Welcome to the local history museum in Dudinka on Taimyr with exhibitions devoted to the exploration of the North and history of modern times.

Exhibits related to exploration of the North.

Ships used by pioneers to explore the Far north.

100 years have passed since the northern seaway was explored.

Polar aircraft. ‘Northern seaway’

The plane reminds of a flying boat.

Space probe. Local life would be impossible if a weather forecast wasn’t available.

An astrocompass is used to define the aviation course with the sun, moon and stars.

A heliograph is an appliance that enables automatic registration of sunshine duration during a day or when the sun is not behind the clouds. It is also used to transmit messages by way of sun beam reflection.

Division in history. The mount is devoted to the honorary citizen Alexander Kizim who took in charge of the sea port.  He invented a dam that could protect bays from all-destroying ice drifts.

A marine tractor.

Bulk-carrier.

General view of the sea port.

Heroes of labour.

Nordwick bay.

The bay shares its coast among the Taimyr peninsula and Yakutia. The Laptev sea denotes the very middle part of the sea way. Today the territory embraces abandoned villages and cemeteries both human and technical. It’s hard to imagine that the place was inhabited only 50 years ago.

It is known that at the war time the bay supplied Norilsk with salt and used convict labor.

In 1933-1953 Nordwick was developed for copper, salt and oil. Before the war a huge sum of money was invested into construction of villages and railway.

However, the expectations weren’t satisfied. In 1948 it was accepted that further development of the place was far from being rational. “Things found in Nordwick in 1990″

Everyday objects.

Corrective labour camp executed from 1935 to 1956.

The exhibition is devoted to the war time.

Admiral Scheer was a Deutschland-class heavy cruiser (often termed a pocket battleship) which served with the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during the World War II. On August 1942 it met a Russian icebreaker while carrying out a secret operation. The latter went down in a losing battle but could send a warning to the nearest port. When the cruise came closer to the port it faced opposition and had to leave empty-handed.

A standard dwelling of the after-war time.

Establishment of the Soviet power in the region of Taimyr.

Tools of geologists.

A spinning wheel.

There was a fishing plant almost in every large populated place. “Let’s send fish to the battlefield! What have you done for the front line?”

The Soviet power in the north.

Inside the tent – house of the locals.

Heating appliance.

Calculating machine.

A gramophone and a globe. ‘What is your contribution into illiteracy elimination?’

The area is inhabited by indigenous groups such as the Nenets and Enets.

A white bear is the lord of northern ice.

Life of an animal inhabiting the north is very difficult. The geese are attacking the polar fox.

The flesh-bird has caught another partridge.

The musk-ox occupies an intermittent position between bulls and sheep.  The experiment on reintroduction of musk-oxen or former inhabitants of this place started in the middle of 1970 in the region of Taimyr. Imported musk-oxen found the conditions good enough. Right now the place in inhabited by 4 thousand of these animals. According to its way of life, the animal stands close to a sheep. There are 20-30 heads in every flock. It can climb up rocks, eat moss and lichen and is strong enough to protect its offspring from beasts.

Hunting wild deers.

The Enets consist of people inhabiting tundra and forest. A small number of the indigenous people is left. In spite of the fact there are just 160 of them they managed to preserve the culture and traditional language.

Ceremonial clothes of deer hunters.

Attire and furnishings used by children and adolescents.

Summer clothes of the Dolgans. They appeared on the territory of Taimyr in the 18th century. There are around 20 types of their clothes including furs for a winter and cloth wool decorated with beads and furs for a summer.

There are only 300 Evenkis left today. In the end of the 19 century they were engaged in hunting and fishing leading an isolated life. The wandering people had a few household articles.

A tent of the wandering people of the north.

These are swore enemies – a wolf and a deer.

Fish is a valuable food source for local inhabitants.

These ones are dried.

Behind the exhibit with fishes there is a figure wearing a suit that belonged to a real shaman. Taking pictures is not allowed here.

Some domestic appliances. “Part of a deer rig”

A set of furnishings worn by local women.

Instruments of labour.

Talismans and toys.

“The sculpture of a seal.  The Eskimos”

“Family talisman”

The articles are made of bone by modern artists.

The skin of a deer.

The souvenirs are at sale.

Animals from the Taimyr peninsula.

To see the exhibits one must climb the second floor.

The first shopwindow states: “Rock formations of the archaea which started 4500-2700 million years ago”

Fern remains.

The stones are contemporaries of dinosaurs.

Mesozoic ammonites.

Ammonites are an extinct group of marine invertebrate animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. Ammonites were often called “horns of Ammon” because the Egyptian god Ammon was typically depicted wearing ram’s horns.

Ammonites had an external shell consisting of several spirals located in the same plane.

The shell was divided into many chambers and only one of them close to the aperture was inhabited.

Some other shells.

Unknown remains.

A mammoth.

Its tusks.

Location: Taimyr

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