cut out in the beginning?
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.
🤓
@@notcraig255 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"
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
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
Props for the Burzum starting soundtrack!
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.
"Beauty at low temperatures is beauty" Joseph Brodsky
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 👍
Norilsk: Our river turned blood red
Cleveland, whose river was once on fire: That's rough, buddy
Closed cities like Norilsk were created in the Soviet Union for places of value from sensitive military establishments to important mines. Called a closed city because you can only get in if you're a resident or if you have special authorization to do so (puts into perspective just how isolated Norilsk is besides its location). In the case of Norilsk, it was for its nickel, and it has been closed since 1956. Many of these closed cities were very secretive and were only acknowledged of their existence by the government after the union collapsed.
It looks strangely beautiful from a distance, something about those buildings captivates me.
The yellow and blue commie blocks are probably the reason
“This comment section is amazing eco system where Uralisk natives, Russians, normal clueless people, and religious russophobes all live in peace in harmony.”
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.
Bro, this is such good content. Thank you for covering this, keep up this work
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
thanks for the video this is more informative than anything anyone else has made. Very fascinating place
I doesn't matter how shit a place looks, if you have good friends and community. I bet the community in places like this is tight with friends and extended families spending time together while we in the West live lonely lives with only TH-cam and a Netflix subscription for company.
You dont excuse misery i can same the same about other shitty parts of the world and nothing ever changes
@@GhostChickenTV Ukrainians... Man why don't surrender already?
@@yoshiaphryabskir3097 Russian fascists man....why dont they surrender already they realy cant break through for like 7 months and are utter losers
Like you
@@yoshiaphryabskir3097 Because they're winning.
@@yoshiaphryabskir3097 just what an enclave spy would say!
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
yooo, I live here! Nice video, dude!
Are you depressed about that?
@@mikeoglen6848 not really. You only get one hometown per life, y'know :)
Hello bro do you have any socials where i can contact you?
Do you have insta ?
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
Really informative, thanks 😊
Dude, this video is brilliant. You have so much potential for being a great Lemmino-Style TH-camr.
I would also watch a hour-long documentary from your channel, because your voice is very calming. Keep it up!
Norilsk, Russia most depressing place on earth..Really? I guess the video poster has never been to Abilene, Texas, USA. NOW that is a truly depressing place.🤨
As a truck driver, I would have to sometimes over-night in Memphis, Texas. Depressing.
@@daveb.4268 Wow, Memphis TX as a former truck driver when I lived in the USA that place is also depressing. I forgot about Memphis. If I had a Colorado run to Denver I would have to go thru there.
or the san Antonio suburbs
When I first started trucking, I ran for Swift delivering Coors down to Dallas. Man that was a long stretch from Amarillo to Dallas! If I was lucky I could stop in Witcha Falls instead. I was trucking for six miserable years. Paid the support and saw the country. Even if it wasn't the United States you see on post cards.😕
@@melelconquistador I cannot coment on the SA area, I only went thru there twice as a kid back in the early 70's. But, I will take your word on it.
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...
Привет из Норильска
К вам в Норилск не приедет Леди Гага никогда .
ёу))
@@АлександрВасильков-з4о фарту масти ауе ✋
@@АлександрВасильков-з4о 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 like living on a different planet
Not really it’s like a colder West Virginia
It's still so fascinating. If I wasn't such a frail human, I'd love to visit such a place.
Talks about gulags and shows an American POW in German custody… 1:15
greetings from Norilsk)
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
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'm glad that you make more views with my videos...you are a lucky bastard that I don't report this video :)))
Anywhere in Russia is depressing 😂!
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 👍
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.
This city makes "Silent Hill" look like paradise 🌈
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.
I was born there. I really liked it there. This place is something else. But the toxic gas was unbearable, so I finally decided to leave
Damn, it makes Yakutsk look like Monte Carlo.
Love the burzum soundtrack. Fitting
>Labor camps called GULAGs
This is untrue. GULAG is an acronym, meaning GLavnoye Upravleniye LAGeryami (The main camp HQ). It was a government institution created as a central HQ for the labor camps and not the labor camps themselves
🤓
Is this your first video? Keep it up, I think you can hit it big.
