Norilsk: The Greeks on the “frozen roof” of the planet [Εικόνες]
“Good evening from Norilsk, guys! Now it’s like summer, about nine degrees below zero, and the weather is very nice. I hope you like our city“, Says, in perfect Greek, in the short video sent to us by the Arctic Circle, Sergei Uhanyov.
There, on the “frozen roof” of the planetfive thousand kilometers from Moscow, Norilsk, where winter passes without sun and summer with white nights, the blue and white flag flutters, betraying the Greek presence in the northernmost city of the world.
Sergei, Eleni and Kassandra hold the reins of the Greek community in political Norilsk, an industrial city on the Arctic Circle, founded by Stalin in the 1930s (1935), with people sent there or motivated by the “long ruble” (high wage), or as “residents of the forced labor camps”, the well-known Gulag.
Norilsk is a city of 250,000 inhabitants, who are mobile. Every year, by plane, which is almost the only transport, but also for two summer months by boat, new residents arrive in the city, while the old ones pack their bags and return to the mainland, in the interior of Russia!
Elena Bogachenko was in Norilsk in 1996, Sergei Uhanyov in 2006 and Kassandra Kiyantzopoulou in 2010. Each of them has its own story and all together they walk a common path, through the Hellenic Association that they founded.
“It’s getting dark these days. The political night, which started on November 30, leaves on January 13. “The sun appears, but only on the horizon, while in the city it does not appear at all”, says Sergei Uhanyov to the Athenian / Macedonian News Agency and states that he is proud that fourteen years ago he was the inspirer and one of the creators of the Hellenic Association in Norilsk.
“Sergei Uhanyov, although a Russian, is an ardent philhellene. “As soon as I learned that I am of Greek origin, he insisted on finding other Greeks in Norilsk and founding the first and only Greek Association in the Arctic Circle, which we achieved in 2007”, Elena Bogachenko, the first president of the Association, emphasizes in APE-MPE, while 40-year-old Kassandra Kijantzopoulos, who was elected new president three months ago, believes that she will be able to attract more people of Greek origin to Norilsk.
“I know, so far, about 100 people with Greek roots. Not all of them are members of our club, we have a long way to go”says to ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ.
“Rossopoulos from Pantikapaion”, vice-president of the Hellenic Norilsk Association
Sergei Uhanyov worked for 15 years at the Mining and Metallurgical Company “Norilsk Nickel” and at the same time was active in the association, from the position of vice-president. “I insisted on creating the Greek association, with the first members of the Greek language courses. “Strange as it may seem, I learned Greek on icy winter nights, with minus 40 and minus 60 degrees in Norilsk,” he says.
Sergei Uhanyov is now preparing to leave Norilsk and return to Crimea, his hometown. “I have another homeland, spiritual, Greece. My life revolves between Crimea – Norilsk and Greece, with which we also have a professional relationship, since my wife runs our company, based in Crimea and the name” Kalamata ». “We supply Greek olives to all of Russia,” said Sergei Uhanyov.
He made many friendships in Greece and can talk about them. “Kostas, Violeta (…) Nikos Triados and Katerina Maina, opened the soul of the Greek to me. This is not bought with any tourist package”, he says and reveals to us: “From a young age I knew that Greece belongs to me, Rosopoulos “.
Immersed in Greek mythology -born in the city of Kerch- as a child I heard that my homeland was called Pantikopey (s.s. in ancient Greece, Kerch in eastern Crimea was called Pantikapaion). “Everything” Greek in my place, I “adopted” and of course from a young child I was looking to learn Greek “.
Much later, as a young man, Sergei Uhanyov served on the ship Azov BDK * of the Black Sea Fleet, passing dozens of times across the Aegean and observing the Greek islands, dreaming of showing Greece. “In 1998 my dream came true. We came to Pylos by boat. There I learned my first Greek words!”remembers.
