Children take part in a holiday camp inside a school building in Norilsk. Most children are sent to 'the mainland' (ie Russia proper) to their grandparents for their holidays or they go to holiday camps in other parts of the country. For those parents who can't afford to send their children away, holiday camps are organised locally with lots of activities.
The city of Norilsk, in the far north of Russia's Krasnoyarsk region, was founded in the 1920s and today has a population of just over 175,000. In its early years it served as the centre of Norillag (or the Norilsk Corrective Labour Camp) but was given town status in 1953 as the Gulag system was slowly winding down. Today the city is largely dependent on MMC Norilsk Nickel, the world's leading producer of Nickel and palladium and Norilsk's main employer. In 2001, the city was closed to all non-Russians, except for citizens of Belarus.