Perm, city and administrative centre of Perm kray (territory), 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 (about 300 to 250 million years ago), which was first identified in geologic strata in the locality. Pop. (2008 est.) 987,234.