CITY · PERM KRAI

Perm.

Perm stands on the Kama River and is one of the big industrial centres of the Urals. It also has a strong cultural reputation, built on its opera house, an art gallery known for the region's wooden sculpture and the PERMM museum of contemporary art.

Region: Perm Krai
Population: 1,084,000 (2025)
Founded: 1723
Airport: Bolshoye Savino · PEE

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24 September 2026

A cultural route

Perm: a city you can listen to

An opera house, traces of an older building and carved wooden figures offer three starting points for a cultural visit.

Theatre and cityPerm

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History

The village of Yagoshikha, on the site of the future city, is first recorded in 1647, but Perm dates its founding to 1723, when a copper-smelting works was set up here. It became a town in 1781. From 1940 to 1957 the city was called Molotov. During the Second World War it was a key centre of artillery production, and through the Cold War it remained a closed city.

Culture & traditions

The Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre is regarded as one of the best in Russia. The State Art Gallery occupies a former early-19th-century cathedral on Komsomolsky Prospekt and holds paintings from the 15th to 18th centuries alongside the region's wooden sculpture. PERMM, the museum of contemporary art, opened in 2009. The city is linked with the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and with Boris Pasternak, who portrayed Perm as Yuriatin in Doctor Zhivago.

Sport

Team sports are strong in Perm, home to the ice hockey club Molot-Prikamye, the basketball side Parma, the handball team Permskie Medvedi and the volleyball club Prikamye. There is also a women's football club, Zvezda 2005. The city produced chess player Alexandra Kosteniuk, women's world champion in 2008, and the Olympic champion figure skaters Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Trankov.

Food & drink

Pelmeni became a Russian staple in the Urals and Siberia, and the word itself comes from the Komi and Udmurt languages, meaning "bread ear". In Perm, they are the natural place to start.

Practical information

Bolshoye Savino Airport lies about 16 km south-west of the city. Perm is a junction on the Trans-Siberian Railway, with Perm I and Perm II as its main stations. Trams and buses serve the city. The climate is continental, with long snowy winters and warm but short summers, so late spring to early autumn is the best time to visit.

What to see

Perm State Art Gallery — the region's wooden sculpture inside a former cathedral
Opera and Ballet Theatre — one of the country's best-known opera stages
PERMM — contemporary art in a museum opened in 2009
Kama embankment — the city's main riverside promenade
Permyak Salty Ears sculpture — one of the most visited spots in town
Legend of the Perm Bear — a sculpture of the bear from the city's coat of arms