Located along the right bank of the Ob River, Nizhnevartovsk is the center of the West Siberian oil-producing region and one of the wealthiest cities in the country. Founded in 1909, it developed into a large city in the 1960s, with the discovery of the gigantic Samotlor Oil Field, the largest in the country. Basically, its history truly began in Brezhnev era, the Soviets building the city from scratch. If in WWII, there were only about 500 residents in Nizhnevartovsk (fishermen, hunters and timber merchants), in nowadays the city has a quarter of a million permanent residents.
The surrounding environment was also transformed. The bogs above the Samotlor field's oil deposits are now covered with a network of roads, artificial sand "pads" necessary to provide stable drilling platforms and gas flares. The building of Nizhnevartovsk and the infrastructure required was achieved against tremendous odds. The surrounding marshes were the main obstacle. A spot of interest in city is the Church of Nativity of Jesus, built in the 1990s, that stands incongruously against the backdrop of high-rise apartment blocks with six golden domes - an unusual number in Orthodoxy.
About the stamp
The stamp is part of the series issued for XXII Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014, about which I wrote here.
References
Nizhnevartovsk - The Moscow Times
Nizhnevartovsk - Wikipedia
Sender: Inna (direct swap)
Sent from Nizhnevartovsk (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug / Russia), on 26.04.2012
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