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)
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
Putin’s Paradise! Apart from the city’s horrific past and cancerous present, it’s a great place to live! Back in 2008 CNN ran a series on Russia’s “new economy” and “great wealth.” The only city it bothered to cover was Moscow which is quite beautiful and certainly wealthy, or at least parts of it. The distorted truth of conditions in other parts of Russia ignored. If a foreign news channel never left Manhattan, then it would miss the poverty and ugliness of many parts of the US. Stalin lives in the propaganda spewed out by many corporate entertainment entities.
Stalin was the same as Hitler, he just did not incinerate prisoners but either shot them or worked them to death.
NYC has a lot more ugliness and poverty than most of the US. Dallas or Charolette certainly don’t have similar crime or homeless rates to Manhattan
Usa today new nazi Reich.
@@claireh.7605 Stalin was a left wing hitler
@@claireh.7605 Was the same means nothing lol you degenerate anglo. Churchill was the same too then since he's responsible for the death of millions of Bengalis or Truman is the same because he incinerated hundreds of thousands of women and children in Japan. Stalin didn't plan to extinct a whole category of people.
Just went to check out your other videos and I realized this is your first. Very good format and delivery. Keep it up.
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.
You earned a subs l, great content 😊
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.
Where there are beautiful women it's never cold.
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 😬
if people wanna see footage from Norilsk in the Soviet Union, I have it. My grandfather made family tapes on a silent camera there in 1970s.
Can you share it?
@@unknowninfinium4353 I would like sell it or offer for a donation.. otherwise.. it is like my family's private tapes.. nothing that can't be shown though.
@@claireh.7605 I understand.
I hope you are doing well and healthy.
Are you living there currently?
I heard it's very expensive to extract content from those tapes onto modern solutions so if you do end up doing it that footage might be of help to documentary or something.
@@nikolajovic1500 No, it was only $400 to transfer those tapes onto VHS, and we then put them on CDs and I uploaded them on TH-cam as a private video.. I am not sure if I should release them for free or if my family would want private family tapes released publicly. But it just basically shows the Soviet workers (not the prisoners who weren't sent there anymore at that time) going on ski trips, fishing, collecting berries, having fun, etc.
Depressive? I think it looks pretty interesting. The only obvious drawback is the distance from other cities.
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.
Nice touch of Burzum briefly in the intro.
Honestly I think this place is beautiful
ой да ладно .....самый депрессивный.....можно сотню мест найти гораздо похреновее
Я родился в Норильске
Да это полный зомбилэнд
Улетев из России не хочу возвращаться туда никогда
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
Thanks for the random Germans-capturing-Soviets pics. Just to spice things up.
Most Soviets soldiers who had been prisoners of war, were sent to the Gulags after the war. Stalin's way of thanking them for their service.
This is where we were raised, the real Russia, outside of the two cities consistently shown on tv.
Omg 😳 I'm never going to complain about my city again !!
You should. No community is perfect and healthy criticism helps to make it better. Many people in Russia don't complain and live in shitholes. I'm telling you this as Russian. Please complain. People deserve best conditions they can get
Wow Miisaj thanks for the tip
Quality video, nice work!
You needed 6 minutes of Gulag scenes
yet half your screentime is german and american soldiers from WW2
Sets the base for your "good video" - must be well researched
🤓
holy fuck that city looks beautiful
OP should do a video on Hillbrow in Johannesburg.
This is a really great video. Can’t wait to see the next one. Subbed
А я гулял по Набережной Магадана зимой и без рукавиц ..
Как ты набрал на клаве текст сообщения без рук?
@@4ik4irik43 Он держал нос закрытым
Great first video mate! Keep it up
so...IRL frost punk?
Yup
Im born here, im leve here. My father came here to earn money, and worked for Norilsk Nickel for 32 years, died in poverty, at the age of 58, from cancer. 3 years after retirement. Seriously, don't listen to those who are trying to find the positives here, it's something like Stockholm Syndrome.
Why pictures of Russian pow's of the Germans?
A town like this would make a good novel.
basically the whole russia is pretty depressing, because there is no freedom, no democracy, only one dictator who is the “president” since 2000
lol you think western countries have democracy