Perm lies on the Kama river, the great tributary of the Volga, on the western slopes of the Urals, and it is a city that has given its name to a whole chapter of the earth's history. When the British geologist Roderick Murchison travelled through the region in the 1840s, he found rocks and fossils from a period he had not seen before and called it the Permian, after the old province of Perm. That period, which ended with the largest mass extinction ever recorded, is now known across the world.
The city itself was founded in 1723 as a copper smelting works at Yagoshikha, and it grew into a major industrial centre, producing guns, ships and machinery. About a million people live here, and it has a cultural life out of proportion to its location. The Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre has a long tradition, going back to the days when Sergei Diaghilev, the founder of the Ballets Russes, spent his childhood in the town. The writer Boris Pasternak lived here in 1916 and 1917 and drew on it in Doctor Zhivago, where it appears as the city of Yuryatin.
The Kama is a wide, slow river, and the embankment in the city is a pleasant place for a walk, with views of the long bridges and the river traffic. Perm is also known for its wooden sculpture, a tradition from the old Komi-Permyak culture, in which strangely expressive figures of saints and gods were carved from logs. A museum in an old church shows these carvings, and they are worth the visit.
To the east and south, the land rises toward the Ural foothills, with forested ridges, limestone cliffs and caves. Kungur, about ninety kilometres southeast, has a famous ice cave, and the road to it passes through rolling farmland and forest. Further east, the road to Usva and Gubakha climbs into the Urals proper, with rocky river gorges and pine woods. The surfaces vary, and trucks are heavy on the main routes. Frost heaves and potholes appear in spring.
Everything you need for a ride is in Perm, including fuel, workshops and hotels. The traffic in the centre is dense, so avoid rush hours. The local cuisine is hearty, with fish pies, dumplings and mushroom dishes. Summers are warm and short, autumn colours arrive in September, and winters are cold and snowy.