A great event the region of Perm Krai. On Thursday, a new terminal was opened at the Perm airport, Bolshoe Savino. The area of the complex is 30 thousand square meters, and the capacity is about a thousand passengers per hour.
Denis Davydov was on the spot to see what is happening in this Russian region.
A unique video. It’s being broadcast for the first time and only by Vesti News of the Week. Production of the new Russian banknotes worth 2 thousand rubles. They’re printed not in Moscow and not in St. Petersburg, but in Perm, at the Goznak factory.
"Vladivostok 2000," as promised by the Central Bank. The line is working at full capacity printing 1 million 800 thousand bills per day. They were put into circulation last autumn and are now actively filling the market.
- How many billions or millions of rubles are there?
- We don’t count in billions and millions, we count in copies.
Anyway, if calculated in rubles, the loader lifts 1 billion 620 million rubles. The factory is the largest printing production in Europe. Look at your passport, it was most likely printed in Perm.
Andrey Zhulbitsky, Gosznak’s Deputy Director for Production: "Vehicle logbooks, driver's license, military tickets for the Ministry of Defense".
At a time when there were no passports or paper money, they paid with salt. Perm was a sort of a mint even in the Middle Ages. 98% potassium chloride. 300 dollars per ton. This fertilizer, valuable in the agricultural world, is made from potassium salt. Supplies from the Perm Region go to 60 countries.
A plant worker: "If there’s smoke and you can’t breathe, we turn on the self-rescuer".
Salt mining bears a risk to one's life, the mine is similar to a coal one. Brigades work around the clock in three shifts. They quickly descend to the drilled depth, the elevator descends at a speed of 5 meters per second.
It’s 400 meters deep, and here, under the ground, there is a small town with its roads and cars. This car will take us farther to the site.
You can’t stop looking at these miraculous patterns, the layers of salt lie beautifully. 20% of the world's stock of salt is concentrated here.
- Here, even the air is salty.
Aleksandr Koksharov, Section Engineer: "Of course, there's salt. The combined machine is extracting ore. On average, 800 thousand tons per shift".
The first potash mines were opened in the 1930s. The mining technology wasn’t impeccable, and it became clear several years ago when the ground began to cave in because of the openings. Errors were taken into account. Now, only those enterprises that are ready to not only take from the soil but also invest in it get licenses.
Maxim Grymzin, EuroChem’s Deputy Head: "All the openings that are formed in the mine will be filled with the same waste that is formed in the enrichment process".
Those who work in mines are jokingly called Permyaks Salty Ears. The nickname came from the past when they carried sacks of salt on their heads. It damaged the skin, and the workers' ears got inflamed and turned red. Permyak Salty Ears is also the name of a sculpture, it’s placed in the city center, and any passer-by can take pictures with it.
The locals, of course, know, but travelers often wonder why there’re so many salt deposits in the region. The fact is that 300 million years ago, there was a huge sea here, but the climate changed, it became warmer, the water gradually evaporated, as a result, the sea disappeared, and salt deposits remained.
Yulia Glazyrina, Perm Local History Museum Department Head: "It was in the Permian period that the world we know was formed in many respects. The world of warm-blooded animals, the world of the mammals’ ancestors".
The Permian period is an official title in the Earth's geological calendar, in which there also the later Jurassic period, made famous by the movies.
Larisa ZhuZhgova, Perm Local History Museum Collection Head: "This is a humerus, it’s longer than a meter. The elephant was about 50-55 years old. The second bone, it was also of an elephant, that is, it wasn’t a mammoth with fur. You can judge by its teeth that it was maybe 10 years older, 60-65 years old".
The tusk of the elephant, the mammoths’ ancestor, was found by fishermen several years ago. Now, the museum staff goes to the site every summer to dig it.
Tatyana Vostrikova, Perm Local History Museum Deputy Director: "This is an example of how a regional museum makes a great contribution to Paleontology not only of the country but, I would say, of the world".
Perm Krai itself entered into a new period not so long ago, the governor was replaced. Maksim Reshetnikov is a local, he was born and grew up in Perm, and worked in the Moscow government. He’s bringing his metropolitan experience to his hometown.
Maksim Reshetnikov, Perm Krai Governor: "Moscow is very developed technologically in terms of management, and, most importantly, the main thing we took from Moscow is the technology of receiving feedback from people and development portals. To put something on a vote, to ask people. People make comments and make officials answer".
Perm Krai is one of the most active regions of the Volga Region. The busyness of the local airport speaks volumes about this. Five years ago, 700 thousand passengers passed through it. This year, 1 million 300 thousand. In five years, they expect 2 million travelers. A new terminal was opened for them this week, the old building was almost 60 years old.
Admirers from Moscow and St. Petersburg come to the Perm Opera Theater to hear their voices. The tickets are always sold out. The Theater has 22 Golden Masks, they perform with the capital's luster, and there’s no sign of provinciality.
Alexei Miroshnichenko, Perm Theater Сhief Сhoreographer: "Provinciality is this: let's see what they do in the Bolshoi Theater and do the same. And we work without looking at them. There’s an understanding of what we should do, what should be done for a particular troupe. This determines the artistic policy of the ballet troupe".
The Ballet-master: "Count to four! Hands in the third position. Group up, take hands! Girls, don’t rush. One, sit down in the pose, change the position".
Perm and ballet paired during the Great Patriotic War, when the Moscow school was evacuated here. Today, they have their own school, and its extreme popularity once again proves that we’re ahead of the whole planet in ballet.
Ballet-pupils:
- I’m from Germany.
- I'm from Sweden.
- I like Russian ballet and I want to learn to dance.
At the bar, then at the desk and again to the bar, they spend 10 hours a day like this. To keep their feet warm, they wear special shoes. They also put adhesive plasters, creams, and pastes. Of course, they cry when there’s no willpower left to endure. They could be playing with dolls but instead are playfully doing the splits.
- Is it hard?
- It is, really. It seems easy when we’re on the stage, but in fact, it’s very difficult.
Their profession comes with a colossal degree of responsibility, they’re engine builders. Permian engines launch Russian civil and transport aircraft, including the presidential Air Force One. No robots, only manual labor. Each part is installed under a signed receipt. The three-ton engine is assembled by 18 people.
Ivan Bogdanov, ODK-Perm Motors Assembly Shop Head: "It takes us a month and a half from the beginning when we lay the first nodes and to the end when we present a ready engine".
The Perm Krai appeared on the map of Russia after the unification of Perm Region and Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug.
The language which has 38 letters and 17 cases is native to 80 thousand people. Komi Permyaks are a small people and they are very reverent about their ethnic group.
A Komi Permyak woman: "My granddaughter goes to a Russian school. She comes to me and asks, "Grandma, what’s this?" and points to bread. I say, "This is nan." "What's this?" This is a pan, a spoon".
Children are taught their mother tongue in the region’s schools. There are books and aids. But adults are trying to get their children beyond the school curriculum. For a new generation of the small people, there are national costumes, songs, customs. And they manage not to lose their legacy.
A pupil: "I understand the Komi language, I speak Komi, this’s my native tongue. We’ll pass it on to our children".
The Perm Krai is still young, December 1 marked its 12th anniversary. The whole region was receiving congratulations all week. Everyone wished it prosperity.
Denis Davydov, Sergey Yeliseyev, Sergey Shlykov, Anton Gubanov, Denis Demyanets, and Alexander Neverov, Vesti News of the Week, Perm.