In extreme northern conditions, we learned Greek
Elena Bogachenko insisted that we communicate by video call, to show us the Greek corner of her apartment in Norilsk, where they saw objects, paintings and souvenirs, as well as embroidery from Greece. He listens all day to “Radio Kalamata” (he has friends there) and “Agency 104.9 FM”.
“I listen to the radio for the Greek speech, but more for the Greek music, which calmed my soul in the winter psyche”, says the former president of the Hellenic Association for 14 years. As a piano teacher and a graduate of the Institute of Culture in Ukraine, Eleni Bogatshenko was for many years the director of the Norilsk Municipality Cultural Center.
“I was busy with the politics of all Norilsk nationalities, and I did not have time to think about organizing the few Greeks in the city. December 2007 I was elected President. In the same year, 2008, we started modern Greek language courses. Although we did not find a Greek teacher in Norilsk, a member of the association, Louisa, who was learning Greek on her own from the textbooks, suggested that she teach us what she was learning. “With patience and perseverance, little by little, we started writing and reading Greek,” he explains.
Elena Bogachenko’s dream was to continue her life in Greece: “After 25 years, the dark winters closed in the warm apartment, I think I want to live in Greece now. I will not return to Ukraine due to the war situation. The only thing that bothers me is that my daughter and son do not intend to leave Norilsk. Here they grew up, here they fell in love and got married, had children. “They believe that their life in Norilsk is secure, with good salaries, and it is good.”
Speaking about Greece, where she wants to move, Elena Bogachenko remembers and tells stories.: “When, for the first time in Athens, I climbed the Acropolis, I approached a column, hugged it with both my hands and kissed it. The guard came and said to me:” lady, no! “. I did not know Greek yet, but” “”, a word associated with the history of Greece, I understood it, since every year we enthusiastically celebrate the national anniversaries, March 25 and October 28, the day of NO “, he emphasizes.
In Norilsk I raised the Greek flag for the first time
“In this place, far from it, I fulfilled my dream, to hold the Greek flag at an event in Greece for the national communities of Norilsk,” says the current president of the Hellenic Association, Kassandra Kigiantzopoulou. “In Patras, a child of Greek returnees from Kazakhstan, excellent school, in 1996, I was not allowed to become a flag bearer, because I was a” foreigner “να I remained complaining all my life. Surprisingly, I was treated in Norilsk when at an eventI, in a Greek traditional costume, held our flag “, says Kassandra, with great emotion.
She insists that her first concern as president of the association is the teaching of the Greek language. “I am not a philologist, I graduated from the School of Economics of the University of PatrasI know Greek and English well – I had a master’s degree in the USA “, he adds, pointing out that he ended up in the Arctic Circle by chance.
“I went to Russia for work, there I met my future husband, who was already working at Norilsk Nickel as a miner. So, love brought me to the Arctic Circle, where both of our children were born, ten-year-old Nikos and five-year-old Victoria. “he says with obvious joy.
Asked how the daily life of children is in one of the coldest cities in the world, with negative temperatures that last about 240 days a year, he says: “It is definitely to raise children in a difficult city without trees, parks… But children have the opportunity to engage in various activities. There are employment centers for children and young people, while our club is hosted in a large library that has different places of employment. “Our son, Nikolaos, does martial arts, judo, in a sports school”.
Cassandra herself opened her own English language school. “From the beginning of the new year, together with the philologist, Diana Tzeiranidou, we started a new action in the association: we speak only Greek”, says and adds, as every year, the Association of Greeks of Norilsk, observing all protection measures. from covid, will participate again this year in the summer festival of the city. “Our area is the home of us all”emphasizes.
Year after year, Greek songs, Greek dances and Greek cuisine won the hearts and souls of its fellow citizens from various nationalities of Norilsk. Our conversation is interrupted by her five-year-old daughter, who shouts in Greek: “Mom, I want a cookie!”, She says. “In a little while, my love”, Kassandra answers and explains to us with pride: “Inside the house I speak to the children only in Greek, so that they can learn their mother tongue”.
Source: ΑΠΕ ΜΠΕ
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