Population of the Perm Krai: ethnic composition and size

Perm Kama is a unique region in the ethnocultural respect. The population of Permsky Krai throughout its history has evolved in a multiethnic way, since its peoples have mastered it absolutely different both in language, in origin, in traditions, and in style. As a result, an extremely interesting ethno-cultural complex has turned out, which has no analogs in Russia and its regions. The population of Permsky Krai during the time of its existence has built relationships in a purely peaceful way, there were no ethnic conflicts.

Nationalities

The interaction of peoples in this region has always been active, among the characteristic features - a lot of interethnic borrowing as a result of close contacts with neighbors. The population of the Perm Krai used many forms and varying degrees of influence - up to absolute assimilation. In these vast territories and now live more than one hundred and twenty nationalities belonging to the three language groups: Finno-Ugric, Turkic, Slavic. This was due to their own reasons, which will be considered in this article. Why does the population of Perm Krai have such an ethnically diverse composition? First of all, because Prikamye has always been a historical crossroads for peoples who either moved along the banks of the Kama River, or were about to cross the Ural ridge on their way to Siberia from Europe, and vice versa - from Siberia to civilization.

Here and now are the most important ways to connect the Russian Plain and Western Europe with the taiga and steppe regions of Asia, as well as with the eastern states. The population of the Permsky district of the Perm region settled the banks of the Kama River back in those remote times, when only along the river and its tributaries old ways of trade could go. Of course, this all had an impact on the formation of such a complex national composition. Already in the nineteenth century, Russians, Bashkirs, Tatars, Mari, Udmurts, Komi-Permyaks and Mansi constantly lived here. The oldest chronicles are those who made up the first population of the Permsky district of the Perm Krai - the Perm tribes, otherwise the Zyrians, who are the ancestors of the Komi-Permyaks and Komi-Zyryans, and here originally lived the tribe of the Yugra - the ancestors of the present Khanty and Mansi. At the same time, in the nineteenth century, the dramatic history of our country brought here representatives of many other nations.

Russians and Ukrainians

The most numerous people here in the last hundred years were Russians, currently more than two and a half million, or 85.2% of the total population of the Perm Territory. They are dispersed evenly, in most of the territories they predominate. Exceptions are only Bardymsky and five districts in the Komi-Permyak autonomous region, there Russians only 38.2%. The overwhelming majority of Russians inhabit the cities of the Perm region. By population, the city prevails - 75.74%, according to 2017 data. A total of 2,632,097 people live in the Perm Territory with a density of 16.43 people per square kilometer. Russians in this region are a newcomer, they began to settle here since the fifteenth century, when the Upper Kama land was part of the Russian State. Most of all they came from the north, and they were peasants. With the expansion of the borders to the east, the Russians were the first to master all new lands. In the seventeenth century a compact and mature national group formed here, which became part of the Russian nation.

In the nineteenth century, the cities of the Perm region grew even more . By population, the region has become more populous, and by ethnic composition it is much more complicated. Settlers began to come here from very remote areas. For example, in 1897, one hundred and ninety-five Ukrainians already settled here compactly, and by the twentieth year of the last century there were already considerably more of them - almost a thousand. They settled in the Okhansk and Osinsky districts, and came here as a result of the land reform of Stolypin. Now the population of the Perm Krai of Ukrainian nationality is more than sixteen thousand people. They live almost all in the cities: Kizele, Gubakha, Gremyachinsk, Berezniki, Aleksandrovsk, there are also a few such settlers in the Komi-Permyak autonomous region.

Belarusians and Poles

The first Belarusians came here after the Russians in the late eighteenth century. At first there were a little less than eighty people, most of them in the Perm district. During the land reform, they significantly increased in number, at the beginning of the twentieth century there were already more than three thousand. Most of the Belarusians - the villagers, lived always compactly, preserving the language and all the traditions of everyday life. Now they are in the Perm region six and a half thousand, and in the Okhan and Osinsky districts they are few, all moved to the north of the province, to places industrial and monetary. And the industry here developed very intensively, and how much the population of Permsky Krai would be, everything was not enough to participate in this process. Developed and machine building, and petrochemical, chemical, oil refining, forestry, pulp and paper, woodworking, printing industry.

The main here are ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, as well as oil, coal, potassium and salt. The work has always been a lot, and even now the able-bodied population of the Perm Krai does not suffer in this respect. Before the revolution, Perm was a famous city for political exiles. Especially among the exiled there were Poles who, at the end of the eighteenth century, when Poland was part of the Russian Empire, participated in the national liberation movement. The census of 1897 speaks of the number of a thousand inhabitants of Polish origin. The Perm region became their second homeland for them. I must say that their number on the land of Kama for virtually all these centuries has practically not increased. In 1989, the Poles in the Perm region had 1,183 people.

