Perm is the largest city of the Kama region, the
capital of the Perm Territory and one of the Russian millionaires.
Before the revolution, the provincial center, and now the center of
a large region with wonderful nature and rich history, Perm itself
was suppressed by its industry, which turned the city into a
conglomeration of smoking chimneys, industrial zones and Soviet-era
buildings, behind which it is not immediately possible to see
fragments of antiquity. For most travelers, Perm will be the place
that they look “on the residual principle” on the way to somewhere
else, although if you wish, you can find a lot of interesting things
here - from old factories to a museum of wooden sculpture, and the
majestic Kama will not leave anyone indifferent.
Perm stands
on the Kama a little south of the confluence of the Chusovaya River,
on the border of two completely different natural zones. To the
south of the forest-steppe city, and to the north, beyond Chusovaya
and Kama, the taiga begins. The name Perm is very ancient. The
peoples of the North-West called the far eastern lands along the
Vychegda and Kama so (see also the Perm Territory). Modern Perm is
located in the south of that ancient region. Like Tver, Perm is
feminine. Residents of the city argue that the name needs to be
pronounced with a soft "r", Perm.
Like many cities located along large rivers, Perm has an elongated shape: more than 40 km along the Kama and only 5-6 km across. All areas of interest are on the left (south) bank. The center is shifted to the west. It begins at the point where the Trans-Siberian River merges with the old Gornozavodskaya line running along the Kama, and, along the unchanged Lenin Street, stretches from here to the east for about 4 km: first the new Soviet part, then (behind Komsomolsky Prospekt) the old provincial one. They are separated by a huge (about a kilometer long!) area called the Esplanade. In the east, the development ends at the ravine of the Yegoshikha River, beyond which begins Motovilikha, also a historical and also noteworthy area that has developed around an arms factory. The rest of Perm is industrial zones, sleeping areas, industrial settlements and the private sector, where there is nothing to catch except for the local color.
If you came to Perm for a short time, take a walk in the center - the best way is along Monastyrskaya Street along the Kama and from there to the cathedral mosque, go to the art gallery to see the Perm wooden sculpture, and then go to Motovilikha and look around the surroundings from Mount Vyshka. This minimum plan will easily fit in half a day and give a good idea of the city.
The old Perm center is bounded in the north by Kama,
in the west by Komsomolsky Prospekt, in the east by the ravine of the
Yegoshikha River, and in the south it stretches approximately to Pushkin
Street. This part of the city is well equipped for tourists. Perm was,
apparently, the first place in Russia where a special tourist route was
laid - a green line drawn on the asphalt: about 40 objects, each of
which is equipped with a stand with a good description. A more
controversial initiative was the red line dedicated to celebrities who
lived in Perm in the context of their romantic relationships. The
buildings of the red line are also mostly historical, but the texts on
the stands sometimes resemble publications in the yellow press.
As the capital of the Urals, provincial Perm attracted many celebrities
who later wrote about it. If Chekhov quite reliably placed the action of
his play “Three Sisters” in Perm, then the author of “Doctor Zhivago”
did not make direct statements, but Perm is also (and not unreasonably)
considered the prototype of the city of Yuryatin. There are many
literary places in the city center, if you wish, you can arrange a
separate walk along them.
1 Station Perm I, st. Monastic. The railway came to
Perm not from the capitals, but from the east. An isolated
Gornozavodskaya line from Perm to Yekaterinburg (via Chusovoy and Nizhny
Tagil) was built in 1874-78 in order to reload goods to steamships in
Perm and carry them further along the Kama. The building of the station
in the neo-Russian style (1878) was designed by the St. Petersburg
architect Peter Schreiber, exactly the same was built at the other end
of the line, in Yekaterinburg - now it is an old station with a railway
museum. Outwardly, the Perm and Yekaterinburg stations are not very
similar, because in 1899 a second turret was added to the Perm one,
which, oddly enough, suited him very well. Nearby are old warehouses of
the late 19th century and a locomotive-monument.
2 Peter and Paul
Cathedral, st. Sovetskaya, 1. The Egoshikha plant, from which Perm has
gone, was located, as you might guess, on the Egoshikha River - the
eastern border of the modern Perm center. In the 19th century, after
fires and reconstruction, the city shifted to the west, and the area of
the former factory began to look more like a suburb. The unsightly stone
church standing in this place is the last thing left of the plant. It
was built in 1760 to replace a wooden church.
3 Meshkov's house,
Monastyrskaya st. 11. The history of the best buildings in Perm is
surprisingly similar: first they built an ordinary mansion, and then it
was bought by a merchant who ordered an unusual finish. So it was with
the famous Gribushin mansion, but this process was started by Nikolai
Vasilievich Meshkov (1851-1933), a steamship owner and philanthropist,
to whom pre-revolutionary Perm owes almost everything: from its own
university to saving the province from the famine that happened in 1891.
The classicist mansion on the banks of the Kama River was built in 1820.
In 1842, it was damaged by fire and stood abandoned for a long time. In
1887-89. Meshkov, who bought the mansion, renovated the building in the
spirit of eclecticism, and it turned out very beautifully - the house
looks especially good from the Kama. Now it houses the local history
museum.
4 Square im. Reshetnikov. Before the revolution, the main
city promenade, and by today's standards, a small square along
Monastyrskaya Street with a beautiful view of the Kama. Its most
recognizable sign was the monument to the heroes of the Civil War - a
cast-iron monolith made in 1985. Across the road, at the corner of
Monastyrskaya and Sibirskaya streets, Verderevsky's house is a model of
Perm's development after the fire of 1842: a one-story wooden mansion
finished in stone. Next to it is a house with lions (Monastyrskaya st.
15) - a typical stalin built in 1946, for some reason decorated with
figures of lions.
5 Savior Transfiguration Cathedral. The majestic
cathedral at the beginning of Komsomolsky Prospekt, on the high bank of
the Kama, is now occupied by an art gallery, the exposition of which is
even more interesting than the cathedral itself, but it is worth looking
at it from the outside. The construction of the cathedral is associated
with the transfer to Perm of the ancient Pyskorsky monastery, located
near Usolye, a couple of hundred kilometers up the Kama. The monastery
was moved in 1781 at the same time that Perm was given the status of a
city, and the cathedral was erected in 1798-1818. This is one of the
earliest and most interesting monuments of Ural classicism, most likely
designed by metropolitan architects: the names of Gottlieb Paulsen who
worked in St. Petersburg and even Matvey Kazakov are mentioned. The
square in front of the cathedral is named after the writer Dmitry
Mamin-Sibiryak, whose monument, of course, is erected here, although the
writer only studied for several years at the Perm Theological Seminary,
and created his Ural prose in Yekaterinburg. From the square there is a
descent to the embankment and a great view of the Kama.
6 Gribushin's Mansion, st. Lenina, 13a. Known as the
“house with figures” from Doctor Zhivago and flamboyant in its own
right, this mansion was built between 1895-97. for the family of a local
official. Then the house passed to the merchant Sergei Mikhailovich
Gribushin, who decided to make the mansion “brighter”, decorating it
with abundant stucco, including mascarons, molded, according to rumors,
from the daughter of the merchant himself. It is already difficult to
say who was the main architect of this building - Alexander Turchevich,
who made the initial project and preferred the Russian-Byzantine style
with neo-classicism, or a merchant prone to show off - but something
very memorable came out, defined by experts as "picturesque modern". The
house became the most recognizable monument in Perm even before the
revolution, which attracted Pasternak. Now the building houses
organizations of the Perm Scientific Center.
7 Tupitsyn House, st.
October 25, 12 (near the Theater Garden). A less radical example of the
Permian merchant style is a three-story neoclassical mansion built in
1888 according to the design of the same Alexander Turchevich for the
Tupitsin family, pioneers of phosphorus production in the Russian
Empire. The corner turret with a dome fits perfectly into the line of
houses. Opposite the building of the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium (1884)
is an impressive red-brick monument of the Russian style. Walk along it
along October 25 Street: the part farthest from Petropavlovskaya Street
was once a very beautiful house church, some elements of which can still
be seen.
