Novouralsk: The Pearl of the Urals

This is the town living under pseudonyms. Many of us remember it as Sverdlovsk-44 after its “mailbox” index. Many call it Verkh-Neyvinsk after the railway station and adjusted village. But it’s official name is Novouralsk, as it was called in 1954.

Novouralsk is a closed administrative-territorial entity according to the Russian Federation law “About closed administrative-territorial entity”

Novouralsk is situated on the Eastern slopes of the Ural mountains, in the upper reaches of the Neyva river, near the Verkh-Neyvinsky pond, in about 67 kilometers to the north of Ekaterinburg.

It’s hard to imagine now, but 65 years ago in the countryside of the Urals the town was born, that was destined to play a special role in our history; it’s here the significant part of the work for the creation of the nuclear shield of our country would be done. Once there were only the remote ural taiga and swamps, where the town is now. Human conquered a remote lot of forest land, dignified it and built a beautiful and modern town. Today, turning the pages of its history makes you wonder who and how was building Novouralsk?

Prehistory

The origin of Novouralsk began from the reclamation of spare land near Verkh-Neyvinsk railway station. The station was built in 1878 on the railroad brunch Ekaterinburg – Nizhniy Tagil.

In 1926 Sverdlovskiy department of Perm railroad began the erection of sanitarium for railroaders, to the south-west of Verkh-Neyvinsk railway station. The place was the most convenient; the Verkh-Neyvinskiy pond joined by the creek with the unique lake Tavatuy, surrounded by mountains treed with pines, spruces, birches, quaking asps and silver-firs; clear air, large finny pond, proximity to administrative center and railway station.

That years suburban train ran from Sverdlovsk station to Verkh-Neyvinsk station, by which the vacationer arrived. N.K. Salamatov was appointed as a first director of the sanitarium, then he was replaced by V.M. Tsapaev. In 1935, when Gornozavodskaya railroad was fully electrified, electric train began to operate in this route.

One more organization to begin building here was All-Soviet Union trust “Sovhozstroymaterialy”. By 1937, it has built a garage of Verkh-Neyvinskaya wood storage place on the right bank of the Bunarka river. The garage included a place for motor maintenance, covered parking, overground warehouse for combustibles and lubricants and others. The garage director in 1937-1939 was N.P. Cheblakov.

In 1939 the erection of sanitarium “Uralskiy mashinostroitel” (the Ural mechanic engineer) for Uralmashzavod workers began.

The perspective of building the resort town was real, but the plans were disrupted by the war.

The town is born

Most often the date of birth of a town is the date of the first document execution on its territory or the date of first offtake if the town is tied to a town-forming plant.

Our town has three dates of birth.

The first date

In the beginning of the Second World War the Soviet government enacted several important regulations for reconstruction of the existing aircraft factories and building new ones.

In 1940 in the administration of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks an aircraft department and a special committee were established. They supervised the building of the new aircraft enterprises. It was planned to double the number of aircraft factories to the end of 1941. The aircraft manufacture needed light alloys. The building of three plants for light metal junk melting began. One of them, the plant #484 was in the Urals.

The plant building began in the end of February and beginning of March, 1941. The Council of People's Commissars of USSR decreed to range it in a class of top-priority project. According to an old Ural tradition it was built as a plant-settlement. The 23rd unit of the Moscow building aircraft department chose the building place near Verkh-Neyvinsk railway station on purpose. Everything needed was there: the proximity to metals industry, raw materials, power, water and forest resources, skilled personnel availability.

For the building of the plant #484 389,5 hectares of land were provided from the national land resources; including 187 hectares for residential buildings. Deforestation and swamp drainage began. The first industrial and residential buildings laid the foundation of the future Novouralsk town.

In the beginning of March, 1941 M.N. Grechushnikov, acting Installations director of plant #484 sent by People's commissariat, arrived from Moscow. Later the erection was headed by D.A. Illarionov.

As the Great Patriotic War began, the enterprises of the western regions of the country started being evacuated to the east. In June the first echelons arrived to the Urals. The arrivals settled in Verkh-Neyvinskiy village, in schools and private houses. V.A. Polyakov was appointed as an Installations director of plant #484.

The first building was a small wooden cement bulk storage near the Bunarka river crossing to the plant “B”. In July, 1941 the building of the woodworking plant that produced panelized houses began where now Zarechnaya St. is situated.

