5 decades on, residential complex in Chhattisgarh still stands testimony to India-Russia bond

A walk through the heart of 'steel city' Bhilai in Chhattisgarh leads to a beautifully landscaped residential colony which came up for Russians in late 1970s. Located in the middle of wide roads lined with lush green trees, the premises named ‘Russian Complex’ still stands firmly, symbolising the bond between India and Russia, though no Russians live there any more.

The history of the complex, located 40 kilometres from capital Raipur, is related to the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), one of the first integrated steel units set up in the country in 1950s with the collaboration of the then Soviet Union. Dr Rajendra Prasad, the then President of India, inaugurated the BSP in 1959 in Bhilai in the undivided Madhya Pradesh and now located in Chhattisgarh's Durg district.

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The plant attracted a large number of people from other states including Bihar, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh for jobs, which gave rise to a cosmopolitan culture and the Bhilai sector area township with multiple facilities. As the plant was built with Russian technology, technicians and experts from that country also stayed here for more than four decades and worked in the plant. In February 1955, an agreement was signed between India and the Soviet Union for the integrated iron and steel plant in Bhilai and since then the influx of Russians started here, retired BSP officials told PTI.

During the initial days, engineers and experts from Russia along with their Indian counterparts stayed in Durg circuit house where tents were also set up for accommodating them, said Kiran Kapoor, who retired as executive director (material management) from the BSP in 2010. They were later shifted to Bhilai Niwas, which is now known as ‘Bhilai Hotel’. In late 1970s, the sprawling Russian Complex, which had 153 houses, was built for them in Sector-7 of the Bhilai township, he said. “I had a lot of friends in the Russian Complex.

We never felt like outsiders as they mixed up with us and even celebrated Indian festivals. Like me, other Indians who worked in the plant used to spend time with the Russians there,” Kapoor said. Till 1984-85, several Russian experts continued to work in the plant, but their presence started diminishing later with the introduction of technologies from other countries like Germany, Canada and Austria during the expansion of the plant, he said. A few Russian experts worked in the plant till 2007-08 for operation and management of its blast furnace.

But, they had vacated the Russian Complex long before that, he said. Despite Russians no longer staying in the complex, its name was never changed. It still signifies the cordial relations between India and Russia, Kapoor said. Ludmila Mukherji (59) is among some of those Russian women who married Indians and settled in Bhilai. Her memory of the Russian Complex exhibits its joyful scene.

“I met Subrato Mukherjee in Ukraine in 1980 when he was there to pursue an engineering course. We got married in 1985 and I came with him here in 1986," she said. Ludmila Mukherji said she initially worked as secretary to a general manager in the BSP from the Russian side and later as an interpreter. Her husband retired from the BSP in 2019. She now owns a boutique here and lives in Sector-10, close to the Russian Complex.

“Though I was not living in the Russian Complex, my initial days in Bhilai were mostly spent there. I even used to teach the wife of some Russian BSP officials in the complex. I can never forget those days,” she said. She became emotional remembering those days and said she could not specify precisely when the Russians started vacating the complex, but it was sometime in the early 1990s. “My father was from Russia and mother from Ukraine. I have family members in both the countries," she said.

Ludmila last visited Ukraine and Russia in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. Subir Daripa, who retired from the BSP's public relations department this year, said Russians had very close relations with Indians in Bhilai. “The Russians were never sort of segregated from the rest of the Indian population in Bhilai. It was not like that Indians were not allowed inside the Russian Complex. We have seen the Russians since our childhood. They used to visit local vegetable market carrying bags. Potatoes were their favourite,” Daripa said. He said a well landscaped swimming pool for Russians in the complex, which has now become a part of the Bhilai Management Development Centre set up there, also fascinated them at that time.

"We still remember the weekly and annual cultural programmes which used to held in the complex under the Indo-Soviet Forum," he said. After the Russians started vacating the complex, the houses were allotted to BSP officials. Though there are no Russians in the complex now, the place still reminds of them, he said.