Perm

“ Many of the people near him knew that he was crazed; but his unsettled wits were rather a help than hindrance to his success in stirring up the village wine-shop and the workman's shed. In every part of the East some touch of idiotcy is looked for in a holy man; the wandering eye, the broken phrase, the distracted mien, being read as signs of the Holy Spirit. The province of Perm is rich in sectaries; many of whom watch and pray continually for the second coming of our Lord. ”

“ Perm, when I was there, was still full of Tufáyev’s glory, and his partisans were hostile to his successor, who, as a matter of course, surrounded himself with supporters of his own.
§3 But on the other hand, there were people at Perm who hated him. One of these was Chebotarev, a doctor employed at one of the factories and a remarkable product of Russian life. He warned me specially against Tufáyev. He was a clever and very excitable man, who had made an unfortunate marriage soon after taking his degree ”

“ If you have never been in Russia you know nothing of hospitality; you only squirm around the fringe of the subject. The hospitality of our friends at Perm was truly Russian, and I was sorry when we had to leave. M. Pastrokoff told me of the following incident of the early relief of Perm from the Terrorist.
General Pepelaieff's army was stretched along the railway from Perm towards Vatka, the junction of the Archangel Railway. The temperature was over "60 below," the men were without clothes, thousands had died from exposure, and other thousands were in a ghastly condition from frost-bite. ”

“ When the colonies of Novgorod (Vyatka, Perm) fell under the rule of Moscow, the Russian tsars soon grasped the importance of the Ural mines, and Ivan III. sent out German engineers to explore that region. in 1558 the whole of the present government of Perm was granted by the rulers of Moscow to the brothers Stroganov, who began to establish salt-works and mines for iron and copper. Peter the Great gave a new impulse to the mining industry by founding several iron-works, and from 1745, when gold was first discovered, the Russian colonization of the Urals took a new departure. ”

“ Perm, which is the capital of the province of the same name, is a city of 32,000 inhabitants, situated on the left bank of the river Káma about 125 miles from the boundary line of European Russia. It is the western terminus of the Urál Mountain railway, and through it passes nearly the whole of the enormous volume of Siberian commerce. In outward appearance it does not differ materially from other Russian provincial towns of its class. It is cleaner and apparently more prosperous than Nízhni Nóvgorod, but it is much less picturesque than the latter both in architecture and in situation. ”

“ The travellers bound to that bourne embark here on steamers that go down the Volga as far as its confluence with the Kama, a tributary stream, and thence ascend the Kama, which is navigable all the way to Perm. From Perm a railway runs up to the Pass of the Ural mountains to Ekaterinenburg, probably to be in course of time continued to Tiumen, Tobolsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk, the Baikal Lake, the Chinese frontier at Kiakhta, the banks of the Amoor, and the shores of the Pacific Ocean. ”

“ And at every station Peter found mobs of refugees fighting to get aboard anything that moved. Some were trying to get to Vladivostok, some wanted to go in the opposite direction to Perm, or Ufa, or Samara. They wanted to get anywhere but where they were. Long strings of box cars in the sidings were packed with men, women, and children, ragged, filthy, hungry, dying, dead. Those alive threshed grain by hand from the rotting piles in the fields, or fished in the rivers with wooden spears. ”

“ VYATKA, a town of Russia, capital of the government of the same name, on the Vyatka river, 304 m. by rail W.N.W. of Perm. Pop. 24,782. It is built on the steep hills which rise above the river and at their base. Its old walls have been demolished, and its old churches built anew. ”

“ The changes sometimes indicate growth, sometimes decay and approaching extinction. G. R.
Permian or Permic.
Tchudic: Ugrian dialect of Perm in Russia, closely allied to Wotiak and Zirianian. Also called Biarmian. The Permians were the first of their race converted to Christianity by St. Stephen, apostolic King of Hungary, 997 or 1000 A.D. Dicty. by Rogord, 1869.
Persian.
Iranic: modern dialect of Persia, derived from Old Persian, but with a large infusion of Arabic words, and written in a modification of the Nishki-Arabic characters, called Taalic, and in a running hand called Shikestah. ”