8 Mansion Tokareva , st. Permskaya, 67. Rare in the center
of Perm, a wooden house is finished with bright carvings on the verge of
a tower and a modernist style. The house marks the beginning of a short
pedestrian section of Permskaya Street, which, one of the few in Perm,
has largely preserved pre-revolutionary buildings, although new glass
and concrete buildings have made their way here.
9 Egoshikha
necropolis (east of the center, in front of the ravine of the Egoshikha
river). The cemetery of old Perm is one of those places that reminds of
the provincial past of this city. There are two Orthodox churches here
at once: the bright blue Church of All Saints in the style of classicism
(1832) and the elegant Assumption Church in the pseudo-Russian style
(1905). Representatives of other confessions were also buried here, the
cemetery has Catholic, Lutheran and Muslim sections, but the Jewish one
is especially interesting - this is one of the few old Jewish cemeteries
in Russia. Burials were stopped in the 1950s, that is, almost all the
graves here are pre-war, and many are pre-revolutionary: you can walk
for a long time and look at the tombstones. In the northern part of the
cemetery, not far from Razgulay Square and the tram line to Motovilikha,
there is a military monument “Grieving Mother” visible from afar,
followed by a monument to victims of repression.
To the west of Komsomolsky Prospekt, the center of
Perm consists mainly of Soviet-era high-rise buildings. From whichever
side you come to the city, you will see, first of all, this particular
landscape, which does not cause delight in anyone except architecture
enthusiasts of the 1970s. However, behind the forest of concrete
buildings, there are several interesting historical buildings.
10
Esplanade, between Lenina and Petropavlovskaya streets. The largest
square in the Urals. Until the middle of the 20th century, ordinary
wooden houses stood on this site. Then they were demolished, but the
area was not built up, because one Perm architect came up with the idea
to leave an open space here, which, due to its elongated shape, was
quickly dubbed “airfield” by contemporaries. Then, however, a foreign
word "esplanade" was found, and gradually the square became, if not a
symbol, then one of the most recognizable Perm views. It is a rectangle
measuring 1000x300 m. On one side of it there is a ten-story House of
Soviets (1973), the gray appearance of which is diluted only by a cut at
the level of the 7th floor, and a huge coat of arms of the USSR. On the
other side, you will see a slightly more avant-garde drama theater
(1974-81), and the long sides of the rectangle are built up with
anything - from tiny (against this background) pre-revolutionary
buildings to gray high-rise buildings. In the center of the Esplanade
there is an empty space, diluted with a lone monument to "Heroes of the
Front and Rear" (1985). All this together reflects the ideas of the
mid-1970s about the aesthetics of the urban environment, but hardly
makes the city pretty, much less attractive, therefore, over the years,
ideas have been discussed to build up the Esplanade, build a shopping
center under it, or at least organize it on the surface some "cultural
space". So far, everything has been reduced to curly benches in the form
of the word POWER in front of the House of Soviets - this is one of the
consequences of the Perm "cultural revolution" of the mid-2000s.
11
Cathedral Mosque, st. Osinskaya, 5. A magnificent monument of
eclecticism with pronounced Tatar motifs adorns the hopelessly dull
quarters north of the Esplanade. The mosque was built in 1902-03. - At
that time, more than one and a half thousand Muslims lived in Perm,
accounting for a few percent of the total population of the city. The
author of the project was a local architect Alexander Ozhegov. In Soviet
times, the mosque did not operate, but survived. It has now been
restored and looks great from the outside. The interiors appear to be
modern.
12 Ascension Church (also known as Fedorovskaya or
Feodosyevskaya), st. Borchaninova, 11. A nice monument of pseudo-Russian
style, the church was built at the very beginning of the 20th century
(1904-10) and at that time was called “merchant” by the people, since a
local merchant allocated the land for its construction. In terms of
decor, the church is also a merchant church, i.e. clumsy, but bright -
especially now, when it was surrounded on all sides by gray high-rise
buildings. This is another work by Alexander Ozhegov, in this case not
so original and, generally speaking, tritely copied from the garrison
churches that were built in the same years in the west of the Russian
Empire - in Bobruisk and Grodno.
13 Trinity Cathedral (Sludskaya
Church) , st. Monastyrskaya, 95. The name "Sludskaya" is given by the
Sludskaya mountain, on which the church is located, although now the
mountain is hardly noticeable, and the landscape surrounding the church
has changed beyond recognition. If Voznesenskaya still stands among
high-rise buildings, then Troitskaya is forced to coexist with a
hospital and an industrial zone. A typical temple complex of the middle
of the 19th century is a five-domed "Tonovsky" cathedral and a very high
bell tower (1842). The church was closed after the revolution, but
opened for worship already in 1944, which is the reason for its current
status as the cathedral of the Perm diocese.
14 Kazan Church, st. Plekhanov, 39. Roerich's temple
in the courtyards of high-rise buildings. The Assumption Monastery,
founded on the outskirts of Perm in 1875 and destroyed in the early
years of Soviet power, would hardly have remained in history and
people's memory if the wonderful Kazan Church (1905-08) had not appeared
in it - the family tomb of the Kamensky, Perm patrons and trustees of
the monastery . In terms of authorship, this church is one complete
hoax: different sources name the names of Nesterov, Vasnetsov, Pokrovsky
and Roerich, four of the largest masters of the early 20th century at
once. It is only known for certain that Roerich wrote sketches of the
iconostasis (the so-called "Perm Iconostasis"), which is now stored in
the Perm Art Gallery, but not even exhibited! Everything else is
guesswork, although Roerich is also recognizable in the general manner,
conciseness, Pskov belfry and majolica panels. The monastery was
restored as a female monastery in 1995 and is now functioning.
15 Perm gates, pl. Gaidar. The gate made of logs in the form of a
three-dimensional letter "P" is one of the scandalous monuments of the
Perm "cultural revolution". They were designed by Nikolai Polissky, the
first Russian artist working in the land art technique – in this case,
installations and sculptures made of wood. The monument was received
ambiguously in the city, since from the very beginning it was positioned
as temporary, but it was generously paid from the city budget by a
considerable amount by Permian standards, and at the same time it was
just copied from a similar gate in Moscow by the same author. However,
in the capital, no one even paid attention to these gates, but in Perm
they became an event. The gates are located in the square of the 250th
anniversary of the city, conceived as a park of Ural stones - now for
the most part stolen.
16 University campus, st. Dzerzhinsky / st.
Genkel. The history of the creation of Perm University is one continuous
curiosity. When the First World War began, the Germans staged an
offensive in the Baltic states, and the authorities of the Russian
Empire thought about evacuating Yuryev (Derpt) University from Tartu.
Perm was chosen as a place for evacuation, but the professors of the
oldest and one of the most prestigious universities in the country were
in no hurry to go to such a wilderness, preferring to stay in the Baltic
states, where the danger of the arrival of the Germans had passed in the
meantime. By 1916, the evacuation was forgotten, but Perm and, in
particular, its main philanthropist, the steamer Meshkov, were full of
expectations and managed, despite the martial law, to knock out
permission from the tsarist government to open their own university in
Perm. Meshkov was extremely fickle in his noble undertakings and
generously allocated buildings on the industrial outskirts as a temple
of science - his own leather factory, which he had just rebuilt for a
doss house, which, in general, predetermined the fate of Perm University
- even in domestic Russian ratings, he hardly gets now in the top ten.
In general, a pleasant student town with a pass regime, the severity of
which is compensated by carelessness, is quite worth a visit - the
former doss house second building (Genkel St., 7) has a relatively
historical appearance, in front of which there is a monument to Lenin
and Gorky, as well as the third, fourth and the fifth corps, which
preserved traces of the factory promarche of the beginning of the 20th
century.
The area of the Motovilikha plant was a separate city
before the revolution. Geographically, it is separated from the center
of Perm by a ravine of the Yegoshikha River, beyond which the terrain
changes dramatically. On one side, despite all the new buildings, we can
distinguish the flair of the provincial city, and on the other, there is
a factory suburb. Soviet high-rise buildings partly equalized both
areas, but the difference between them is still noticeable.
The
modern development of Motovilikha is a chaotic mixture of wooden houses,
constructivist monuments and nine-story panel buildings along Uralskaya
Street, the eastern continuation of Lenin Street. All this is located on
a hill, and under the hill there is a huge Motovilikha plant with a
dozen pre-revolutionary buildings, the noise of machines and mechanisms.
