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Perm

[purm]

Perm, city (1990 est. pop. 1,090,000), capital of Perm Territory, NE European Russia, on the Kama River. It is a transfer center for rail and river traffic and a major producer of machinery in the Urals industrial region. Perm also has chemical plants and oil refineries. It was founded in 1780 and underwent rapid industrial growth in the 19th cent. Perm was called Molotov from 1940 to 1958. It is the seat of a university.

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Perm

Perm (Пермь, ) is a city and administrative center of Perm Krai, Russia. It is situated on the banks of the Kama River, in the European part of Russia near the Ural Mountains.

Perm is one of the largest cities in Russia, thirteenth most populous, with 990,200 (2007 est.) inhabitants, down from 1,001,653 recorded in 2002 Census and 1,090,944 recorded in 1989 Census. The city is served by Bolshoye Savino Airport but also hosts Bakharevka air base.

The word "Perm" is Komi in origin. "Parma" is translated from Komi-Permyak language as a hilly place, covered with woods.

Geography

Perm covers an area of 799,68 square km. It takes the third place among Russian cities, after Moscow and Saint-Petersburg.

The city of Perm is located on the bank of the Kama River. The Kama is the main tributary of the Volga River and the one of the deepest and most picturesque rivers of Russia. The Kama is the water-way which grants the Urals access to the White Sea, Baltic Sea, Sea of Azov, Black Sea, and Caspian Sea. Kama divides the city into two parts, Central part and right-banked part. The city stretches for a 70 km along the Kama and 40 km across of it. All latitudional streets settles down along the river, all meridional streets across of it.

The city is situated on hills. The distinguishing feature of the city's relief is the large quantity of small rivers and brooks. The largest of them are the Mulyanka, Yegoshikha, Motoviliha (all are in left bank of Kama River), and Gaiva (in right bank of Kama River).

History

During the early Middle Ages, the region of Perm was populated by pagan Finno-Ugric tribes who lived to the southeast of the legendary Bjarmaland and northeast of Volga Bulgaria. Between the 13th and 14th centuries, Russian fur traders and Christian missionaries from Novgorod and later Moscow founded the first settlements in the area. Saint Stephen of Perm is credited with the conversion of the local population to Christianity in the late 14th century. In the 15th century, the Perm region, because of its highly profitable fur trade, was an object of a bitter rivalry between Novgorod and Moscow, and in 1472 Perm was finally annexed by the Grand Duchy of Moscow. In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, soldiers, merchants, Christian monks, and priests were followed by Tsarist administration officials and peasant settlers from the western Russia.

Perm was first mentioned as a village, Yegoshikha, in 1647; however, the history of the modern city of Perm starts with the development of the Ural region by Tsar Peter I of Russia. Vasily Tatishchev, appointed by the Tsar as a chief manager of Ural factories, founded Perm together with another major center of the Ural region, Yekaterinburg.

Perm was founded on May 15 (May 4 in Julian calendar), 1723, and has had town status since 1781. By 1797, it was already an administrative center of the gubernia with the same name.

In the 19th century, Perm became a major trade and industrial center 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.

After the outbreak of the Russian Civil War, Perm became a prime target for both sides because of its military munitions factories. In December 1918 the Siberian White Army under Anatoly Pepelyayev (who acknowledged the authority of the Omsk Government of Aleksandr Kolchak), took Perm. In 1919 the city was retaken by the Red Army.

Grand Duke Mikail Alexandrovich was executed in the outskirts of Perm with his secretary Nicholas Johnson on June 12, 1918 on the orders of the Perm Cheka. Their bodies were never recovered. A few weeks later on July 7, 1918, Andronic Nikolsky, the Archbishop Of Perm, was also murdered by the Bolsheviks in the city. In 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church glorified him as Hieromartyr Andronik, Archbishop Of Perm, one of the Russian New Martyrs and Confessors.

Soviet Times

In the 1930s, Perm grew as a major industrial city, and aviation, shipbuilding, and chemical factories were built there. The process continued after the 1940s and virtually every major industry became represented by numerous factories in Perm. To this day almost 80% of the city's population is employed in manufacturing. During the Great Patriotic War (World War II), Perm was a vital center of tank production in the Soviet Union.

From 1940 until 1957 the city was named Molotov (Мо́лотов), after Vyacheslav Molotov.

Modern city

The city is a major administrative, industrial, scientific, and cultural center. 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.

Administrative divisions

Perm is divided into seven city districts:

!City District

Population (2002 Census)
Dzerzhinsky (Дзержи́нский)	153,403
Industrialny (Индустриа́льный)	160,039
Kirovsky (Ки́ровский)	126,960
Leninsky (Ле́нинский)	57,569
Motovilikhinsky (Мотови́лихинский)	176,564
Ordzhonikidzevsky (Орджоники́дзевский)	111,631
Sverdlovsky (Свердло́вский)	215,487

Culture

The Perm Opera and Ballet House is the one of the best in Russia. There are many other theatres in Perm such as the Drama theatre, the Puppet Theatre, the Theatre for Young Spectators, the Theatre "Near Bridge" and so on.

Education

Perm is scientific center. Some of institutes combine into Perm scientific center of ural branch Russian Academy of Sciences.

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

Transport

Perm is an important railway junction on the Trans-Siberian Railway with lines radiating to Central Russia, north part of Ural, far east of Russia. Kama River is an important link in the unifying deep-water system of the European part of Russia. The river connects city with European water-routes. It is possible to ship cargo from Kama river area to the sea ports of White, Baltic, Azov, Black and Caspian seas without reloading.

There is one international airport in Perm Bolshoye Savino (Big Savino). Perm is also served by the smaller Airport "Bakharevka".

Perm's public transit network includes streetcar (tram), bus, and trolleybus routes.

Sister cities

Perm is the sister city of (twinned with):

Louisville, Kentucky, United States (1994)
Oxford, United Kingdom (1995)
Duisburg, Germany (2007)
Cherkasy, Ukraine
Shenzhen, People's Republic of China

Sport

FC Amkar Perm, the football club based in Perm, playing in the Russian Premier League
Molot-Prikame Perm, ice hockey club playing in the Russian Hockey Super League
PBC Ural Great, the basketball club based in Perm, playing in the Russian Basketball Super League

Notable citizens

See: People from Perm

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

Viktor Petrovich Astafiyev, a Russian writer of short stories and novels;
Tatiana Borodina, opera soprano;
Sergei Diaghilev, ballet impresario;
Alexey Victorovich Ivanov, a modern Russian writer;
Fyodor Gral, a doctor.

Alexandra Kosteniuk, chess Grandmaster;
Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak, a Russian author;
Nikolai Moiseev, a astronomer;
Fyodor Petrov was a Soviet artillery designer;
Victor Pokhmelkin, a Russian opposition politician;
Natasha Poly, a Russian supermodel.
Alexander Stepanovich Popov, physicist who was the first to demonstrate the practical application of electromagnetic waves (radio);
Arkadiy Dmitrievich Shvetsov, a Soviet aircraft engine designer;
Nikolai Slavyanov, the inventor of new method in arc welding;
Peter Berngardovich Struve, a Russian political economist, philosopher and editor;
Yuri Trutnev, a Minister of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation;
Andrey Nikoforovich Voronikhin, a Russian architect and painter. As a representative of classicism he was also one of the founders of the monumental Russian Empire style;
Konstantin Zyryanov, a Russian footballer.