Perm, Russia

The name Perm is of Uralic etymology (Komi-Permyak: Перем, Perem; Komi: Перым, Perym). Komi is a member of the Permic branch of the Uralic languages, which is also named for Perm. In Finnish and Vepsian perämaa means "far-away land"; similarly, in Hungarian perem means "edge" or "verge". The geologic period of the Permian takes its name from the toponym.

The Kama River in Perm

Map of Perm and the Yagoshikha River, 1898

The city is located on the bank of the Kama River upon hilly terrain. The Kama is the main tributary of the Volga River and is one of the deepest and most picturesque rivers of Russia. This river is the waterway which grants the Ural Mountains access to the White Sea, Baltic Sea, Sea of Azov, Black Sea, and Caspian Sea. The Kama divides the city into two parts: the central part and the right bank part. The city stretches for 70 kilometers (43 mi) along the Kama and 40 kilometers (25 mi) across it. The city street grid parallels the Kama River, travelling generally east–west, while other main streets run perpendicularly to those following the river. The grid pattern accommodates the hills of the city where it crosses them.

Another distinguishing feature of the city's relief is the large number of small rivers and brooks. The largest of them are the Mulyanka, the Yegoshikha, the Motovilikha (all are on the left bank of Kama River), and the Gayva (on the right bank).

Perm has a continental climate with warm summers and long, cold winters.

Perm is located in the old Permiak area. Perm was first mentioned as the village of Yagoshikha (Ягошиха) in 1647; however, the history of the modern city of Perm starts with the development of the Ural region by Tsar Peter the Great. Vasily Tatishchev, appointed by the Tsar as a chief manager of Ural factories, founded Perm together with another major centre of the Ural region, Yekaterinburg.

In the 19th century, Perm became a major trade and industrial centre with a population of more than 20,000 people in the 1860s, with several metallurgy, paper, and steamboat producing factories, including one owned by a British entrepreneur. In 1870, an opera theatre was opened in the city, and in 1871 the first phosphoric factory in Russia was built. In 1916, Perm State University—a major educational institution in modern Russia—was opened.

Pokrovskaya Street (nowadays Lenin street) in central Perm around 1910

This house is a typical example of the wooden buildings of Perm in the early 20th century. Location home: 14a, Klimenko str.

After the outbreak of the Russian Civil War, Perm became a prime target for both sides because of its military munitions factories. It was heavily rumored from July–September 1918 that the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna and her four daughters were imprisoned at the perception and Berezine buildings. According to the File on the Tsar, the Grand Duchess Anastasia would have attempted to flee. On December 25, 1918, the Siberian White Army under Anatoly Pepelyayev (who acknowledged the authority of the Omsk Government of Aleksandr Kolchak), took Perm. On July 1, 1919, the city was retaken by the Red Army.

• Some early color photographs by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, taken in 1910
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  General view of City of Perm
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  General view of the city of Perm from Gorodskiye Gorki
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  Razgulyay, outskirts of the city of Perm
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  Mary Magdalene Church of the city Perm
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  Summertime location of the exchange in the city Perm
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  Prokudin-Gorsky — Staro-Sibirskaya Gate in the city of Perm
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  Kama River near Perm. The bridge still stands today, but another similar bridge has been built alongside it. Both are painted white.
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  Headquarters of the Ural Railway Administration in the city of Perm

Modern city

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The city is a major administrative, industrial, scientific, and cultural[15] centre. The leading industries include machinery, defence, oil production (about 3% of Russian output), oil refining, chemical and petrochemical, timber and wood processing and the food industry.

On September 20, 2021, a mass shooting occurred at Perm State University, resulting in six fatalities and 47 injuries.[16][17][18]

Perm is the administrative centre of the krai and, within the framework of administrative divisions, it also serves as the administrative center of Permsky District, even though it is not a part of it.[1] As an administrative division, it is, together with two rural localities, incorporated separately as the city of krai significance of Perm—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.[1] As a municipal division, the city of krai significance of Perm is incorporated as Perm Urban Okrug.[8]

City divisions

Administrative divisions

Building of the Perm Administration

A view from the new bridge along the Stroiteley Street

For administrative purposes, Perm is divided into seven city districts:

City District	Population (2010 Census)[6]
Dzerzhinsky	155,632
Industrialny	157,575
Kirovsky	127,793
Leninsky	48,520
Motovilikhinsky	179,961
Ordzhonikidzevsky	111,204
Sverdlovsky	210,477

Perm has the largest industrial output among cities in the Urals, ahead of Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and Ufa, although Perm has a smaller population than these. Thirty-five per cent of Perm Oblast's industry is located in Perm.[19] The largest industries in the city are electric power engineering, oil and gas refining, machine building, chemicals and petrochemicals, forestry processing, printing and food industry.[20]