After a couple of kilometers, the road descends to the plant (here
Uralskaya Street becomes Sverdlov Street, and then 1905 Street), getting
into a small area of low-rise, mostly old buildings, old Motovilikha,
more reminiscent of a tiny regional center somewhere in the backyards of
the Perm Territory. There is a factory museum with an exhibition of
armaments, a factory pond dam and, on a hill, a monument to the heroes
of the 1905 revolution. The contrast with the center of Perm is very
striking, but without a visit to Motovilikha, the impressions of the
city (and its history) cannot be complete.
How to get there: the
best way is by trams ( tm. 4, 8, 11), following to the final “visim
microdistrict” - it is located a couple of hundred meters from the dam
and the factory pond. The quarters in the upper part of Motovilikha can
be viewed directly from the tram, although if you have time, it is also
interesting to walk there. The city train also stops in Motovilikha.
17 Motovilikhinskaya dam, park at the beginning of st. 1905 (Garden
of Eden). A dam on the Motovilikha River was built for a copper smelter
that operated here from 1736 to 1863. The weapons factory did not need a
dam, but it was preserved and even restored after the flood that
happened in 1969. In the area of the dam there is a small square with
pretty bridges and the indiscreet name of the Garden of Eden, but
nothing remains of the old Motovilikhinsky plant. The building of the
people's house standing in the square was built at the turn of the 19th
and 20th centuries.
18 Trinity Monastery, st. Visimskaya, 4. The
first church appeared on Motovilikha at the end of the 18th century.
Already at the beginning of the 19th, it was rebuilt in stone, and,
allegedly, in a Russian style that was not quite familiar for that time
(and even more so for the Urals), but what you will see now is mainly a
reconstruction of the late 1990s (also in the Russian style), since in
Soviet times the temple was destroyed almost to the ground, placing a
bakery on its territory. Now here is not just a temple, but a whole
monastery, which greatly adorns the meager landscape of the factory
suburb. The order in the monastery is quite conservative, so it is
better not to enter the territory without unnecessary necessity,
although it is not bad outside.
19 Monument to the fighters of the
revolution ("First Tower"). The first Soviet monument, the Perm version
of the hammer and sickle. In December 1905, an armed uprising of workers
took place in Motovilikha, brutally suppressed by the police - a common
case at that time, which, however, had serious consequences: some of the
workers left to partisan in the forests, where they hid for another two
years, organizing sabotage and terrorist attacks against the police,
although especially they were attracted by another form of actionism -
expropriation. These partisans were nicknamed "Lbovtsy" (after the name
of the leader, Alexander Lbov), and who worked in Perm in 1925-27.
Arkady Gaidar even wrote about them the story "Life in nothing". It is
easy to imagine that by the time Soviet power was established in Perm,
the memory of the events of 1905 was still alive among the people, so
already in 1920 a monument designed by a factory worker and a direct
participant in the uprising, Vasily Gomzikov, appeared on Mount Vyshka.
This is a non-canonical version of the “hammer and sickle”, where the
sickle is ordinary, but the hammer is steam: one can only guess how
history would develop if this pair appeared on the coat of arms of the
USSR that appeared two years later. A beautiful view of the plant and
the whole Motovilikha opens up from the mountain. You can climb here by
stairs starting at the pedestrian bridge at the beginning of Mostovaya
Street. In addition to the monument on the mountain, there is a diorama
dedicated to the same event.
20 Motovilikha plants. Operating since
1865, the weapons factory specializes in artillery pieces, which is easy
to understand by visiting the museum located here. The historical
character of the plant can be seen directly from this point: a pair of
massive pre-revolutionary buildings peep out from behind the railway.
However, “the best view of this city” is from the already mentioned
Mount Vyshka, or from one of the two powerful cast-iron stairs
descending to the checkpoints from the upper part of Motovilikha. The
first staircase starts at the far end of the square of the TsPKiO im.
Sverdlov, and the second is located a little further and goes to
Sverdlov Street at its intersection with Ivanovskaya.
21 DK im.
Lenin, Uralskaya st. 93. Built for the centenary of the arms factory, DK
is architecturally not quite common: they fought very creatively with
architectural excesses, retaining the classic portico, but removing
sculptures, bas-reliefs and other decorations. The bust of Lenin
standing in front of the building - a seemingly routine element of the
landscape - is also made in such a way as to harmonize with the bulk of
the Palace of Culture. The fate of the building is peculiar: it remains
a palace of culture, but belongs to the Pentecostal church.
Komsomolsky Prospekt with an unchanging boulevard in
the middle goes far to the south, reaching the very outskirts. Along the
avenue, there are modern sculptures and interesting post-war buildings.
22 Tower of death, Komsomolsky prospekt. 74. One of the rare
examples of the Stalinist Empire style in Perm, the building has a bad
reputation among the people, since it was built for the local Department
of Internal Affairs. There is a whole series of urban legends about its
dungeons, builders built into the walls and secret tunnels, although in
fact all the horrors of Stalin's time were happening in other places.
The building in the far part of Komsomolsky Prospekt was built only in
1949-1952. On the other side of the same Komsomolskaya Square, do not
miss building 67 with the monumental panel “Komsomol at decisive moments
in history”, which are recognized as the civil war, the Great Patriotic
War and manned space flight.
23 Motobuilders Square, Komsomolsky Ave.
/ st. Chkalov. Komsomolsky Prospekt ends at the checkpoint of the Perm
Engine Plant, one of Russia's main manufacturers of aircraft engines.
The selection of busts has a pronounced political connotation: there are
three statesmen (Ordzhonikidze, Sverdlov and A.G. Soldatov, who oversaw
the evacuation of military factories to the Urals), and in the center
there is MiG-31 fighter flying on Perm engines.
You can go to museums, walk in parks, you can go to Ust-Kachka, a medical center not far from Perm. The air is fresh, Ural, cold in winter down to -30, a paradise for foreigners and residents of southern Russia who want to learn about real Russian frosts.
1 Gorky Park, st. Sibirskaya, 49. 09:00–23:00;
attractions: 11:00–22:00 (the children's section is open only on Fri-Sun
and closes an hour earlier). The entrance is free. A small regular park
in the city center, founded at the beginning of the 19th century, a
former city garden. The main attraction here is the historic rotunda,
built in 1824 by architect I.I. Sviyazev. You can also stare at modern
sculpture and ride standard rides, including a Ferris wheel. At night,
the park is officially closed, but in the summer the gates sometimes
remain open.
2 Garden of Eden , pl. Uprising (street 1905). around
the clock. The garden in the Motovilikha district was laid out at the
end of the 19th century on the territory of a closed copper smelter. In
Soviet times, it was called the Sverdlov Park, now it has again received
its historical name, and in 2009-2010 it was thoroughly cleaned and
landscaped again. It includes a canal (ennobled section of the
Motovilikha River), a dam and the Motovilikha Pond. Also, after the
restoration, the park acquired a rotunda (a modern smaller version of
Sviyazevskaya) and a nice monument to a diving dog. According to legend,
the dog saved a man drowning in a pond, but in fact this sculpture was
commissioned by a local resident in memory of her late wife, a
well-known cynologist in Perm.
3 Perm Museum of Local Lore , st. Monastyrskaya, 11
(Meshkov House). ☎ +7 (342) 257-18-09. 10:00–19:00 except Mon. 200 ₽. A
good exposition on the history of the region, a collection of objects of
the Permian animal style.
4 Museum of Perm Antiquities, st.
Sibirskaya, 15. 10:00–19:00 except Mon. 200 ₽. One of the geological
periods was discovered in the Urals and was called the Permian. No
wonder, therefore, that the city has its own paleontological museum.
Here they show the complete skeleton of a mammoth and many other strange
animals - not only those that lived in the Permian period, but also more
“modern”.