“ A good soldier, a good man of business, Ilyin was sent to the government works, in the province of Perm, in the Ural Mountains, where he found time, in the midst of his purely military duties, for preaching among the poor, and drawing some of those who had strayed into separation back into the orthodox fold. ”

“ Perkernucka. Petty officers are so called in India.
Perm. A government of Russia, situated partly in Russia in Europe and partly in Russia in Asia. It was invaded and ruined by the Mongols in the 13th century.
Permanent Fortification. See Fortification.
Permanent Rank. A rank in the military service which does not cease with any particular service, or locality of circumstances; in opposition to local or temporary rank.
Péronne. A town of France, in the department of Somme, 30 miles east of Amiens. ”

“ In this way Prince Dolgorúkov was transferred from Perm to Verchoturye, a place in the Government of Perm, buried in mountains and snow-drifts, with as bad a climate as Beryózov and even less society.
§8 Prince Dolgorúkov belonged to a type which is becoming rarer with us; he was a sprig of nobility, of the wrong sort, whose escapades were notorious at Petersburg, Moscow, and Paris. His whole life was spent in folly; he was a spoilt, insolent, offensive practical joker, a mixture of buffoon and fine gentleman. When his pranks exceeded all bounds, he was banished to Perm. ”

“ When they had brought everything out of my sledge into my room,—for when these objects, however diverse they may be, are no longer in movement they should always be before the traveller’s eyes,—and I had almost retired for the night, Constantine led into my room a gentleman who was introduced to me as a member of the general council of Perm.
A councillor, whatever may be his origin, his rights, or his functions, seems to be a sign of liberal institutions. ”

“ It was nine months since I had taken a walk without the presence of a sentry.
I had been walking half an hour when a man came up to me; he was wearing uniform without epaulettes and a blue medal-ribbon. He stared very hard at me, walked past, turned round at once, and asked me in an insolent manner:
“Is it you who are going to Perm with a police-officer?”
“Yes,” I answered, still walking.
“Excuse me! excuse me! How does the man dare...?” ”

“ It is no uncommon thing to meet bands of young fellows going up the Ural slopes from Mesen and Archangel, in search of fortune; going over into Siberia as into a promised land!
Many of the terrors which served to shroud Siberia in a pall have been swept away by science. The country has been opened up. The tribes have become better known. Tomsk, a name at which the blood ran cold, is seen to be a pleasant town, lying in a green valley at the foot of a noble range of heights. It is not far from Perm, which may be regarded as a distant suburb of Kazan. ”

“ From Perm he was promoted to Tver. But the nobles, however deferential and subservient, could not stand Tufáyev. They petitioned for his removal, and he was sent to Vyatka.
There he was in his element once more. Officials and distillers, factory-owners and officials,—what more could the heart of man desire? Everyone trembled before him and got up when he approached; everyone gave him dinners, offered him wine, and sought to anticipate his wishes; at every wedding or birthday party the first toast proposed was “His Excellency the Governor!” ”

“ Whilst occupying the railway line from Pensa to Sysran, Samara, Zlatoust, and Cheliabinsk for a distance of about 1,000 kilometres, we also succeeded in occupying the second railway line a little farther north in the Central Ural region from Perm to Yekaterinburg, a distance of about 200 kilometres, and down to Omsk. Thereby we cut off Moscow entirely from direct telegraphic or railway communicafion with Siberia. We held important positions or the Volga, but it was not safe for us to leave our echelons there, and they were gradually moved east of Pensa to Samara. ”

“ From Perm, which you can reach by steamboat in summer, there is a railway to Ekaterineburg, and it will shortly be finished to Tumen, if it is not already. [1] From Tumen take a steamboat to Tomsk, if you don't mind roughing it a little, and from Tomsk your land journey need not be
END OF THE SLEIGH-RIDE.
terrifying. You can easily make out the rest of the route by taking my own in reverse. Whether you descend the Amoor or cross the Desert of Gobi to Peking, you will have enough of novelty to compensate you for the fatigue. ”

