Perm, originally known as Yagoshikha (Ягошиха; 1723–1781) and briefly as Molotov (Молотов; 1940–1957), is the administrative centre of Perm Krai in the European part of Russia. It sits on the banks of the Kama River near the Ural Mountains, covering an area of 799.68 square kilometres (308.76 square miles). With over one million residents Perm is the 15th-largest city in Russia and the 5th-largest in the Volga Federal District.

Perm is located in the old Permiak area. Perm was first mentioned as the village of Yagoshikha (Ягошиха) 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 centre of the Ural region, Yekaterinburg.

Modern Perm remains a major railway hub and one of the chief industrial centers 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. The city's institutions of higher education include the Perm A.M. Gorky State University, founded in 1916.

Perm grew considerably as industrialization proceeded in the Urals during the Soviet period, and in 1940 was named Molotov in honour of Vyacheslav Molotov. In 1957 the city was returned to its historical name.^{[citation needed]}

The name Perm is of Uralic etymology (Komi-Permyak: Перем, Perem; Komi: Перым, Perym). Komi is a member of the Permic branch of the Uralic languages, which is also named for Perm. In Finnish and Vepsian perämaa means "far-away land"; similarly, in Hungarian perem means "edge" or "verge". The geologic period of the Permian takes its name from the toponym.

In 1723, a copper-smelting works was founded at the village of Yagoshikha. In 1781 it was granted city status and renamed Perm. Perm's position on the navigable Kama River, leading to the Volga, and on the Siberian Route across the Ural Mountains, helped it become an important trade and manufacturing centre. It also lay along the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Perm was located on the route to Siberia and served either as a stopover or a final destination for many exiles under Tsarist and Soviet rule. According to Mikhail Speransky, in 1813, almost the entire population of Perm consisted of exiles. Many Polish insurgents of the November Uprising were exiled in Perm in the 1830s.

Perm was a city where Poles were allowed to settle after serving their sentences, as they were not permitted to return to Polish territory. Poles established a Catholic chapel in the 1830s, built a Catholic church in 1875, which also served Lithuanians and other nationalities, founded a Poverty Relief Society in 1897, and helped establish a local museum and theatre.