Komi

Komi-Permyaks, related to the Finno-Ugric peoples, have inhabited since the twelfth century the vast lands of the upper Kama. Their language and origin are close to the Komi-zyryans and Udmurts. In the fifteenth century Komi-Permyaks were the first of the peoples of the Urals to join the Russian State. The density of the population of Permsky Krai in those times was not so high. If in 1869 the census showed 62,130 Komi-Permyaks living in the Kama basin, in 1989 there were already 123,371 people. It was this people that made up the ethnic core of the national district, formed in 1925 (since 1977 it became autonomous). The population of the cities of the Perm region they replenished not so willingly as other nationalities. It so happened that they were the first to adopt the experience of farming and the culture of Russian immigrants, and therefore most of them live in rural areas. Among the autonomies of Russia, the Finno-Ugric Komi-Permyaks have the highest proportion of the population of the Perm Krai - in 1989 they were more than sixty percent in the district. Now their number is significantly reduced, as, indeed, any people of Russia. In 2002 there were 103 500 Komi-Permyaks, and in 2010 - only 81,000.

The Komi-Yazvintsy, considered to be part of the Komi-Perm people's ethnos, are in fact quite different nationalities. Their representatives settled in Solikamsk and Krasnovishersky districts, where the Yazva River begins. They do not have their own written language, but they retained their own language, as well as their ethnic self-awareness. Cultural and domestic specifics also distinguishes them from their neighbors. What population of the Perm region would not be proud of its roots, its own sources? Of course, assimilation takes place here, sometimes until the characteristic ethnic features completely disappear, but not all the nationalities have gone this way to the end. Despite the fact that at the moment there are only about two thousand people left, the origin of the Komi-Yazvintsy is very dear.

Mansi and Udmurts

Mansiysk nationality was formed in the tenth century just east of the Kama region - in the Trans-Ural region. After the twelfth century, they settled several areas in the Prikamye - Cherdynsky and Kungur uyezds. The Mansi also lived compactly in the upper reaches of the Vishera River and along the Chusovaya River. The number of Mansi people can be traced only from the end of the eighteenth century, since the first census in these parts was in 1795. Then there were just over two hundred people. In the nineteenth century, most of them migrated to the Trans-Ural region, Verkhotursky district, to the Lozva river. Now in the Perm region Mansi has almost disappeared. In 1989, only twenty-six people counted in their different regions, and in 2002 there were a little more - thirty-one.

Udmurts came to the Transcaucasus at the end of the sixteenth century and settled on the river Bui. Since they were always pagans, they had a hard time in the Kama region. Began churching, the strengthening of feudal oppression. However, their beliefs and rites of the ancestors of the Udmurts have been preserved. Their language is distinguished by many anachronisms, but many influences have been imposed on ethnic culture, much more borrowings have appeared. The multinational environment could not but influence, especially if the Russian population has always prevailed. Udmurts believe that the processes of mutual influence can not not be mutually enriched, but surprisingly many everyday and ceremonial, religious things they managed to preserve literally from antiquity. In 1989 in the Perm region lived almost thirty-three thousand Udmurts, that is a little more than one percent of the total population. Compactly - in the Kuedinsky district a historically established group of nearly six thousand people (seventeen percent of the population of the district). In everyday life they speak their native language and study it in schools, cultural ties with Udmurtia, the historical homeland, are supported closely. According to the 2010 census, there were more than twenty thousand people living in Permsky Krai.

Mari

At the end of the sixteenth century, the Mari settled in the south of the Perm region, in the Suksunsky district, on the river Sylva. In those days, the Middle Volga region, where the Republic of Mari El is now, has not yet joined Russia, but the Mari gradually moved to the Southern Prikamye. This nationality belongs to the eastern group of the Mari people, and after the resettlement they began to be called Permian Mari. Their representatives live not only here, but also in the Sverdlovsk region and in Bashkortostan. Their language, according to the literary norm from the general Mari, does not differ, it also originated from a meadow dialect.

In the Perm region, the number of permanently resident Mari is small, only 0.2% of the population, that is, about six and a half thousand people were in 1989. Now much less - just over four thousand. They have compactly settled in Kudinsky, Chernushinsky, Oktyabrsky, Kyshert and Suksunsky areas. They also keep the traditions of the Mari people, which is manifested in the manner of dressing, in holding religious holidays, in everyday life they use their native language.

