The name Perm is of unknown etymology, likely of Uralic (Komi or Veps) origin. Komi is a member of the Permic group of Uralic languages, which is also named for Perm. Likewise, the geologic period of the Permian takes its name from the toponym.
Perm was first mentioned as the village of Yegoshikha in 1647; however, the history of the modern city of Perm starts with the development of the Ural region by Tsar Peter the Great.Vasily Tatishchev, appointed by the Tsar as a chief manager of Ural factories, founded Perm together with another major center of the Ural region, Yekaterinburg.
Perm was founded on May 15 (May 4 in Julian calendar), 1723, and has had town status since October 29, 1781. By 1797, it was already the administrative center of Perm Governorate.
In the 19th century, Perm became a major trade and industrial center with a population of more than 20,000 people in the 1860s, with several metallurgy, paper, and steamboat producing factories, including one owned by a British entrepreneur. In 1870, an opera theater was opened in the city, and in 1871 the first phosphoric factory in Russia was built. In 1916, Perm State University�a major educational institution in modern Russia�was opened.
Pokrovskaya Street in central Perm around 1910
After the outbreak of the Russian Civil War, Perm became a prime target for both sides because of its military munitions factories. In December 1918, the Siberian White Armyunder Anatoly Pepelyayev (who acknowledged the authority of the Omsk Government ofAleksandr Kolchak), took Perm. In 1919, the city was retaken by the Red Army.
Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich was executed in the outskirts of Perm with his secretary Nicholas Johnson on June 12, 1918 on the orders of the Perm Cheka. Their bodies were never recovered. A few weeks later on July 7, 1918, Andronic Nikolsky, the Archbishop of Perm, was also murdered by the Bolsheviks in the city. In 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church