5 Perm Art Gallery , Komsomolsky prosp. 4 (Savior
Transfiguration Cathedral). Tue–Wed 10:00–19:00, Thu 12:00–21:00,
Fri–Sat 10:00–19:00, Sun 11:00–19:00. 200 ₽. The main thing in this
museum is the collection of wooden sculpture, which distinguishes it
from any others. The Russian Orthodox Church never particularly
encouraged the creation of sculpture, sometimes directly forbade it, and
the Perm Territory turned out to be almost the only region of Russia
where wooden sculpture was widespread. The collection is located on the
third floor of the museum, contains several dozen exhibits, and makes a
rather strong impression. On the ground floor there is a good, albeit
very standard, collection of Russian art of the 18th - 20th centuries,
on the second floor there is a small collection of Western European art,
in which there are several famous names. In addition, there are
interesting temporary exhibitions.
6 Museum of the History of
Motovilikha Plants (Perm Artillery Museum) , st. 1905, 20. ☎ (342)
260-59-76. Wed–Fri 9:00–18:00, Sat–Sun 10:00–19:00. for free. An
unusually open departmental museum for outsiders, the main collection of
which is located right on the street. A variety of artillery
installations are shown here - from the Perm Tsar Cannon of the mid-19th
century to ballistic missiles. At the same time, the internal exposition
is made in a more peaceful way: the exhibits are devoted to the history
of the plant, starting from its copper-smelting predecessor of the 18th
century. Don't miss models of gigantic presses, rolling mills and
everyday details of the 19th century metallurgists. The gates of the
site with an open exposition are closed at night, but everything is also
clearly visible through the fence.
7 Excursion to the confectionery factory, st.
Nekrasov, 35. ☎ +7 (342) 276-54-34. Mon–Fri 8:30–17:00. The Perm
confectionery factory calls itself the oldest in the Urals and Siberia
and traces its history back to the “confectionery” opened in 1892 by the
merchant Sudoplatov. Since then, the factory has been closed and
redesigned several times, nothing really historical has been preserved
here, but the production is shown. Tours are conducted for groups of
20-40 people by appointment. It is recommended to take a change of shoes
and water with you to drink chocolate during the tasting.
In the
vicinity of the city there is a small ski resort.
By plane
6-7 flights to Moscow (some of them
overnight) and one to St. Petersburg. There are many regional flights in
Western Siberia and the Urals, but they are operated irregularly. All
international flights are holiday charters.
1 Bolshoe Savino
Airport (IATA:PEE). ☎ Information desk: +7 (342) 299-17-71, airport
ticket offices: +7 (342) 299-15-95. Domestic flights depart from the new
terminal A, the old terminal B serves only a few international ones. It
is apparently impossible to walk from one terminal to another, unless
you go out onto the Kosmonavtov Highway, which will make a big detour
(almost 2 km). The new terminal promises the usual infrastructure for an
airport, and there is also a left-luggage office (443 ₽/day).
How
to get there: shuttle bus 108 goes to the airport from the bus station,
about half an hour on the way. Count on 3-4 flights per hour from 6 am
to 11 pm. A taxi to the center costs from 400 ₽. From the center, the
bus goes to terminal A, then to terminal B and from there back to the
city.
Near terminal B there is a hotel "Poljot" (tel. +7 (342)
294-96-46, single/double: 2900/4100 ₽), with the opening of the new
terminal, it has become practically useless for travelers, since most
flights will have to go from here by taxi. If you are flying out of the
old terminal, you can visit the 24-hour hotel restaurant. The prices in
it are the same as at the airport, but it is more comfortable and
quieter here.
By train
Perm stands on the northern branch of
the Trans-Siberian between Kirov and
Yekaterinburg. There are 7-8 pairs
of trains a day: all Siberian trains from St. Petersburg and some from
Moscow. At the same time, the schedule is not very convenient - half of
the trains run at the same time almost one after another.
From
Yekaterinburg 5.5-6 hours. There are only three daytime trains (one of
them is Lastochka), the rest go at night. From Kirov 7.5-8 hours, from
Glazov 4.5-5 hours. Quite a convenient night train to
Izhevsk (7-8
hours).
Suburban trains reach Kungur (2 hours), Chusovoy (3-3.5
hours) and Kizel (4.5 hours).
2 Perm I, st. Monastyrskaya, 5.
The old Perm railway station, built for the Gornozavodskaya line, which
came to the city 30 years earlier than the modern Trans-Siberian. Now
the station serves only commuter trains towards Chusovskaya and
Ugleuralskaya, long-distance trains do not stop here. It is unlikely
that you will arrive at this station or leave it, but it is worth
looking at the building itself - this is a local landmark and one of the
best Russian railway stations of the 19th century.
3 Perm II, st.
Lenina, 89. The main city station, where all long-distance trains stop
and from which some electric trains depart. A modern building,
relatively small by the standards of the Trans-Siberian Railway, is
sandwiched between the lines to Chusovskaya and Yekaterinburg. In
addition to the waiting rooms, there is a Strela cafe inside
(9:00–21:00) - an unpleasant dining room, and a good round-the-clock
coffee shop Coffee-Love - a fenced-off piece of the waiting room with
sofas and a bar counter. There are rest rooms. The station is located at
the western end of Lenin Avenue, from the center (Esplanade) 2.5 km or 4
stops by public transport.
By bus
There are not many railways
inside the Perm Territory, so the bus service is well developed. There
is much less transport outside the region: for example, buses go to
Yekaterinburg (7 hours) only 2-3 times a day, and often at night, but
they don’t go to Kirov at all. More buses to the south: to Izhevsk (5
hours) 5-6 times a day, and to Ufa (10-11 hours) there is direct
transport several times a day. Schedules.
4 Central bus station,
st. Revolution 68. ☎ +7 (342) 236-43-00, +7 (342) 236-44-34. 5:00–22:40.
An old building filled with samosa stalls and other dubious pastries.
Across the road there is an endless and very uncomfortable central
market, next to the bus station there is a new shopping center with a
Pyaterochka supermarket, and right on the square there is a McDonald's
(7:00–23:00). Luggage storage: 90 ₽/day. From the bus station to the
Esplanade less than a kilometer, you can walk.
5 South bus station,
st. Izhevskaya, 2. 5:45–21:45. Terminus of buses to Kungur and some
others of the same direction.
By car
Two roads lead to Perm
from the west: a branch of the M7 highway through Izhevsk (280 km) and
an unnumbered highway from Kirov (500 km). As of 2021, both roads are in
fair condition. The road to Yekaterinburg (360 km) is excellent, mostly
two-lane with many extensions and lanes for getting ahead on the rises,
before Yekaterinburg - four lanes, near Perm - a six-lane highway. You
can also go to Izhevsk along the left bank of the Kama, crossing the
river at Chaikovsky, or along the right bank, but through Votkinsk: all
these routes are approximately equivalent. In the direction of Ufa
(470-550 km) there is no obvious route, you need to go along local
roads.
If you are transiting through Perm, follow the bypass:
there are long distances in the city and very busy roads. Departure to
Berezniki-Solikamsk and Chusovoy - either along the Kama through the
whole city, or along the same bypass. There are only three bridges
across the Kama: the bypass bridge at the western border of the city,
the Kommunalny bridge in the center and the dam of the Kama
hydroelectric power station at the northern tip of Perm.
The
entire central part of the city during the day on weekdays is a paid
parking zone. Finding a free seat is not easy. For up-to-date details on
prices and payment methods, check the operator's website or street
information boards.
On the ship
There is no regular navigation
along the Kama for a long time. There are cruises several times a month
- many of them start in Perm and sometimes continue to Moscow or
Astrakhan. There are only very rare river cruises up the Kama.
6 River station, st. Monastyrskaya (next to Perm I station). The
beautiful pre-war building (1940) has not been working for its intended
purpose for a long time and was converted into museums. Now it houses a
multimedia exposition "Russia - my history".
Buses and tram. Opening hours: from 5:30 to 23:30,
routes and timetables are available on the city transport website. The
fare costs 33 ₽ (2022), within 40 or 60 minutes (time depends on the
route number) you can make one change for 17 ₽. Payment to the conductor
in cash or with a contactless bank card. Also in Perm, there is a
Malachite transport card (deposit value: 50 ₽), which works in the mode
of an electronic wallet or a day pass (124 ₽). You can buy a card at
Postbank branches and institutions called Central Cashier. Top up -
through ATMs of Sberbank or Sberbank-online.