Near Uralskaya mountain 25 veneer four-room houses were built and tent camp of 25 tents was established. On the map of the future town one of the first settlements appeared; “Fanerny” (Veneer), later named as “Zeleny Fanerny” (Green Veneer). The construction was lead by A.S. Pybakov.

In July the construction of barracks for detention camp ITK-11 NKVD began, in August a motorway across the settlement to the plant had to be built. In Autumn the first panelized houses appeared over Uralskaya mountain. This settlement was called “Pervomayskoe” (after the date of 1st May)

The plant was built by prisoners, installers, organizational recruitment workers, evacuated people, refugees from the immediate battle area and local public.

In October, 1941, the echelons of installers (military unit 1481) began to arrive. The same time the Central military hospital – “Arkhangelskoe” sanitarium was evacuated from Moscow. (The head of the hospital was a health service colonel Y.A. Oshmarin.) Three echelons were unloaded where now water station is situated. The hospital was accommodated in the building of “Uralsky mashinostroitel” sanitarium. In the middle of December it accepted the first injured. Today this building belongs to the boarding-school #53. The memorial tablet in a school museum sais that there in 1942-1943 the military hospital “Arkhangelskoe” was situated.

With more and more evacuated in the new settlement there was a drastic shortage of the residential space. All the effort was hurled into building it: one by one the new houses appeared in the settlements “Postoyanny” (Permanent), “Vremenny” (Temporary), “Fanerny”, “Pervomaysky”, GULAG. The veneer houses were sized 10x10 meters; the walls were filled with wood cuttings and veneered from the both sides. The houses were divided into 4 rooms, and 4 families lived in each house. The barracks were pre-fabricated and panelized. They were made in the woodworking plant and put together on-site. They were quick to put together. For example, one brigade made the barrack for 36 hours; they were awarded with an Order of Lenin for this.

In 1942 in “Postoyanny” settlement were already the first houses built: ##33, 35, 37. They were built of sided timber brought from Solikamsky woodworking plant. These eight 12-apartment wooden houses can still be seen today in the main Street of the town – Lenin St. The people of Novouralsk preserved them as a kind of landmarks of the period, replacing the old “internals” with the new ones and coating with tile.

In 1943 the bulks of the plant were almost ready. But the enterprise was planned before the war for german equipment. Of course, the equipment from German didn’t arrive, so the startup of a plant didn’t happen.

In the Spring, 1944 the plant #261 producing landing gears was relocated from Berezovsk (Sverdlovsk region) to the construction sites of the plant #484. The plant #484 was united with the plant of Berezovsk. The integrated plane (#484 and #216) got the name of State Union Plant #261 of People's commissariat of aircraft industry. The Plant #261 was working up to the December, 1945.

After the Victory the plants evacuated to the east and supplying the frontline began to phase down. December 1, 1945 the plant #261 was passed to the First Head Office affiliated with Council of Ministers of the USSR. The settlement had no common name. Administrative-territorial government was carried out by Nevyansk district council through the plant administration, omitting Verkh-Neyvinsk settlement council.

The industrial site of the plant #261, according to the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was passed for the building of a new plant manufacturing enriched uranium.

The second date

This is the date of the first echelons of installers arrival for the building of the first gas diffusion plant in our country; the plant #813 producing enriched uranium. The date is December 25, 1945.

From the beginning of 1946, the building of the new plant and settlement began. There was no basis of the building industry, no machinery, and no building staff. But the task was: to create a plant of infant industry and a town with all the facilities as soon as possible.

There was a drastic shortage of machinery. According to the documents of 1946, the builders had the following transportations:

5 locomotives

71 motor vehicles

298 horses

Manual labor prevailed. The loads were lifted by the cranes with the capacity of 500 kilograms or manually. Mortar and concrete were made on the temporary plants and delivered by trucks. The first excavators appeared the next year.

Where ural taiga was the new engineering buildings began to grow and the workers’ settlement with them.

In 1947 the constructions of the objects on the second industrial cite (the town’s mechanical, electrical and heating basis) began. The same year were put in commission^

The first permanent school for 420 people, on Stroiteley St. and the first day-care on Pervomayskaya St.

The first permanent houses ## 5, 7, 10, and 28, on Lenin St.

The first permanent shop “Kamenny” (the Stonewall one), on Lenin St.

Administrative buildings ## 9 and 11 on Dzerzhinskogo St.

In the summer of 1947 the first summer camp was opened for children of the builders.

