Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area
// GENERAL INFORMATION
The Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area is located in the Pre-Urals on the upper Kama River. The area borders on Perm Region in the northeast, east, southeast, and south; Kirov Region in the west; and the Komi Republic in the northwest and north.
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The area was formed on February 26, 1925; it has an area of 32 900 km2 within Perm Region. Administratively, it is divided into 6 districts, 1 city under area jurisdiction, 3 towns, and 74 rural administrations. It has a population of 157 100 people (0.1% of the RF) and a population density of 4.6 people per km2. Komi-Permyaks make up the majority of the population (60.2%), followed by Russians (36.1%), and smaller numbers of Tatars (0.9%), Belarussians (0.8%), Ukrainians (0.7%), and other nationalities (1.3%).
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The capital of the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area of Perm Region is the city of Kudymkar (pop. 34 400) located in the Pre-Urals on the Kuva and Inva rivers (tributaries of the Kama) 100 km north of Mendeleevo railway station and 200 km northeast of Perm. Kudymkar is a highway junction and has an airport.
The largest companies in Kudymkar are an electromechanical plant [a branch of the Perm Instrument-Making Company (Permskoe priborostroitelnaya kompaniya)], a creamery, and a meat-packing plant. These companies are in a better financial situation than companies in rural areas. Kudymkar is an electrical energy distribution center for power arriving from Perm via two 110-V transmission lines and directed to district substations.
&As a result of the referendum held in Perm Region and Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area on December 7, 2003, the two regions will be united into Perm Territory (Krai) by the end of 2005. The trend to consolidate regions into larger units is becoming more pronounced.
Ten general education schools, four lycees, a children's art school, two Houses of Culture, seven clubs, the Komsomolets large-format movie theater, and Krivoshchekov Park of Culture and Rest operate in Kudymkar. Construction of a unique (by area standards) Cultural Center is complete. The center has a large auditorium and a large number of rooms for artistic groups. Health-care facilities operating in the city include a district hospital, a municipal outpatient clinic, and a dental clinic; ophthalmic, TB, dermatology-venereology, and athletic clinics; a women's maternity clinic and children's clinic; and a municipal sanitary and epidemiological center. There is also a ski-jumping complex.
HISTORY
The history of the Komi-Permyak people, and thus of the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area, began in Kudymkar, one of the main formation points of the interesting and distinctive culture of the northern people. The city also played a major role in the development of a national intelligentsia.
The formation of the Komi-Permyak people took place in the area of Kudymkar in the 9th and 10th centuries. In 1472, Kudymkar became part of Russia along with Great Perm (Perm Velikaya). Kudymkar had 1192 residents in 1908, but the village already had a municipal school, a women's zemstvo school [the zemstvo was a form of local self government], a library and reading room, an orphanage, and an almshouse. Forestry departments and a consumer association were formed, a mill with a dam was built on the Kuva River, three trade fairs were held annually, and there were weekly markets. A post and telegraph office opened in 1909. The first museum in Kudymkar was founded in 1920 with the active participation of artist P.I. Subbotin-Permyak. When the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area was formed in 1925, Kudymkar became its administrative center. A local newspaper Geris (Plowman), later renamed Parma (Woodland Ridge) began publishing in 1926. A teacher's college, forestry and agricultural schools, and an obstetrical school were set up between 1927 and 1930. The village of Kudymkar was reorganized into a town in 1931, and the Gorki Drama Theater was founded in the same year. Small companies were set up here between the late 1920s and mid-1930s; they included an iron foundry and forge, woodworking and flax mills, a leather shoe factory, brickyard, creamery, starch and molasses factory, confectionery, oil-pressing mill, and a winery and soft drink plant. A mill with a grain elevator and bakery was built in the village of Yurino. The Komipermles trust was set up in Kudymkar in 1936; it became the base for the Central Repair and Engineering Shops formed in 1937 (now a factory). An advanced teacher-training institute opened in 1944 and is still operating. Several vocational schools also opened after the war. A gravel road with an exit to the main railway line was built between Mendeleevo and Kudymkar in 1931. Kudymkar became the capital of the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area of Perm Region in 1938.
RESOURCES
The Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area is characterized by gently rolling relief. The Northern Urals are located in the north and the Verkhnekamskaya Upland (elevations up to 280 m), in the west. Lowlands occupy most of the area. Mineral resources mainly consist of deposits of building materials, e.g., sand-gravel mix, sand, and brick clay, as well as oil, brown coal, and peat deposits. The largest rivers are the Kama and its tributaries, the Kosa, Inva, Veslyana, Lupya, and Leman. Lakes are mainly floodplain lakes. Sphagnum bogs are widespread in the north.