The plans of local
authorities for the development of the city electric train are not very
consistent. The idea of a complete closure of the line along the Kama,
connecting two city stations, was replaced by enthusiasm for the active
development of suburban communication. As of 2022, electric trains from
the Perm-2 station through Perm-1 towards the Kamskaya HPP run every
half an hour in the morning and evening with a long break in the middle
of the day. These trains are convenient to travel to Motovilikha, and
the views from the window are unusual, but you will most likely go back
by ordinary land transport.
The name Perm is of Uralic etymology, likely of Finno-Ugric origin (Komi-Permyak: Перем, Perem; Komi: Перым, Perym). Komi is a member of the Permic group of Finno-Ugric 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 (Paleozoic era) takes its name from the toponym.
1 TSUM , Komsomolsky prosp. 21 (corner of Lenin street).
10:00–21:00. The main Perm department store has changed little since the
Soviet era. It houses a variety of shops, from boutiques to very casual
ones. There is a Semya supermarket on the ground floor (8:00–23:00), and
there is a cafe on the top floor.
2 Central Market (TC "Central") ,
pl. Collective farm. 8:00–18:00 except Mon. The market, in the old
fashioned way called "collective farm", has long turned into a giant
trading platform, where absolutely everything is sold. The place is
noisy, chaotic and not very pleasant.
3 Bookinist , st. Popova, 57
(near the Esplanade) 10:00–21:00. Large bookstore; you can find a lot of
publications, including quite rare ones, at more than democratic prices.
There is no pronounced restaurant district in Perm; public catering
is found throughout the center. There are enough options for every taste
on Komsomolsky Prospekt and Lenin Street. In addition to the usual cafes
and restaurants, you will find many bakeries in the city, especially the
Khlebnitsa chain. Perm bakeries tried to collect all the best from the
Kama regions: common Russian pastries (pies), Ural pastries (shangi),
Tatar pastries (elesh, echpochmak) and even Udmurt pastries (perepech) -
the quality, however, is inferior to the original. However, any Perm
bakery is great for a quick bite, they have tea and usually have a
couple of tables, but most often there is no brewed coffee. Also,
bakeries sell round pies, which are not like Tatar ones, but still quite
edible. Another local product is posikunchiki, fried pies in oil,
resembling dumplings in size, and pasties in content. Proper
posikunchiki should sprinkle juice on the eater (whence the name), but
these days they are rarely made anywhere. In catering, pies are usually
dry and not very tasty.
Some bakeries open as early as 7 am, but
cafes, with the exception of a couple of round-the-clock ones, “wake up”
no earlier than eight.
Cheap
✦ Pancake "Frying Pan". Local
version of pancake fast food, soups, salads and cereals are also
available. Self-service, dishes are not plastic. More than ten points
around the city, but in the center there are only a couple of pieces.
Prices: 100-150 ₽ per serving.
1 st. Newspapers Zvezda, 12
(center). 9:00–21:00.
2 Petropavlovskaya st. 57 (center).
9:00–21:00.
3 Blinnaya ProTesto, st. 1905, 3 (Motovilikha).
10:00–21:00. Pancakes, dumplings: 100-150 ₽. The modern incarnation of
fast food, making pancakes and dumplings under the simple slogan "both
fry and cook." Trays and self-service, but at the same time normal
dishes and a nice interior. The best place to eat in this part of
Motovilikha.
4 Dining room "Rossiyanka", st. Lenina, 74 (Esplanade).
10:00–20:00. An ordinary canteen that has existed at this place since
Soviet times and has hardly changed since then.
Average cost
5 Grill-bar Vekhotka , Ekaterininskaya st. 88. 12:00–24:00. Hot: from
300 ₽. Vehotka in the Urals and Siberia is called a washcloth, but there
are no washcloths (that is, of course, milestones) in the institution -
but there is everything else: an original interior, an informal story
about the sights of the city, traditional Permian dishes and a menu
composed with great humor. Good posikunchiki and shangi. There are
concerts in the evenings.
6 Pelmennaya No. 2, Lenin street, 47 (very
center). 11:00–2:00. Portion of dumplings: from 250 ₽. Cozy environment
with floor lamps and bookshelves. With the right attitude, you can get a
separate pleasure from studying the confused and eclectic interior
styling for all eras and countries at once - the central Perm cafe tried
to please everyone, and therefore could not stand a single motive in
anything. The food is of good quality, not only dumplings, but in
general a fairly large selection. Service is good but not intrusive.
7 Cafe-Museum "Perm Cuisine" , Gazeta Zvezda Street, 75. ☎
244-13-55. 9:00–23:00. Hot: from 400 ₽. A cafe far from the center will
be of interest to those who are looking for local exotics, but are
already tired of simple picnics. It was invented by the Soviet culinary
ethnographer Sergei Subbotin and prepares dishes according to the
recipes of the peoples of the Kama region (mainly Komi-Permyaks and
Mansi) - in fact, the northern cuisine, the features of which are the
widespread use of berries and pisticles - young shoots of horsetail.
Food for an amateur, but authentic "to the marrow of the bones."
8 Czech restaurant "Zlata Husa" , Borchaninova street, 12. ☎
238-36-42. 12:00–24:00. average check 1000 ₽. Located not far from the
center, a spacious Czech restaurant with a summer terrace is suitable
for both cheerful companies and family dinners. The menu for decency is
sprinkled with the names of dishes that should remind you of the Czech
Republic, but still quite traditional. A distinctive feature is a rich
assortment of beer and the ability to take it immediately with tasting
sets.
9 Starokirpichny Lane, Lenin Street, 42. A place popular with
local hipsters and people who would like to be like them. The so-called
art cluster "Starokirpichny Lane" is not so easy to find the first time
- to do this, you need to dive into the arch into the courtyard from
Lenin Street. At first glance, it seems that nothing can be hidden
behind it, except for dubious adventures for a careless tourist.
However, inside, in several interconnected courtyards, a quiet,
atmospheric and even cozy little world opens up with modern decor (Perm
tries to match the legacy of Artemy Lebedev), studios, mysterious nooks
and crannies and several successive bars and cafes where you can sit and
discuss impressions of the city and admire the underside of modern Perm.
The view of the city is the most that neither is from the inside.
However, it is unrealistic to find empty seats in these relatively small
establishments on weekend evenings - they must be booked in advance.
Expensive
10 Restaurant Zlatibor , st. Permskaya, 200 (near the
Church of the Ascension). Mon–Sat 12:00–24:00, Sun 12:00–23:00. Hot:
from 500 ₽. Serbian waiters and authentic Balkan cuisine. Not cheap, but
against the background of an average Serbian restaurant in Russia, it is
very diverse.
11 Cafe Meduza , st. Lenina, 64. ☎ 203-54-64.
12:00–24:00. A Mediterranean restaurant specializing in seafood dishes,
and this is always more expensive in the Urals, far from the sea. The
menu does not take up very many pages, and exquisite octopuses, oysters,
eels, king crabs, scallops and other salmon coexist with the banal
Philadelphia roll. But since you have come to the Russian province, and
not to the Cote d'Azur, then accept it with Olympian calmness.
12
Cafe "Chaika ZaZa" st. Monastyrskaya, 2 (near the former River Station).
☎ 214-14-44. 12:00–24:00. For Permians, a regular visit to this place is
a sign of respectability, and a one-time visit is a way to beautifully
boo, surprising a girl or upsetting her mother. Indeed, a cafe located
on the picturesque banks of the Kama is the best suited for this, and in
summer it invites guests to the veranda, open to the warm wind from the
river, overlooking the lights of the embankment and the Communal Bridge.
If for happiness you need to pass the evening with wine and a decent
dinner, overlooking the huge river and the metropolis spread on it,
lazily watching seagulls and tourist boats, then this happiness is
really just around the corner.
There are no problems with hotels in the center of Perm: dozens of
options for every taste, all of them are presented on the Internet.
There is no point in living outside the center.
1 Hotel
"Ural" , st. Lenina 58. ☎ +7 (342) 258-33-30. Single/double: from
2800/3300 ₽. A huge hotel, with its gloomy architecture well
complementing the gloomy aesthetics of the Perm Esplanade. The rooms
have been refurbished, although quite a while ago. There are comments
for breakfasts and especially for dinners, if you suddenly want to
include them in the price.