The research advisor of the works of enriched uranium-235 manufacture by the gas diffusion method was a corresponding member of Academy of Sciences of the USSR I.K. Kikoin. I.K. KIkoin was one of the first physicists who began their work with I.V. Kurchatov for the nuclear science and technology development in 1943. He was be fully engaged in the creation of the Nuclear Energy Institute after I.V. Kurchatov, where he worked till the end of his life. There’s no documented proof but the legend sais that I.K. Kikoin personally participated in the site finding for the industrial site. The Urals were preferred to Middle Volga.

In June 1949 the main task of the party and government was done. The first line of Ural Electrochemical Integrated Plant was put in commission, and the first production was made; 75% of U-235 isotope. It took three years to build 68,000 square meters of production area, industrial water supply and electricity supply complex.

By August, 1949, in our country with the efforts of Special committee affiliated with the Council of Ministers of the USSR with all the industry branches, many institutes and laboratories development design offices and design centers, many specialists, workers and even prisoners involved, the objects, enterprises, plants and organizations were created, that allowed to make the first nuclear explosive and test it on the Semipalatinsky shooting ground. It took four years total.

The collective with the unique scientific and creative potential formed in the plant during the period of the first gas diffusion installation and putting into operation in 1949-1952. The chosen diffusion method was based on the diffusion of UF6 in a gaseous form. This gas, as an isotopic mixture of U-238 and U-235, was pumped through cascades of porous nickel filters. For the construction of hundreds of thousands of such filters the process with the high level of automatization was developed. The effect was based on the different filter penetration for U-238 and U-235 isotopes.

This method had one substantial drawback – the extreme power consumption. For that case a powerful thermal electric power station in Verkhniy Tagil had to be built. Energy demanding means expensive. But the first hundreds of kilograms of metallic uranium-235 (U-235 critical mass is about 25 kilograms) for nuclear bombs were made by this method in 1949. The first nuclear bomb of U-235 was tested in 1951. Our integrated plant was the first in the Soviet Union to diffuse isotopes by the means of gaseous centrifuge. Nowadays the new generation of centrifuges, with much higher productivity then of previous models is used. These centrifuges can work nonstop for 15 years with failure level less then 0.1 per cent per year. Suffice to say that 50% of all diffusional powers worldwide is in Novouralsk. Here is something to be proud of in our science and technology!

With the plant growth, the settlement developed too. With the special resolution of Novouralsk infrastructure development, April 6, 1950, Council of Ministers of the USSR defined to start multistoried urban development. By that time the following urban objects had already been built: two schools, bath, canteen, “Rodina” cinema, residential buildings in Lenin St., Stroiteley St., Mayakovsky St., Mamin-Sibiryak St. and Pervomayskaya St. Before the 1955 year was out 122,300 square meters of living area were built, main building of the hospital, polyclinic, birthing centre, stadium for 5,000 seats, technical school, cultural center and other objects were put in commission.

April 23, 1956, City soviet of working people's deputies adopted a plan of the perspective town development. It provided heavy increase of housing construction, the Bunarka river beautification, bread-baking plant and new hospital complex building.

The third date

“Verkh-Neyvinsk settlement”, “department #2”, “Base #5”, “Construction #865”, “Mailbox 16”; these names and addresses the town had during fledging period and construction of the plant #813.

It took thirteen years to build the residential place, town-forming plants changed: plant #484, #261, Middle-Ural Copper-smelting Plant UEIP, and still the settlement had no name and local government – the Council of labor deputies. All the functions of the government were executed by the Administrative-executive department affiliated with the plant director and Installations director of the plant #865.

On March 17, 1954 only by the presidium decree of Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR the nameless settlement got the status of town and its own name Novo-Uralsk, but still continued living under “numeral” name of Sverdlovsk-44.

Closing the town

“We’re from Minsredmash”; well-known phrase for the pioneers of our unique gas-diffusion plant that gave birth to our town. With the decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, june 26, 1953 the Medium-scale engineering ministry (Ministerstvo srednego mashinostroeniya, or Minsredmash) was organized on the base of enterprises and organizations of the liquidated First, Second and Third main headquarters affiliated with the Council of Ministers of the USSR and submit to Special committee affiliated with the Council of Ministers of the USSR. There was good reason to place five of ten “closed towns” of Minsredmash on the Urals; in war-time the region had turned into the most industrial region of the country. Hundreds of enterprises were evacuated here from the west; with well-prepared engineers and workers. Also it was taken into account that the Urals are rich with natural resources and that in ural taiga it was easy to provide the level of top-secrecy Joseph Stalin insisted on. These and other arguments played their roles in favor of the decision of the placement of the first enterprises for uranium and plutonium manufacture for nuclear bombs in the Urals.

