The City That Should Not Exist

In the center of Norilsk, on a wall next to the entrance to City Hall, a huge, year-old poster proudly commemorates the 50th anniversary of the city’s official founding: “Norilsk is 50. And it is just a beginning.”

The urge to congratulate this northern city on its birthday wheezes away when you look around, gulping in the city’s hopelessly polluted air. Instead, you really feel like asking: “Norilsk, how much longer can this go on?”