Turkic peoples

Tatars form a large group of indigenous population. When the Kazan Khanate fell, Volga Tatars poured into the Southern Prikamye. Their greatest concentration on the rivers of Tulva, Sylva, Irene and all adjacent territories. Volga Tatars joined the Volga and migrated much earlier to these lands. Perm Tatars are very heterogeneous. The researchers identified several territorial ethnic groups: the Bashkirs, Tulva, Mullin and Sylvan-Irene Tatars. At the beginning of the nineties of the twentieth century in the Perm region lived one hundred and fifty-five thousand people, that is, almost five percent of the total population. They settled compactly in twelve territories of the region. First of all, in the cities. This Gremyachinsk, Kizel, Lysva, Chusovoy. Tatars also live in the districts - Chernushinsky, Uinsky, Suksunsky, Perm, Ordinsky, Oktyabrsky, Kungur and Kudinsky. In the Oktyabrsky district, for example, the Tatars make up almost thirty-three percent of the population.

Bashkirs came to these lands in the thirteenth century as part of several clans and settled in Osinsky and Bardymsky districts, formed a compact group and actively assimilated the local Finno-Ugric ancient population. The regions of the Perm region, where the Turkic peoples settled, have been preserved since the sixteenth century. The interaction between different peoples was intense, and therefore the purely Bashkir population was increasingly reduced. By the beginning of the twentieth century, very many Bashkirs had lost a pronounced ethnic identity. Tatar influence through culture and language made them relate themselves to the Tatars. Censuses of the former times of the right picture do not show. Even in 1989, thirty thousand people in the census indicated themselves Bashkirs, and their native language - Tatar. The population of Russia is rapidly declining. In 1989, Bashkirs in the Perm region were fifty-two thousand people, and the 2010 census showed only thirty-two thousand.

Besides

Chuvash began to migrate to the Perm region at the beginning of the twentieth century from various places in Chuvashia, as there was overpopulation with a shortage of land, forests and mowing. The second wave of migration began in the fifties. In the late eighties the Chuvashes were almost eleven thousand, and in 2010 only four. Even more Germans lived in the Perm region - more than fifteen thousand, and they settled here in the nineteenth century. At the beginning of the twentieth, there were about one and a half thousand, and deportation after the Great Patriotic War added more than forty thousand people. The most part is from the Volga region. And in the post-war period the Germans for some reason willingly settled in these northern places. Now, of course, almost all have left for their historical homeland. For 2010, there were about six thousand of them.

Jews came to Prikamye from Byelorussia in the middle of the nineteenth century, Nicholas the First gave them lands here "beyond the Pale of Settlement." In 1864 in Perm lived about fifty families. They were artisans, physicians, apothecaries, engineers, musicians, who by the beginning of the twentieth century were the Perm intelligentsia. Already in 1896 there were only about a thousand people in Perm. In 1920 - three and a half thousand. In 1989 - five and a half thousand. Then, after the waves of emigration, by 2002 the census showed 2.6 thousand Jews in the Perm region. Also in the nineteenth century, Caucasians appeared here. Then there were, of course, a little. But the results of the 2002 census can be surprised. Formed new diasporas - Transcaucasia and Central Asia. The number of Tajiks, for example, increased several times. In 2002, there were 5,000 Armenians here, 5,800 Azerbaijanis, and 1,600 Georgians. Tajiks and Uzbeks - two thousand, Kazakhs - almost a thousand and, of course, slightly less than Kyrgyz. These are all refugees of the times of the creation of the CIS. But the Koreans began to settle here in the late nineteenth century, although in much lesser numbers.

Cities of Perm Krai

The capital of the Perm region is the remarkable city of Perm - a major transport hub with a port and the Trans-Siberian Railway. Population - more than a million people - 1,041,876, according to 2016. Slight city Chernushka, received its status in 1966. Since 2006, it is the center of the urban settlement. Almost thirty-three thousand people live in Chernushka, located in the south of the Perm Territory. This is an industrial center where oil is extracted and processed, the construction industry is very well developed.

The population grows slightly due to the migration inflow, and there is also some natural increase: in 2009, for example, the latter amounted to one hundred and twenty-four people. Fifteen and a half thousand men and almost eighteen thousand women live here. That's the whole population of Chernushka. The Perm region as a whole is also experiencing a high mortality rate of the male population. The city is young, with an average age of thirty-four years. The national composition is very heterogeneous, almost all of the above mentioned peoples are present here.

Berezniki

This is the second largest (after Perm) city of the region with the status of an urban district of regional significance. There live 146 626 people. The natural increase in this city with a negative value. The population is decreasing. Berezniki (Perm Krai) is a city that in the early nineties lost as much as three percent of its inhabitants. Men live here more than women, 56.9%. Women are almost all old here - 74% of the elderly. In 2010, a census was conducted, and it showed that Russians in Berezniki are 92.6%. The remaining nationalities are also present, but in very small numbers.

The ethnic map of the Kama region has become much more complicated in recent decades due to three factors. The first is the natural movement of the population, the second is migration after the collapse of the USSR, the third is a process that has been going on for many centuries, and this is a change of ethnic identity (mixed marriages, the fusion of cultures). In total, more than one hundred and twenty nationalities have settled in the Kama region.