“ SYRYENIANS (also Sirianian, Syrjenian, Zyrenian, Zirianian, Zyrian and Zirian) , a tribe belonging to the Permian division of the eastern Finns. They are said to number about 85,000 on the west side of the Urals in the governments of Perm, Vologda and Archangel, and there are also about 1000 on the Siberian side of the lower Ob. Their headquarters are at Ust-Ishma, at the junction of the Ishma and Pechora. Formerly they spread farther to the west. They are of moderate stature, blond, and grey-eyed, and more energetic and inclined to trade than most of the allied tribes. ”

“ Perm is the chief mining region of Russia, owing to its wealth in iron, silver, platinum, copper, nickel, lead, chrome ore, manganese and auriferous alluvial deposits. Many rare metals, such as iridium, osmium, rhodium and ruthenium, are found along with the above, as also a great variety of precious stones, such as diamonds, sapphires, jaspers, tourmalines, beryls, phenacites, chrysoberyls, emeralds, aquamarines, topazes, amethysts, jades, malachite. Salt-springs occur in the west; and the mineral waters, though still little known, are worthy of mention. ”

“ A province of this kingdom, called Great Permia, and since Solikam, was the staple for the merchandizes of Persia, and the furs of Tartary. There has been found in Permia a great quantity of the coin of the first Caliphs, and some Tartarian idols, made of gold; [9] but these monuments of ancient opulence were found in the midst of barren deserts and extreme poverty, where there were not the least traces of commerce: revolutions of this nature may easily happen to a barren country, seeing they are so soon brought about in the most fruitful provinces. ”

“ After the annexation of Novgorod, the Grand-Dukes of Moscow carried on the work, but impressed it with the military character inherent in their own traditions. In 1472, Perm was conquered; in 1483, an army commanded by Prince Feodor Kourbski, 'the Black,' and by Ivan Ivanovitch Saltyk-Pravine, crossed the Ural, followed the course of the river Tavda, which falls into the Tobol, an affluent of the Irtych, and then that of the Irtych itself, reached Siberia, and penetrated into the basin of the Ob. ”

“ General Count Galitzin is a very fine type of the officer of the old régime; an aristocrat to his finger tips, but a fine leader of men, born to command. I should think there is a big strain of Tartar blood in his make-up, but he is altogether the sort of man one would prefer to meet as friend rather than foe. We discussed the possibility of an offensive in the direction of Perm, from where I humorously suggested we might be able to rescue the forces of General Poole, which had gone into winter quarters somewhere in the direction of Archangel. ”

“ Several writers pretend that these people were natives of Great Permia, but as Great Permia is in a manner a desert, how comes it that its inhabitants should settle themselves at such a distance, and so inconveniently? This is a difficulty not worth clearing up. Every nation which has not cultivated the polite arts, deserves to remain in obscurity.
In the country of the Ostiaks in particular, and amongst their neighbours the Burates and Jakutians, they often discover a kind of ivory under ground, the nature of which is as yet unknown. ”

“ And he remained in the service in the Caucasus. Not till a month later was Kostylín ransomed for five thousand. He was brought back more dead than alive.
[Pg 124]
ERMÁK
In the reign of Iván Vasílevich the Terrible there were the rich merchants, the Stroganóvs, and they lived in Perm, on the river Káma. They heard that along the river Káma, in a circle of 140 versts, there was good land: the soil had not been ploughed for centuries, the forests had not been cut down for centuries. ”

“ A Polish revolutionary; born in 1808, he was shot in February, 1839.
In general, the exiled Poles are not badly treated; but those of them who have no means of their own are shockingly ill off. Such men receive from Government fifteen roubles a month, to pay for lodgings, clothing, food, and fuel. In the larger towns, such as Kazán or Tobolsk, they can eke out a living by giving lessons or concerts, by playing at balls or painting portraits or teaching children to dance; but at Perm and Vyatka even these resources did not exist. ”

“ Once Petrov was walking quietly about the street, when suddenly he felt what a thickness of stone houses separated him from the wide, open country, where the free earth breathed softly in the sunshine, and man's eyes might look round to the distant horizon. ”

“ To know men as well as maps, to study soldiers as well as supplies, to grasp the varying and differing elements that compose an army—these are the essential elements in a successful leader of men. To the German war lords their men may be merely "cannon fodder." To the public a French soldier may be a poilu, a British fighter a Tommy, an American a doughboy. To General Pershing every one that carries a gun is above all else a man. ”