The climate is continental with cold snowy winters and relatively short summers. Average January temperatures range from -15 îÑ to -17 îÑ, and average July temperatures, from +17 îÑ to +18 îÑ; average annual precipitation is about 500 mm. Soils are mainly podzolic and sod-podzolic.
Forests are the area's most important natural resource. The Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area is located on the border of the middle and southern taiga; about 4/5 of its territory is covered with spruce and spruce-fir forests.
Squirrels, Arctic and gray hares, ermine, foxes, grouse (black, capercaillie, and hazel), and various waterfowl and swamp-dwelling bird species are typical forest inhabitants.
ECONOMY
Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area belongs to the Ural economic district as part of Perm Region.
The area's leading economic sectors are forestry and woodworking (lumber and commercial timber, furniture), and wood chemicals. Other developed sectors include engineering (log-floating equipment, electrical goods), the food industry (meat and dairy products, canned goods, and confectionery), and fur trapping.
The region's largest companies are Lesosplavmash in Pozhva, the Kudymkar Electrical Appliance Plant (Kudymkarsky zavod elektropriborov), the Kudymkar Furniture Factory (Kudymkarskaya mebelnaya fabrika), Kochevoles, Gainyles, Verkhnekamsky lesopromkhoz, Pyatigoryles, Kosa Timber-Rafting Company (Kosinskoe splavnoe AO), and the Inva Integrated Timber-Rafting Company (Invenskoe kompleksnoe splavnoe predpriyatie; commercial timber and lumber).
The main industrial centers are Kudymkar and the town of Pozhva.
Livestock breeding (beef and dairy cattle, pigs, and sheep) is the leading agricultural sector. Cultivated crops include grains (rye, wheat, barley, and oats), potatoes, and vegetables (cabbage, carrots, and beets).
The region's transportation infrastructure is less developed than in the European part of the country. The transportation system is also poorly connected with Russia's transportation system, a circumstance that in many respects is an obstacle to realization of the area's great potential.
AUTHORITIES
The Administration of Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area is the area's highest executive body. It is led by the Head of the Administration, who is elected for a four-year term.
The Legislative Assembly of Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area is the area's highest legislative body. It consists of 15 deputies elected for a four-year term.
TOURISM
Nature in the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area is rich and varied. Its forests, rivers, cliffs, and caves are a natural storehouse of beauty, unexpected surprises, and marvelous secrets. These treasures are accessible to everyone. At present, there is one state preserve, Basegi, with an area of 19 300 hectares. It includes 19 hunting grounds and 2 departmental territories. More than 350 different natural monuments, nearly 100 natural reserves, several dozen protected natural historical sites, and various conservation, protection, and sanitary zones have been identified.
The Chusovaya River flowing across the Urals through Sverdlov and Perm regions and emptying into the Kama is the most scenic river in the Central Urals.
High riverside cliffs, boundless forests, turbulent rapids, the peace and quiet of the forests, and caves all leave an unforgettable impression.
Along its course, the river traverses several mountain chains that form beautiful rocky riverside cliffs nicknamed "the warriors". An All-Russian tourist route follows the Chusovaya River.
Shipping and timber rafting are well developed on the Kama River, as well as transport and passenger operations; there are also organized tourist cruises. Residents of the Kama area like to relax on their favorite river. They enjoy motorboating, canoeing, windsurfing, swimming, and fishing. Many of the territory's poets have dedicated poems to the scenic river. Not one of them who visited the Kama even once was unaffected by the beauty of the forest river, its waters, and pensive reaches, or to the big city.
In the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area you can visit the summit of Spasskaya Mountain, where you can get a good view of a group of columnar rocks separated from the cliffs. Not far from this colonnade, at the very base of the mountain, is a small cave in the form of an oven. Inside is a lake with a constant water level. Ice formations remain intact in the cave even on the hottest summer days. However, you have to be careful of snakes, including poisonous ones. An old birch forest grows on the steep, rubble-strewn slope of Spasskaya Mountain, with occasional pines in low areas. From the summit, you can see how the Slyva River makes a second huge loop from the village of Sylvenskoe to Osinovoe Lake. The river valley bordered by steep mountain slopes is exceptionally beautiful. It was formed by the junction of the Slyva, Iren, Shakva, and Babka rivers. Such river junctions are a rare phenomenon in nature.
Official Site of the Administration of Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area:http://kudymkar.psu.ru/
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