About City

Perm is a city in the East of the European part of Russia, administration centre of the Perm Region. Modern Perm is a large multi-field industrial centre, the third city inRussia afterMoscow andSt. Petersburg in the terms of area (799.68 sq. km). The city is stretched along theriver ofKama and occupies the third place afterSt. Petersburg andSochi in the terms of its extension. According to the data of 2012, the city population counts 1,000,672.

In Perm, many car and air routes cross. The city is also one of the most important stations on the Trans-Siberian railway. Besides,Permis a large port on Kama providing access via a system of rivers and channels to the Caspian, Azov, Black, Baltic, andWhite Sea.

To the territory of the modern city, a human came in the ancient times: Over 130 archeological items from Lithian to the Late Middle Ages have been examined here. First documental references on the settlements within borders ofPermdate back to 1647, when this land was possessed by merchants of Stroganov.

The foundation day of Perm is considered to be the official date of laying of the Egoshikha Copper Mill at the place of confluence of the rivers of Kama and Egoshikha on May 4 (15), 1723, erected upon instruction of Vasily Tatischev, Head of Ural State Works. Nevertheless, the status of the governorate city ofPermwas awarded to the Egoshikha Mill in 1781 only according to the Order by Catherine II.

In the Soviet times (1940-1957) the city was renamed as Molotov after Vycheslav Molotov, political activist, repeated People’s Commissar and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR in 1930-1941.

In the course of the Great Patriotic War,Permbecomes the largest industrial centre of theSoviet Union: 124 industrial enterprises were moved to the Molotov Region, 64 plants were placed in the city itself. The direction of the region’s industrial development preserved also after the victory: So, the construction of the Kama Hydro Power Plant was completed in 1955, whereas the first stage of the commissioning of the Perm Oil Refinery (today “LUKOIL-Permnefteorgsintez” Ltd.) was finished in 1958.

Due to strategically important and secret industrial branches, Perm had remained a closed city for a long period of time (until 1989). Nevertheless, the cultural life continued to blossom inPerm, especially that formed around the famous Opera and Ballet Theatre, whose company was strengthened by evacuated soloists from the Kirov Theatre inLeningrad(now Mariinsky Theatre in the City ofSt. Petersburg).

With the democratic change of the 1990s, Perm has started to be more and more open to the world, extend its international activities, also actively work with twin cities, whereas it started moving towards city development through culture in the post-industrial time.

Throughout Russia, such museums are known as the Perm Art Gallery, the Perm Regional Museum, and the Museum of Modern Arts PERMM. As regards theatre spots, the most beloved ones are the Theatre-Theatre (former Drama Theatre) and the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre, whose art director has been the famous conductor Theodoros Kourentzis since 2011.

Apart from the title of a “cultural capital“, Perm also bears an unofficial name of the “Capital of Civic Society“ and even “Capital of Russian Liberalism“.

www.gorodperm.ru