2 Garni Hotel Sibiria, st.
Petropavlovskaya, 29. ☎ +7 (342) 210-88-22. Single/double: 4500/5400 ₽.
Hotel in a new residential building. Mostly good reviews, but there are
complaints about the lack of air conditioning, and also that when it is,
they take a separate plan for the remote control.
The center is quiet and safe at night; different things happen on the outskirts, but there is no need to go there either. Some believe that the abundance of correctional institutions in the north of the Perm Territory has a negative impact on the criminal situation in Perm itself. However, nothing extraordinary in comparison with other large Russian cities is happening here.
From Perm, you can go to various parts of the Perm Territory. For one
day it is best to go to Kungur, an old merchant town with a unique ice
cave, or get to Khokhlovka, the Perm Museum of Wooden Architecture. Also
quite popular is Perm-36, a one-of-a-kind authentic museum of camp life.
It is located on the road to Chusovoy.
For two days you can,
without hesitation, go along the Kama to the north towards Berezniki and
Solikamsk, where these cities themselves, and the Stroganov Usolie, and
the mysterious old Cherdyn deserve attention. However, in two days you
will have time to see only two cities. For those who appreciate natural
objects more, the eastern direction is suitable: in the area of Lysva,
Chusovoy, Kizel, there are many small mountains, rocks, caves, beautiful
Ural rivers and everything that is supposed to be in this case. Finally,
you can continue your trip in industrial-capital Yekaterinburg, armory
Izhevsk or cozy provincial Kirov.
1 Architectural and
ethnographic museum "Khokhlovka", p. Khokhlovka. 10:00–18:00. 200 ₽. One
of the main museums of wooden architecture in the Urals is located
somewhat inconveniently - 40 km north of Perm on the right bank of the
Kama. However, it is worth getting here, because in Khokhlovka (emphasis
on the first syllable) the most interesting wooden monuments of the Kama
region found refuge, including the buildings of the old salt factory
(chest, salt works, brine-lifting tower - all of the end of the 19th
century), the watchtower of the Torgovishchensky prison and a couple of
elegant churches built at the turn of the XVII-XVIII centuries. and
strikingly reminiscent of distant temples of the Russian North. The
ethnographic part of the exposition consists of Komi-Permyak huts, a
wooden fire station of the 1930s and a hunting camp, located as if in a
dense forest. The museum itself is also beautifully located - on the
shores of the endless Kama Sea, the views of which open both from the
territory of the museum and from its environs. There is a nice cafe next
to the museum.
How to get there: plan at least half a day for
visiting the museum, since a considerable part of the time will be spent
on the road. With a car, you will get out of the city for a very long
time, but you will have to wait for the bus. Bus number 340 runs from
the Perm bus station to Khokhlovka 4 times a day. There is also bus
number 487 with a terminal somewhere in the west of Perm, an
intermediate stop at the bus station and an unclear mode of operation.
Schedules often change, check on the museum website and in its social
networks.
2 Ski complex "Ivan Gora", pos. Gamovo, Ivan Gora (30
km south of Perm). ✉ ☎ +7 (3422) 99-94-36. Winter: Mon–Fri 13:00–22:00,
Sat–Sun 10:00–21:00. Three tracks, ski jumps for snowboarders and a
slide from which you can ride "cheesecakes", and it's completely free.
The territory on which the city of Perm is located has been
inhabited by people since ancient times. More than 130 archeological
sites have been studied in the city, from the Stone Age (Egoshikha
site) to the late Middle Ages.
In the 17th century, these
lands belonged to the Stroganov merchants. The first documentary
mentions of settlements on the territory of the historical center of
the city are found in the census books of the governor Prokopy
Elizarov in 1647 on the estates of the Stroganovs. It mentions
"repairs on the river on the Kama and on the Yegoshikha river."
According to the 1678 census, there were already seven households in
the village of Yegoshikha and “28 male souls, mainly the names of
the Bryukhanovs, Verkholantsevs and Fedotovs” lived.
In 1720, on the orders of Peter I, Lieutenant-Captain of Artillery
Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev went to the Urals to build factories for the
smelting of copper and silver. He chose a place near the mouth of the
Yegoshikha River for the construction of a copper smelter due to the
presence of copper ore and a convenient position for exporting products
along navigable rivers.
In 1722, Tatishchev's successor as plant
manager was Major General of Artillery Georg Wilhelm de Gennin, who
approved the project and ordered preparations for the construction of
the plant.
Tatishchev was present at the laying of the plant. In
the manuscript “Description of the Ural and Siberian plants. 1735" V. I.
de Gennin wrote: “And by definition of evo, lieutenant general, this
plant began to be built on May 4, 1723 and was built until January,
1724.”
The start date of the construction of the Egoshikha
(Yagoshikha) copper smelter - May 4 (15), 1723 - has been considered
since 1995 the official starting date for the history of Perm.
On November 16, 1780, Empress Catherine II, who bore the title of
“Princess of Perm”, signed a personal decree ordering the transfer of
the Egoshikha plant to the treasury and, given the advantageous
location, it was ordered “to designate a provincial city for the Perm
governorate in this place, naming this city Perm ... ".
In the
summer of 1781, buildings were hastily built for the governor, for
offices and a guardhouse not far from the Peter and Paul Church, which
on August 12 was renamed the cathedral. The grand opening of the city
and the vicegerency took place on October 18, 1781. Mikhail Abramovich
Popov, a merchant from Kungur, was elected the first mayor.
In
accordance with the decree of Emperor Paul I dated December 12, 1796 "On
the new division of the state into provinces", the Perm governorship was
transformed into the Perm province with the center in Perm. Karl
Fedorovich Moderakh, who held this post until 1811, was appointed
governor. Among his other merits, historians note the layout of the
streets of Perm developed by him. The construction plan of Moderach was
carried out throughout the 19th century. His building work went far
beyond the city limits. At no cost to the treasury and without burdening
the townsfolk, he brought the roads to perfection, surprising foreigners
who saw the highways of France and England. Under him, a department of
state-owned mining plants in the Urals was established in Perm on the
basis of a new regulation of 1806.
Having become a provincial
center, Perm also became the center of the Perm diocese formed in 1799.
In 1861, a telegraph was opened in the city. In 1863, for the first
time, an experiment was conducted on lighting with kerosene lanterns on
Sibirskaya Street.
In 1876, the first specialized bookstore was
opened, the actual owner of which was Yuzef Piotrovsky, a participant in
the Polish uprising, who was exiled and served time in hard labor and
then received permission to settle in Perm. It was impossible for him,
as a former convict, to open a store in his own name, so he was opened
in the name of his wife and worked under the sign "Olga Petrovskaya".
Under the governorship of Nikolai Efimovich Andreevsky (1870-1878),
gas lighting was installed in Perm (1873), and the Perm Alekseevsky real
school was opened (1876).
The end of the 19th century became a
period of active railway construction in Perm. On August 24, 1878, a
section of the Ural Railway from Perm to Chusovskaya was opened, and on
October 1, 1878, the entire line - Perm - Kushva - Yekaterinburg was put
into operation. In 1897-1898, the Perm-Kotlas railway was laid,
connecting the Ural railway with the railway network of European Russia.
At the end of the 19th century, institutions of art and culture were
actively developing in Perm. In 1874, the construction of the Opera and
Ballet Theater began. In 1896, the first institution for the
demonstration of cinematography appeared (the Illusion electrotheatre).
In 1902, with the expert support of A. S. Popov, who had studied at
the Perm Theological Seminary, electric lighting appeared on the streets
of Perm. Of the seven projects of the power plant submitted to Popov for
consideration, the project of the engineer of the Union company B. Yu.
Getsen was approved.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the population of Perm, together with Motovilikha, was about 100 thousand people. There were few industrial enterprises in Perm itself. Most of the city's population - philistines, merchants, artisans, officials and employees - was loyal to the existing system. But the Perm cannon factories were located near the city, where the RSDLP carried out active propaganda and enjoyed the support of some of the workers. Among the students of Perm there were also both sympathizers with the revolutionaries and active participants in anti-government activities. Together with representatives of the radical intelligentsia who joined them, these groups of the population became active participants in the revolutionary uprisings of 1905. The clashes between workers and government troops culminated in the events in Motovilikha on December 13, 1905.
