There are four state theatres in Perms: an opera-house, a drama theatre, a puppet-show and a juvenile' theatre.

__The P.I.Tchaikovsky Perm State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre founded in 1870 was the first musical theatre in the Urals. __Now it is reputed to be one of the best theatres in this country. Its repertoire is very extensive. __Tchaikovsky's operas and ballets (including "The Queen of Spades" and "Swan Lake"), Borodin's "Prince Igor", Rossini's "The Barber of Ceville" , Minkus's "Don Quixote" , Prokofiev's "War and Peace" and "Cinderella" and some other classical and modern operas and ballets performed your Theatre have always been a great success.

__The glory of the Theatre has been enhanced by its soloists L.Solyanik, G.Khanedanyan, N.Abt-Neifert, T.Poluektova, A.Kotelnkova, L.Mamedova, Ye.Kulagina.

__The ballet troupe consists mainly of graduates of the Perm Ballet School (quite a number of brilliant ballet dancers, including a former artiste of the Theatre, the world-famous ballerina N.Pavlova, have been trained by L.Sakhorova, the artabviser of the School). The company has toured in the USA, Japan and in many other countries thus the Theatre has won universal recognition. The Perm Drama Theatre is noted both for its company and its splendid marble building. L.Mosolova, V.Saitov, V.Ginzburg are among the leading actors and actresses of this Theatre. More than 10 performances by the Theatre have been awarded diplomas at different festivals.

__The tallest building with a spire, a former cathedral,situated on Komsomolsky Prospect houses the Perm State Art Gallery. The building, a unique monument of Russian classicism,towers over the whole of Perm.

__The Gallery was opened in 1922. Not many art galleries in this country can math the collections of our Gallery in variety and artistic worth. __It ranks with such treasuries as the Hermitage , the Tretyakov Art Gallery and the A.S.Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. __The Gallery is remarkable for its collection of the Perm wooden sculpture. __Here are exhibited pictures by many painters of the Italian , Fenish, Dutch and Franch schools of the 15th to the 18th centuries and masterpieces by I.Shishkin, I.Aivazovsky, I.Repin, I.Kramskoy, A. Kuinji as well. __The Gallery also displays works by Ye.Shirokov, A.Tumbasov,A.Zyryanov and other Perm artists.

__In the Perm Museum of Local Lore there are over 360,000 exhibits.

__Place of pribe in the exhibition is taken by the collection of manuscripts and of "stolbtsy"(official papers) of the 16th to the 17th centuries. __The collection of metal sculpture of the ancienr Prikamye area is unique. __The exposition gives an interesting insight into the history of Perm from the 18th century onwards. __The Museum houses many works of applied art and crafts, old household untensils and labour implements to give an idea of the life of Perm's population of the 19th century and earlier. __The Nature Department features the natural conditions of our region. __There are collections of Urals ornamental stones and stuffed animals in the Museum.

__The A.M.Gorky Regional Library is located in a large four-storey building on Lenin Street.

__The Library contains 1,957,000 books.

__There are 12 departmants in it, including the Periodicals, Technical Literature,Agricultural and Natural-Scientific Literature,Literature on Art and Music Literature departments.

__In the Foreign Literature Department there are a lot of books in English, French, German, Spanish and other foreign languages.

__The Perm State Circus situated on the City Hills is designed to seat 2,000. (The builgned of the Circus was designed by the local architect M.G.Futlik, as was that of the aforementioned Library.)

__The best circus performers appear in the ring of the Circus regularly.

__The Perm Planetaium is not far from the Circus.

__In the Perm Zoological Gardens there are about 300 species of animals from all over the world.

__The Repblican Hippodrome locates in Balatovo,one of the city's microdistricts,enjoys great popularity with lovers of the races (horse-racing).

__There are a number of palaces of culture in Perm.

__In Perm there are four wide-frame and 10 wide-screen cinemus,the most popular ones being the "Kristall" (Crystal),the "Rossiya"(Russia), the "Octyabr"(October),the "Mir" (Peace), the "Iskra"(Spark), and the "Rubin"(Ruby).

__In our city variety shows usually run at the "Molot"' (Hammer) Palace of Sports,the building of the Perm Circus and at the Sverdlov Palace of Culture and Technology.

__Gala concerts are sometimes arranged at the "Zvezda" (Star) Stadiun,which can hold 25 thousand spectators.

__Ice shows (revues) are staged and figure-skating competitions are held at the "Orlyonok"(Eaglet) Palace of Sports.

__The artists of the Perm regional Philharmonic (including "Kontrast" (Contrast) Vocal and Instrumental Ensemle, the Chamber Chorus under V.Novik, the Male Vocal Quartet headed by I.Voronov, the violinist Yu.Ilyutovich and the pianist Yu.Agafonov) are warmly received by the audience.

__The illusionist V.Danilin, the winner of the 18th World Contest of Illusionists,which took place in Switzerland in 1991, the holder of the Grand Prix, has become world-famous. __The conjurers the Bastrakovs are well know in this country.

__The Philharmonic arranges concerts in the concert hall of the former Palace of Young Pioneers (on Karl Marx Street),in the halls of the Cultural and Business Centre and of the House of Officers.

__There are many artistic amateur groups in Perm , among them orchestras,choirs, vocal and instrumental ensembles, etc.

__Thus, for example, "Solnechaya Raduga" (Sunny Rainbow) Folk Choreographic Ensemble and the experimental theatre "U Mosta " (At the Bridge) are very popular with the public (the theatre became professional in July 1992).

__The "Uralsky Khrovod" (Urals Round Dance) Folk Song and Dance Creative Work Centre has performed on tour in the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, Poland and Czechoslovakia.

__The "Kamushka" Folk Urals Dance Company (consisting of students of vocational scholls) has been to Denmark, Norway, Findland, India and some other countries.

__The performances of the companies were a great success. The Perm organization of the Writers' Union is one of the oldest in Russia.

__Its members (M.R.Smorodinov,N.F.Domovitov,A.D. Krassheninnikov,A.L. Reshetov and other have made themselves popular with their fellow-townsmen.

__Our newspapers "Zvezda" (Star),"Molodaya Gvardiya" (Young Guard),the "Vechernyaya Perm" (Perm Evening News) have won their readers'sympathies.

__The Perm Publishing House has become famous for its souvenir book. In the city of Perm there are three Parks of Culture and Recreation is situated in the remote Kirovsky District.

__There are ample facilities for relaxation there: a pine forest, a dance pavilion and umerous side-shows such as a motor-drome, merry-go-rounds,swings. However, the most popular place for recreation is the children's Gorky Park of Culture and Rest. In the last century it was called "the Out-of-Town Garden". Perm's leading sports collectives are the ice-hockey team "Molot" (Hammer) and the footbal team "Zvezda" (Star).

__The Perm athlete arena "Spartak" (Spartacus) and the "Zvezda" (Star) Stadiu are farfamed.

__There are five ski jumps in our city, the biggest one of them being 58 metres high.

__The finals of two winter Tournaments of Nations of the Russian Federation have been held in Perm.

__Mass relay-races are organized and track-and-field events take place (atletics competitions are held) in the city every year.

__The names of the skier M.Devyatyarov and the biathloner V.Alikin,who are Olympic champions,have gone in the history of uor sport.