1. Russia Redux • Возвращающаяся Россия

Perm (11.2010)

Founded in 1723, Perm is a heavily industrialized region with more than 80 plants and factories. The easternmost city on the western continent, this city of almost 1,000,000 was closed to foreigners for decades due to it importance as an armaments manufacturing center. During WWII much of Soviet industry and many cultural artifacts were moved to Perm as the city, which lies 866 miles east of Moscow, was deemed far enough away from the Front. Many artists and men of letters, including the Kirov Ballet Troupe, were also evacuated to the region. Perm's darker past revolves around its notoriety as the home of Perm-36, one of the USSR's harshest & most infamous Gulags. Closed only in 1987, Perm-36 is the only gulag in Russia which remains standing. Today it serves as a memorial and education center.

Still a manufacturing powerhouse, today's Perm is imbued with a new vibrancy as it positions itself as a burgeoning avant-garde cultural center. Will Perm's cultural revolution turn it into the next Bilbao? Though difficult to predict, the city pulsates with a new energy that young people, in particular, find difficult to ignore. Whereas 60% of Perm's youth previously wanted to leave for the bright lights of Moscow, a common problem in Russia's regions, now only 8% think of leaving. In Russia's regions, that's enough to be called a revolution.
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The Silvinit plant outside Solikamsk. The company produces fertilizers.    Дыхание большой индустрии.
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The Silvinit plant outside Solikamsk. The company produces fertilizers. Дыхание большой индустрии.

rusurusu photographyperm russia

  • Young actors performing in a contemporary drama, "Natasha's Dreams" at the modern art theater, "Scene Hammer". (Perm, Russia)
  • Room at the new Eurotel Hotel. We never have much time in our hotel on these trips, but it's nice to come back at the end of the day to a comfy bed & hot shower.
  • Decorative nook in my hotel room.
  • The Silvinit plant outside Solikamsk. The company produces fertilizers.    Дыхание большой индустрии.
  • г. Соликамск. Только выбрался из шахты. Позади - здание гимназии. <br />
<br />
In miner's gear in front of the Solikamsk Gymnasium.
  • Silvinit Fertilizer Plant.
  • Decked out & ready to go underground.
  • About to descend into the bowels of the earth. (Silvinit Mine, Solikamsk, Russia)
  • Miner man Safronov.
  • Miner woman Gimon.
  • Other worldly scene more than 1200 feet underground. The Silvinit Mine is the world's 2nd largest deposit of potassium and magnesium salts.
  • Heavy machinery underground. You can see how the ceiling & walls are scraped of salts and minerals. (Silvinit Mine, Solikamsk, Russia)
  • Roza Borodinskikh, Silvinit's Head of Communications.
  • Dima shooting the mine's wall scrapings.
  • Wall scraped of mineral & salt deposits. (Silvinit Mine, Solikamsk, Russia)
  • Salts created 250 million years ago when the oceans dried up during the Permian period.  250 миллионов лет назад здесь был мировой океан....
  • Beautifully colored salts & minerals - you can almost see the millenia. (Silvinit Mine, Solikamsk, Russia)
  • Вот они, останки пермского периода.
  • Russian miner. About 370 meters (1230 feet) underground, mining the world's 2nd largest deposit of potassium and magnesium salts. (Solikamsk, Perm Region, Russia)
  • Шахтёр за рычагами врубового комбайна. А ещё говорят, что мы не можем делать машины! Этот дракон, рубящий соль, сделан в Копейске.
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