From September 30 to October 3, 1824, Emperor Alexander I and his
retinue visited Perm. Especially for the arrival of the emperor, the
obelisks of the Siberian and Kazan outposts were erected, a rotunda was
built in the Country Garden. The emperor's apartment was located in a
building at the corner of Pokrovskaya and Sibirskaya streets, where
later, after the building was rebuilt, the Perm provincial treasury
chamber was located.
From May 23 to May 25, 1837, the heir to the
Tsarevich, the future Emperor Alexander II, was passing through Perm,
accompanied by his tutor, the famous poet V. A. Zhukovsky. The Tsarevich
stayed at the governor's house, which was then located on the square
near the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
From July 9 to 11, 1873, Grand
Duke Alexei Alexandrovich was passing through Perm. In memory of his
stay in the city, the Perm Alekseevsky real school was opened.
On
June 11 and 12, 1887, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich was in Perm with
his son Sergei Mikhailovich. They visited the charitable and educational
institutions of Perm, the Motovilikha plant and reviewed the local
battalion. In the presence of the Grand Duke, the building of the
Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium was consecrated in a solemn atmosphere.
In July 1914, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna visited Perm.
Illumination was arranged in the city, a triumphal arch was built at the
corner of Sibirskaya and Petropavlovskaya streets. The Governor
personally accompanied the distinguished guest on her trips around the
Perm Territory.
In March 1918, a wagon with Grand Duke Mikhail
Alexandrovich, his personal secretary and other exiles arrived in Perm
under escort, all were first placed in the city prison. Later, the Grand
Duke and his companions were given premises to live in the former house
of the Noble Assembly, and then they were allowed to live in the Royal
Rooms Hotel. On the night of June 12-13, 1918, Mikhail Aleksandrovich
and his secretary were kidnapped from the hotel, taken to the forest and
killed by a group of local Chekists and policemen. Their bodies have not
yet been found.
On October 26, 1917, news of the October Revolution reached Perm. On
October 27, the City Duma condemned the seizure of power by the
Petrograd Soviet. On December 17, a provincial congress of Soviets of
workers, soldiers' deputies and part of peasant deputies took place in
Perm, which proclaimed the establishment of Soviet power in the Perm
province and formed a provincial executive committee, chaired by the
Bolshevik M. N. Lukoyanov.
Even before the announcement of the
Red Terror, individual representatives of the Soviet government (as in
the case of Mikhail Alexandrovich) or its official bodies in Perm
undertook a number of repressive actions. In particular, Archbishop
Andronik of Perm and Kungur, who was later canonized by the Russian
Orthodox Church, was arrested and killed for counter-revolutionary
activities.
On December 25, 1918, units of the Siberian army of
Radola Gaida entered Perm and, after brief clashes in the area of the
Perm-2 railway station, occupied the city. The surrender of the city and
the further advance of the White Guards to the west were called in the
Central Committee of the RCP (b) "Perm catastrophe". After the report of
the commission of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) (under the
leadership of I. V. Stalin and F. E. Dzerzhinsky), the command of the
Eastern Front of the Red Army prepared an offensive to return Perm. By
June 20, 1919, the 2nd and 3rd Red armies reached the distant approaches
to Perm, and on July 1, the troops of the 3rd Army occupied the city.
During military clashes, almost all water transport (the entire Kama
river fleet and part of the Volga) was burned in a port near the village
of Levshino, and the railway bridge across the Kama was blown up. The
civil war, war communism, and the economic disruption that accompanied
them led to the degradation of Perm's urban economy and, as a result, to
a sharp increase in epidemic diseases and a decrease in the city's
population in the early 1920s.
In 1923, the city ceased to be a
provincial center, since, according to the new
administrative-territorial division, the Ural region was formed with the
center in Yekaterinburg.
On November 3, 1927, Perm and the working settlement of
Motovilikha were merged into one city. In 1930, the construction of
engine building plant No. 19 began (later - the Stalin plant, the
Sverdlov plant, now the Perm engine building complex). In 1931,
Motovilikha received the status of an independent city called
Molotovo, and in 1938 it was again included in Perm under the name
of the Molotovsky District (now the Motovilikha District).
According to the results of the census conducted in 1926, the
population of Perm was 84,804 people (39,968 men and 44,836 women).
By the 1939 census, due to industrialization, the population of the
city had more than tripled and amounted to 306,000 people.
Already by May 20, 1979, the population of Perm numbered a million
people, that is, over 50 years it increased more than 10 times
(population growth in some years was 15% and was the largest among
all the cities of the Urals).
On March 8, 1940, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme
Soviet of the USSR, the city was renamed Molotov in honor of V. M.
Molotov, a politician and chairman of the government of the USSR in
1930-1941 (in connection with his 50th anniversary).
By a decree
of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR dated January 18,
1941, the Kirovsky District was formed by including the working
settlement of Zakamsk, the suburban area of the city of Krasnokamsk and
the settlements united by the Zakamsky Settlement Council in the urban
area of the city of Molotov.
During the Great Patriotic War, the
industry of the city was reoriented to military needs. The Dzerzhinsky
Machine-Building Plant was transferred to the production of ammunition
and other means of defense, the chemical plant named after Ordzhonikidze
was transferred to the production of chemicals to combat enemy equipment
and raw materials for ammunition.
The Molotov region became one
of the main regions that received the evacuated population and
enterprises. 124 industrial enterprises were transferred to the region,
64 of them were located in the regional center. The equipment of several
enterprises of a similar direction was placed on the territory of the
motor-building plant No. 19.
In the pre-war and war years, a
large number of military units were formed in the Molotov region,
including:
112th Rifle Division, formed with headquarters in Perm in
the second half of 1939;
243rd (62nd Guards) Molotov Tank Brigade of
the 30th (10th Guards) Ural Volunteer Tank Corps, formed in the city in
1943.
In the post-war years, Molotov, as a major industrial
center, was included in the list of 20 cities in the USSR subject to
atomic bombing according to the plan for the war against the USSR (the
“Totality” plan), developed in the USA in 1945, and was also included in
subsequent similar plans.
On August 6, 1952, the Molotov City
Executive Committee decided to include the settlements of Sobol and
Lipovaya Gora in the city of Molotov.
In 1955, the construction
of the Kama hydroelectric power station was completed.
After 1957
On October 2, 1957, the name Perm was returned to the city.
In
1958, the first stage of the Perm Oil Refinery (now -
Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez LLC) was put into operation.
On
February 1, 1963, the village of Verkhniye Mully was included in the
Industrial district of the city of Perm, on the territory of which the
authorities of the Perm district are located. Perm became the
administrative center of the Perm region.
In 1967, the
construction of the Communal Bridge was completed - an automobile and
pedestrian bridge across the Kama, connecting the city center with the
right-bank part.
On March 18, 1965, cosmonaut A. A. Leonov made
the first spacewalk in the history of mankind on the Voskhod-2
spacecraft. Before landing on Earth, the ship's automatic orientation
system failed. P. I. Belyaev manually oriented the ship and turned on
the brake engine. As a result, Voskhod landed in an undesignated area,
180 km north of Perm. After two nights in the open air, the cosmonauts
were taken by helicopter to the Perm airport. The route in Perm (part of
the Kazan tract), along which they were transported, was later called
the Kosmonavtov Highway.
On January 22, 1971, the city of Perm
was awarded the Order of Lenin for the successful implementation of the
five-year plan for the development of industrial production.
During the years of Soviet power, large residential areas arose in Perm,
for example, City Hills and Balatovo, Komsomolsky Prospekt was
reconstructed, the Kama embankment was created, and a radical
restructuring of Lenin Street was carried out (in the direction of the
Perm Vtoraya railway station). Such large facilities have been erected
as a complex of buildings of the Polytechnic Institute (on the right
bank of the Kama), several cinemas, a circus, a planetarium, the
building of the regional library named after A. M. Gorky, the Central
Department Store, many kindergartens and nurseries, schools, hospitals,
the construction of the Perm subway, but the project was never
implemented.
