Perm tourist information
The history of Perm is rather interesting. The city owes its existence to V.N.Tatishchev (1686-1750), who is believed to be the founder of Perm. He was a well-know figure of his time, a comrade-in-arms of Peter the Great. Tatishchev was an outstanding mining engineer, a historian and a geographer.
In 1723 it was he who planned and supervised the construction of the Yegoshikhinsky Cooper Works and founded a factory settlement near the small river Yegoshikha (or: Yagoshikha), a tributary of the Kama.
This marked the beginning of the city's existence. The new town was named "Perm" (the word is of Ugro-Finnic origin) and became the principal town of our province in compliance with Catherine II's decree of November 20,1780.
Because of its favorable location near the intersection of major rivers, Perm developed during the 19th century into a transportation center for such essential goods as salt, metal ore, and the products of metal factories spread throughout the western Ural Mountains. In 1846, regular steamboat service was established on the Kama. In 1863, Perm was included in the major Siberian Highway, and in 1878 construction was completed on the first phase of the Urals Railroad, from Perm to Yekaterinburg.
At the same time, Perm was remote enough to serve as one of the Russian Empire's many places of exile. The famous state reformer Count Mikhail Speransky, who appears in Tolstoy's novel War and Peace, fell into temporary disfavor under Alexander I and was exiled here in 1812-14. Two decades later, the writer and political thinker Alexander Herzen spent part of his long exile in Perm (1835). And there were other prominent exiles during the latter part of the century. During the Stalinist era, the Perm region would gain the sad distinction as a major point in the Gulag Empire. It 1923 Perm became part of the Urals Region, the center of which was Yekaterinburg.
Between 1940 and 1957 the town was temporarily renamed Molotov, after Vechyaslav Molotov, a foreign minister during the Stalin rule.
Today, Perm is known as a large industrial city that serves as a gateway to Siberia and Asia from Europe.
Perm will undoubtedly capture your attention as a cultural center. The city has a number of charms that will not leave you indifferent.
The Tchaikovsky Opera House and the Choreographic School are known far outside Russia. The Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet is one of Russia’s top schools and stages good traditional ballet.
The Perm Art Gallery is famous for its unique collection of wooden idols (“Perm’s gods”). The Gallery was opened in 1922 and houses one of the largest icon collections in the country.
The Ethnographic Museum has numerous stuffed local animals.
Boris Pasternak lived and wrote Dr Zhivago in a blue house on Lenin St. in Perm. The Nobel-prize winner included Perm into his novel as the town called Yurytin.
by Russia-IC
Perm aerial map
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