PERM

formerly (1940-57) Molotov, city and administrative centre of Perm oblast (province), western Russia. The city stands on both banks of the Kama River below its confluence with the Chusovaya. In 1723 a copper-smelting works was founded at the village of Yegoshikha (founded 1568), at the junction of the Yegoshikha and Kama rivers. In 1780 the settlement of Yegoshikha became the town of Perm, although another town, Perm Velikaya (Perm the Great; now Cherdyn), had existed 150 miles (240 km) upstream since the 14th century. Perm's position on the navigable Kama River, leading to the Volga, and on the Great Siberian Highway (established in 1783) across the Ural Mountains helped it become an important trade and manufacturing centre. It also lay along the Trans-Siberian Railroad, which was completed to Yekaterinburg in 1878. Perm grew considerably as industrialization proceeded in the Urals during the Soviet period. Modern Perm, which extends for approximately 30 miles (50 km) along the high riverbanks, is still a major railway hub and one of the chief industrial centres of the Urals region. The city's diversified metallurgical and engineering industries produce equipment and machine tools for the petroleum and coal industries, as well as agricultural machinery. A major petroleum refinery uses oil transported by pipeline from the West Siberian oilfields, and the city's large chemical industry makes fertilizers and dyes. Power is supplied by a 500,000-kilowatt hydroelectric station on the Kama just north of the city. The city's institutions of higher education include the Perm A.M. Gorky State University, founded in 1916. There are several theatres, a notable art gallery, and a school of ballet. Perm gives its name to the Permian Period (from 286 to 245 million years ago), which was first identified in geologic strata in the locality. Pop. (1994 est.) 1,086,100. oblast (province), western Russia. It occupies an area on the western flank of the central Ural Mountains, extending from the crestline in the east across the broad basin of the middle Kama River. The northwest corner of the oblast is occupied by the Komi-Permyak autonomous okrug (district). Almost the entire oblast is thickly forested, with swampy forest, or taiga, of spruce, fir, pine, and birch. Extensive floodplain meadows line the rivers. Three-fourths of the population is urban, reflecting Perm's position as part of the Urals industrial area. It is exceptionally rich in minerals, notably salt and potassium along the Kama River; these are the basis of the chemical industry of Berezniki, Solikamsk, and Perm city, the administrative centre. Petroleum is extracted along the Kama, in the Sylva and Iren valleys, and in the south and is refined in Perm and Krasnokamsk. Chusovoy and Lysva have metallurgical plants, and most cities in the oblast have engineering industries. Coal is mined in the Kizel area. The forests supply paper, pulp, and other timber-working industries. Agriculture has a minor role, except for intensive market gardening around the cities. There are several large power stations in the oblast, notably the Kama hydroelectric plants. Area 62,000 square miles (160,600 square km). Pop. (1995 est.) 3,024,000.