The City Life: A Guide to Vibrant Metropolitan Centers

It is on the European side of the Ural Mountains. The primary area of the city reaches out for a significant distance along the high east bank of the Kama Waterway, with clearing vistas across the stream toward the west. Perm is one of a group of cities that are just outside of Russia’s top ten, along with Krasnoyarsk, Voronezh, and Volgograd. 

The quest of Peter the Great (1672–1725) to exploit the rich ore deposits of the Urals and secure sources of high-quality industrial metals gave rise to the city that is now known as Perm. Vasily Tatishchev, one of Russia’s earliest professional historians, was the driving force behind the development of this region, as was the case for other towns in the Urals, including Ekaterinburg.

A researcher with a gift for down to earth movement, Tatishchev had vast esteem for Peter the Incomparable and was a compelling defender of the focal job of dictator and state in Russian history. Tatishchev established settlements throughout the Ural Mountains in the 1720s at mines, smelters, and metalworking facilities.

The location was thought to be ideal for a large smelter due to the proximity of copper ore sources.  After Catherine the Great ordered the large factory settlement to become an administrative hub for the Urals, it wasn’t until 1781 that it was given the official name “Perm.”

Perm has been associated with heavy industry since its inception, and by the 1860s, it had become one of Russia’s most important arms-producing regions. The cannon works at Motovilikha, an 18th-century factory town near the Egoshikha copper plant, became an important part of the Russian military-industrial complex. A variety of weapons made at Motovilikha are now displayed in an outdoor museum.

During the 19th century, Perm developed into a transportation hub for salt, other minerals, metal ore, and the products of metal factories throughout the western Ural Mountains due to its On the Kama, regular steamboat service began in 1846. As part of a railroad construction boom that culminated in the early 20th century with the completion of the TransSiberian Railway, Perm was included in the main Siberian Highway in 1863 and the first phase of the Urals Railroad from Perm to Ekaterinburg was completed in 1878.

Even though Perm was on a major river, it was far enough away to be a refuge. Tolstoy’s War and Peace features the state reformer Count Mikhail Speransky, who was temporarily disregarded by Alexander I and was exiled here between the years 1812 and 1814. Alexander Herzen, a political thinker and writer, spent a portion of his lengthy exile in Perm two decades later, in 1835. Additionally, the Perm region became an important component of the GULAG system during the Stalinist era.

Since the 19th century, the city’s development has been reflected in its architecture. The Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior overlooking the Kama is Perm’s most prominent religious structure. The cathedral was in the Transfiguration Monastery, which the Stroganovs built in 1560 for their Pyskor settlement up the Kama River. As a bishop’s residence, the monastery was moved to the newly elevated city of Perm in 1781. Until 1819, the Perm cathedral was built over several decades. The cathedral’s majestic neoclassical bell tower, designed by Ivan Sviyazev and completed in 1832, began construction as soon as it was finished.

The Regional History Museum and the Art Museum are now housed in the Transfiguration Cathedral and adjacent monastery buildings. The Art Museum has a great collection of local religious art, including wooden statues.

In 1842, a fire destroyed much of Perm, but the town quickly rebuilt. The house Pavel Diaghilev, the great Serge Diaghilev’s grandfather, built in 1852 on Siberian Street is one of its cultural landmarks. Serge Diaghilev spent much of his childhood there.

During the many years paving the way to The Second Great War, the development of Perm prompted the far and wide development of block structures in beautiful varied styles for business, private and strict use. Orthodox churches that escaped destruction during the Soviet era are among the many of these structures that have been preserved. Noticeable among them are the Climb St. Trinity Cathedral (1846–1949) and Feodosy Church (1903–10)

The Church of the Icon of the Kazan Virgin, built between 1905 and 1907 with assistance from the Kamensky merchant family, has been meticulously restored on the outskirts of the city. The church, which is a part of the Dormition Convent, was built in the 19th century. It is famous for the large ceramic image of the Savior that was made by artists Viktor Vasnetsov and Nikolai Roerich. The elaborately decorated Church of the Dormition, which was rebuilt between 1900 and 1905 at the Egoshikha Cemetery, close to the original Perm copper smelter, can be found to the north of the city center of Perm.

Additionally, wealthy merchants funded the construction of a substantial mosque in the Moorish style in Perm in the years 1902 and 1903. Its impressive minaret rises above the few wooden houses and century-old brick buildings that remain in this neighborhood, which was once home to ethnic Tatars and is traditionally Muslim.