The first project of housing development of Novouralsk town (the enterprise settlement then) was developed by Leningrad design institute GSPI-II.

Urban environment in closed towns then could be defined as “Developed socialism”.

All the establishments and transport worked on schedule, people was low-abiding and as a rule had higher, secondary technical or secondary education. The nuclear integrated plants, research institutes, design-engineering department and testing ground were the town-forming basis of the “closed” towns.

High scientific potential and new technologies allowed to release the product of the highest quality, exceeding foreign analogues by many parameters. Everyone worked with the sense of the state significance of the performed tasks.

These towns’ architectural look was original too, as they were built according to the single general plan. The basis of the housing development were density and complexity, that was a significant distinction from the most towns and cities on the “mainland”.

The problem of renaming Sverdlovsk-44, as in the case of the other “closed” towns (Krasnoyarsk-26, Tomsk-7 etc.) appeared in the autumn of 1991, with the request of agencies of geodesy and cartography about under what names should the towns be placed on the new map of the Russian Federation. From that time the question of renaming became one of most important for the citizens. Plebiscite was lead. 12 variants were suggested for Sverdlovsk-44. Among them: Bunarsk, Verkh-Neyvinsk, Novouralsk, Ekaterinburg-44, Demidovsk, Atomgrad. 76% per cent of the pollees were in favour of Verkh-Neyvinsk.

But the RF Government Decree of January 4, 1994 set the record straight. The names officially reserved to the towns and denoted in 1954 were returned to them. (By the way, in those days the name Novouralsk already was written on the deputative and party membership cards and certificates and was used on the official stamps and some documents until 1966.)

That’s how the name of our town was released from “confidential” classification level. But the name got joined-up writing; Novouralsk, not Novo-Uralsk.

Who named the town this way is unknown now. There are many different legends about it, but not documented. As G.D. Zavada, the honorary citizen of our town, recalls: “We’ve got the letter from the Ministry and the Political administration, they want us to offer the name of our future town. Three variants are needed. The letter is secret, so tell nobody!”

In the book of V.L. Deshkevich “The recall of mass-spectrometrist” we can find the recall about the research advisor of UEIP Mikhail Vasilyevich Yakutovich: “I’ve just reported to Moscow by HF on the request the name I’d invented, it took me less than five minutes, I’ve called the town ‘Novouralsk’.”

The town was released of “confidential” classification level but the new status “Closed Administrative Territorial Unit” appeared. The status appeared in judicial documents in the beginning of 90s, but was enshrined by the RF Law on July 14, 1992, and became operative in 1994. Since 1996 The Closed Administrative Territorial Unit includes Novouralsk and the rural settlements: Murzinka, Taraskovo, Pochinok, Palniki and Elani. The Closed Administrative Territorial Unit has the single territory, self-governing authorities, municipal property and budget.

Due to implementation of the Federal law “About the common principles of organization of local government in the Russian Federation” in 2006 the new interpretation appeared; Novouralskiy Urban Okrug (NUO). Novouralsk town is the center of Novouralskiy Urban Okrug.

The compiler:

Municipal Budgetary Institution of Culture “Public library” of Novouralsky Urban Okrug

Sources used:

Anuryev Y.P. “Novouralsk: years and fates” – Ekaterinburg, 1995. – 402 pages, illustrated.

Beryuhov B.V. [and others] “Familiar strangers: Novouralsk. Lesnoy. Zarechny” – Ekaterinburg: Sokrat publishers, 2006. – 352 pages, illustrated.

Zhidkova O. “On the back streets of our past” – “Neyva” newspaper, December 9, 2003 (#98), p.18.

Nikanorov D. “About ‘the green wave’ and video monitoring” – “Nasha gorodskaya gazeta” newspaper, June 18, 2007 (#29), p.7.

“Novouralsk: inform. Photoalbum”, V.V. Komariv - text author, compiler and layout artist. Novouralsk [library publishers], 1999 – 95 pages, illustrated.

Shmulevich L.A. “Behind the barracks the forest rustled…” – “Neyva” newspaper, February 16, 1999 (#13), p.2.