Norilsk, Siberia, Hell with the Lid On

Randy Olson

Freelance/ National Geographic

Norilsk, Siberia, is the largest town in the world north of the Arctic Circle and the most polluted. Stalin built this town as a gulag to send political prisoners to work camps at the nickel mines and smelters. Conditions at the Norilsk mine and smelter haven't changed much since Stalin. The mine is one of Russia's many environmental problems ignored today because of economic pressures. And residents are unable to leave - the cost of living elsewhere is too great.

Randy Olson, "Norilsk, Siberia, Hell with the Lid On," in POYi Archive, Item #31752, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/31752 (accessed June 7, 2025).