Every spring, the cranes in the Arctic port of Dudinka are shifted several hundred metres away from the banks of the Yenisei River — with good reason. The river rises 8m when it thaws, tossing chunks of ice into anything blocking its path. Annual repairs cost more than $1-million.
Dudinka, 320km inside the Arctic Circle, is the gateway to Russia’s ice-bound northern shipping lanes, taking metals from the heart of Siberia up the Yenisei to the Arctic Ocean and from there to destinations all over the world.
”And it’s probably the only port in the world where the cranes have to be moved every year,” said Nikolai Kostetsky, head of administration at the port.
About 4,5-million tonnes of goods pass through the port every year, mostly from the smelters of Norilsk Nickel, which supplies a fifth of the world’s nickel and more than half its palladium.
Norilsk, which owns the port, is building five â,¬80-million new ships. The first was launched last year and the last will be ready by 2009.
Stalin’s camps
A settlement has existed at Dudinka for 340 years, but its modern existence began in 1935.
Among the first arrivals were 1 000 political prisoners exiled to Russia’s frozen north by Josef Stalin to exploit mineral resources and build a smelter in Norilsk, 80km to the east.
More than 300 000 people were held in the Gulag camps between 1935 and 1956. Many others died from the journey.
From such grisly beginnings, Dudinka has developed into a town of 28 000 people, mostly port workers and scientists. Buildings are painted bright blue and pink, and water pipes run above ground to avoid the permafrost.
The average year-round temperature is 14,7 degrees Celsius below zero, occasionally hitting minus 60. It is dark for six weeks in the winter.
The port closes only for a month, during the thaw in late May and early June.
The Yenisei, 5km wide at Dudinka, is clear of ice for 131 days a year and in winter icebreakers cut a path through the frozen water.
On the ice
”When you’re on the ice, you feel the vibrations,” Sergei Kamyshev, a senior assistant ship captain, said as he sipped tea on the bridge of the Finnish-built Kapitan Danilkin. Dudinka is his favourite among Russia’s Arctic ports.
”The port works well. We never have any problems here, and with two weeks’ rest for loading it’s possible to get things done and to relax a little.”
While Kamyshev relaxes in the ship’s recreation room or visits the newly revamped Arktika movie theatre, 11 000 tonnes of copper from Norilsk — worth more than $80-million at current prices — are loaded for the six-day voyage through the Arctic Ocean to Arkhangelsk in north-western Russia.
”I love you, Dudinka,” says a mural on the main street and a banner covering the entire side of an apartment block proclaims: ”Town, port, destiny”.
But its destiny is not clear and not everybody loves it, evidenced by a declining population.
The average monthly wage of 28 000 roubles ($1 077) is more than double the Russian average, but food and everyday products, shipped from thousands of kilometres away, are more expensive.
Kostetsky has worked in Dudinka for 36 years. His son has already left for relatively warmer climes, and he dreams of his native Odessa. ”One day I may return to the Black Sea.” — Reuters