The consequences of the all-Russian crisis affected different aspects
of the life of Permians. In the city, as well as throughout the country,
the volume of industrial production was declining, there were delays in
the payment of wages, etc. In early 1993, a “budget war” broke out
between the city and regional authorities and continued for several
years with varying success. In addition to a long legal process, the
"budget war" was remembered, among other things, by the arrival of the
commission of the Supreme Council, the ambulance strike, interruptions
in public transport and street lighting.
On March 20, 1994, for
the first time in post-Soviet history, elections to the Perm City Duma
took place. And on December 8, 1996, the first direct elections of the
head of the city took place. Already in the first round, Yuri Petrovich
Trutnev won. He held this post until 2000.
In the 1990s, Perm
unofficially began to be called the "capital of civil society", one can
often hear the "capital of Russian liberalism"
In the 1990s, FC
Amkar and PBC Ural Great were founded in the city, which achieved great
success in Russian football and basketball in the 2000s (Amkar played in
the Premier League, was a finalist of the Cup of the country and UEFA,
"Ural Great" - two-time champion of Russia).
On October 21, 2005,
the 1st stage of the Krasavinsky Bridge was opened - a new bridge across
the Kama with a length of 1736.95 meters. The construction of the 2nd
stage of the bridge was completed in September 2008.
The end of
the 2000s was overshadowed by a number of tragic incidents related to
Perm. On September 14, 2008, a Boeing 737-500 flight Moscow-Perm crashed
over the city, killing 82 passengers and 6 crew members. December 5,
2009 there was a fire in a nightclub, the victims of which were 156
people, 78 were injured.
The cornerstone of the social and
political life of Perm in the late 2000s and early 2010s was the new
cultural policy of the regional authorities, which they considered as
the basis for the ideological and economic modernization of the
region.Go to the section "Perm Cultural Revolution"
In June 2010,
direct elections of the Mayor of Perm were cancelled.
On
September 20, 2021, a massacre took place on the territory of Perm State
University. 6 people died, about 40 were injured.
Perm is the main economic center of the Perm Territory and one of the
largest economic centers in Russia. In 2003, Perm ranked 6th in the
business climate rating of Russian cities. In 2012, the rating of the
most promising megacities according to the Russian Reporter magazine was
published, in which Perm took 4th place. According to Rosstat, the
production and economic indicators of Perm are constantly increasing.
The average salary in Perm in 2018, according to official statistics, is
44,863.7 rubles. The economy of the city is characterized, first of all,
by the developed heavy industry. Leading industries: electric power
industry, oil and gas processing, mechanical engineering, chemistry and
petrochemistry, woodworking, printing and food industry.
In 2013,
Perm took 6th place in the ranking of the 250 largest industrial centers
in Russia.
Until 2014, the head office of TGK-9 was located in
Perm, which included generating facilities in the Perm Territory, the
Sverdlovsk Region and the Komi Republic. Kamskaya HPP and four thermal
power plants are located directly on the territory of the city: No. 6,
No. 9, No. 13, No. 14. In 2014, TGC-9 became part of T Plus.
The
oil and gas processing industry is represented by the Lukoil enterprise,
the Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez plant, which in 2014 included the gas
processing plant Lukoil-Permneftegazpererabotka. Gazprom's subsidiaries
in Perm are the gas distribution company Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Perm and
the gas distribution company Gazprom Gas Distribution Perm.
In
mechanical engineering, a significant share is made up of enterprises of
the military-industrial complex. Main products: artillery systems,
aircraft engines and gas pumping units, oilfield and mining equipment,
electric and gasoline-powered saws, communication equipment, road
construction equipment, river boats, power tools. The largest
enterprises in the industry:
Motovilikha Plants;
Perm Engine
Building Complex;
Perm Research and Production Instrument-Making
Company;
Morion;
NPO Iskra;
plant "Mashinostroitel";
Novomet;
Perm shipbuilding plant "Kama";
Perm locomotive repair
plant.
Chemical and petrochemical enterprises produce varnishes
and paints, explosives, mineral fertilizers, synthetic detergents,
activated carbon and other products. The largest enterprises in the
industry:
"Mineral fertilizers";
"Sibur-Khimprom";
"Halogen";
Perm powder plant.
The largest enterprises in the woodworking
industry: Krasny Oktyabr Lumber, Perm House-Building Plant, Zakamsk
Furniture Factory, Dracaena, Perm Cardboard. There is a large printing
production - the Perm Printing Factory of Goznak, which produces state
documents, banknotes, not only for the needs of Russia, but also by
order of other states.
There are several dozen food industry
enterprises in the city (the largest are the Perm meat-packing plant,
the Permsky dairy plant, the Perm confectionery factory, the Kamskaya
confectionery factory (owned by Nestlé).
Perm is home to one of
Russia's largest bicycle manufacturing enterprises, Forward.
As of 2021, 54 banks operate in Perm, most of which are from other
regions, there are only three local banks: Ural FD, Bank Perm and
Pochtobank.
The leader of banking services in Perm is the Perm
branch of Sberbank of Russia. The largest regional bank is Ural FD. In
addition to Sberbank, the ten largest banks in Perm in terms of assets
include Alfa-Bank, VTB, Gazprombank, Otkritie, Raiffeisenbank,
Rosselkhozbank, Rosbank, Sovcombank and UniCredit Bank.
Brokerage
companies Alpari, Teletrade, FINAM, BCS and Forex Club, as well as local
investment companies Vitus and Perm Stock Company operate in the Perm
Territory.
Stores of a number of international and federal chains are located in
Perm: Metro Cash & Carry, Castorama, Magnit, Pyaterochka, Lenta,
Sportmaster, Starik Hottabych, M.video, Eldorado ”, “Finn Flare”,
“SELA”, “Savage”, “Children's World”, “The Seventh Continent”,
communication salons of federal networks “Svyaznoy”. There is also a
pharmacy network "36.6" in the city. In March 2015, the first Auchan
hypermarket in Perm was opened.
Large local retail chains:
"Semya", "Lyon" and "Bereg"; a chain of stores selling household
appliances and electronics "Saturn-R"; network of fast food cafes
"Alendvik".
The largest shopping centers:
"Aurora", "Iceberg"
and "Iceberg-Modern", "Diamond", "Vivat", "Gostiny Dvor", "Domino",
"Razgulyai", "Kit", "Coliseum" ("Coliseum-Atrium" and "
Coliseum-cinema), Liner, Mirabella, Petropavlovsky, Planet, Seven
Fridays, Family hypermarket, SpeshiLove, Goods of Prikamye, Central
Department Store, Chocolate, Planet shopping center »;
shopping and
entertainment complexes "Carnival", "Capital"; thematic shopping center
"Baumall"; shopping and office center Star Moll; "IMALL Esplanade".
cellular
In Perm, there are networks of mobile operators Tele2
Russia, Rostelecom, MTS, MegaFon, Beeline, Sbermobile and Yota. Beeline
has the largest customer support center (call center) in the city.
Wired telephone
Since August 20, 2005, due to the exhaustion of
the numbering capacity, seven-digit numbers have been used - the number
2 has been added to the old ones at the beginning.
As of 2013,
wired telephony services in Perm are provided by the following
operators: Rostelecom (Home phone), MTS (Intercity, international
communication), Beeline (Home phone), ER-Telecom (Dom.ru).
Internet
According to the results of the 1st quarter of 2011, the
number of households in Perm with constant access to the Internet
exceeded 250,000. The level of penetration of broadband access services
(69%) is quite high compared to the all-Russian indicators. In terms of
connection types, Ethernet technology prevails (65.5%) - in terms of the
penetration of high-speed fiber-optic communication lines, Perm ranks
first in Russia.
The structure of the subscriber base of the
Internet providers market in Perm: ER-Telecom (Dom.ru) — 55%; MTS (Home
Internet) - 20.8%; Rostelecom (Home Internet) - 17.2%; Beeline (Home
Internet) - 5%, other providers - 2%.
Perm is home to the
headquarters of ER-Telecom, one of the ten largest telecommunications
companies in Russia. In 1994, OJSC Uralsvyazinform was established in
Perm, which later became the largest operator of telecommunications
services and a monopoly in the field of telephone communications in the
Ural region.