Several major industrial companies are located in Perm: Perm Motors and Aviadvigatel, major suppliers of engines to the Russian aircraft industry; rocket engine company Proton-PM, which will mass-produce the RD-191 engine for the upcoming Angara rocket family; electric engineering firms Morion JSC, Perm Scientific and Industrial Group, and Perm Electrical Engineering Plant; Russia's largest exporter of cables and wires, JSC KAMKABEL; and oil and natural gas companies such as LUKoil-Perm Ltd. and LUKoilPernefteprodukt Ltd.[19]

Perm Opera and Ballet House

Perm Museum of Contemporary Art (PERMM) in the building of the Perm River Terminal

The Perm Opera and Ballet House is one of the best in Russia.[24] There are many other theatres in Perm, including the Drama Theater, the Puppet Theatre, the Theatre for Young Spectators, the Theatre "Stage Molot", and the mystical At the Bridge Theatre.

Among the cities museums and galleries, the Perm State Art Gallery is recognised for its outstanding collections of art, including paintings from 15th- to 18th-century art movements, and wooden sculptures from the region. It is housed in a notable early 19th-century structure, once an orthodox cathedral. The spire of the museum towers over the rest of Perm, as it is situated on the Komsomolsky Prospect.[25] Perm is receiving attention from the development of the new Museum of Contemporary Art, Perm Museum of Contemporary Art (PERMM) which officially opened in March 2009.[26][27][28]

The RAV Vast steel tongue drum was invented in Perm by Andrey Remyannikov. This instrument is unique in the tongue drum and handpan world because each note has multiple harmonic overtones that resonate with other notes in the drum. The sound consequently has long sustain and reverberation.[29][30]

The Legend of Perm Bear or The Walking Bear is a sculpture depicting a walking bear, which is also shown on the city's coat of arms. It is situated in the central part of the city on Lenin Street, in front of the Organ Concert Hall and close to the building of Legislative Assembly of Perm Krai. The author of the sculpture is Vladimir Pavlenko, a monumentalist sculptor from Nizhny Tagil, member of the Artists' Union of Russia and UNESCO International Association of Arts.[31][32]

Perm is a scientific centre. Some of the scientific institutes are combined in the Perm Scientific Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Perm is a home to several major universities including Perm State University,[33] Perm State Technical University,[34] Perm branch of state university Higher school of economics,[35] Perm State Teachers' Training University, Perm State Medical Academy,[36] Perm State Pharmaceutical Academy,[37] Perm State Agricultural Academy,[38] The Institute of Art and Culture, Perm State Choreographic School,[39] and others. There are also three military schools in Perm.

Perm has a warm summer continental climate (Köppen: Dfb).[40] Winters are long, snowy and quite cold. Summers are moderately warm with cool nights, although summers are shorter than winters. Due to its far inland location, there is a distinct lack of seasonal lag resulting in rapid cooling down of the warm weather as days get shorter. This is less evident during winter.

At the time of the official 2010 Census, the ethnic makeup of the city's population whose ethnicity was known (907,955) was:[43]

The city hosted 2002 European Amateur Boxing Championships.

In 1995–2008, Perm was the location of the Ural Great basketball team — the only Russian basketball champion besides CSKA.

There is also an amateur bandy team called Kama.[44]

The following people were either born in Perm or made names for themselves while residing there.

Sergei Diaghilev, 1910

• Tatiana Borodina (born ca.1972), opera soprano
• Sergei Diaghilev (1872–1929), ballet impresario
• Alexei Ivanov (born 1969) a Russian award-winning writer.
• Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak (1852–1912) a Russian author of novels and short stories set in the Ural Mountains.
• Tanya Mityushina (born 1993), model
• Nikolay Moiseyev (1902–1955) a Soviet astronomer and expert in celestial mechanics
• Andronic Nikolsky (1870–1918), first Russian Orthodox Church Bishop of Kyoto, Japan
• Mikhail Osorgin (1878–1942) a Russian writer, journalist and essayist.
• Natasha Poly (born 1985), supermodel
• Alexander Stepanovich Popov (1859–1905), physicist; regarded locally as the inventor of radio
• Dmitry Rybolovlev (born 1966) a Russian oligarch, billionaire businessman and investor
• Katerina Shpitsa (born 1985), actress of theatre and cinema
• Mikhail Shuisky (1883–1953), baritone opera singer
• Arkady Shvetsov (1892-1953), aircraft engine designer
• Nikolay Slavyanov (1854–1897), inventor of an early method of arc welding
• Peter Struve (1870–1944), political economist, philosopher and editor
• Yuri Trutnev (born 1956), politician, Presidential Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District
• Andrey Voronikhin (1759–1814), architect and painter

Tatiana Totmianina, 2005

Perm is an example of city marketing in Russia, where the city also has a logo.[46]

Perm is twinned with:[47]

• Immaculate Conception Church, Perm
• Stephen of Perm