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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Perm trolley. Good-bye Perm! Трамвайчик производства усть-катавского завода на улицах Перми.
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Perm trolley. Good-bye Perm! Трамвайчик производства усть-катавского завода на улицах Перми.

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  • Installation at the Perm Museum of Contemporary Art.
  • Le Beau Monde life. Reception at the at the Museum of Contemporary Art's Graphics Biennale.
  • Perm beauty at the Graphic Arts Biennale. <br />
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Пермская красотка. Биеннале графики.
  • Gribushin House. This 18 room mansion was built in the early 1900s for a local tea merchant is said to be the prototype of the 'House with Figures' in Pasternak's novel, "Dr. Zhivago". The Gribushin family left Russia after the Revolution during which time the building was used as a hospital. It is now home to the Urals branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.  Дом Грибушина в Перми. У Пастернака в "Докторе Живаго" упоминается как  "дом с фигурами" в Юрятине.
  • Tourist shot of me in front of the Gribushin House.
  • Perm trolley. Good-bye Perm! Трамвайчик производства усть-катавского завода на улицах Перми.
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