The territory of what is today the Perm region is inhabited by Finno-Ugric peoples (i.e. Komi-Permyaks (Permyaks), Udmurts (Wotyaks), Mari (Tsheremis), Manses (Voguls)) and Turkic peoples such as the Bashkirs and the Tatars as well as Russians.

The colonization of the central Ural through Russian farmers was largely peacable. Previously, the area had only been thinly populated by the Komi-Permyak people. In their central ethnic area, this people assimilated with the Russian settlers, although there were also three other, smaller, and more isolated areas where the Komi-Permyaks had settled. One of these was lost during the Soviet period. In the other two territores, on the banks of the Yasva river and on the upper Kama, an ethnic consciousness and a number of cultural specificities have survived colonization up to the present. In some areas, the local dialects of the Russian settlers was influenced by the language of the Komi-Permyaks, which belongs to the Perm branch of the Finno-Ugric language family. In such influenced dialects, for an example, the Russian /f/ is replaced by [p], or the Russian /kh/ is replaced with [k].

Inhabitants of the village of Kalinino

Since the mid-18th century, the Russians also settled areas which were originally the home of the small people of the Mansi. This people was largely assimilated; even toward the end of the 19th century, many Mansis no longer spoke their own language. At the same, observers noted that that the Mansis no longer differed at all from the Russians in their way of building houses, in their forms of economy, or their way of dressing. Only the Losva-Mansi, who lived in the area of Werkhoturye, followed the traditions of their ethnic origin. Toward the begin of the 20th century, they moved further north to the northern Sosva; their descendents still live there at present. In 1989, there were only 8,300 Mansis in the entire Soviet Union. .

In the 18th century, the Mari formed two large territorial groups which lived on the banks of the Sylva and the Ufa. These groups were largely influenced by the Bashkirs and Tatars; there was hardly any influence from Russian culture, although the Russian language was used as a trade language among the Mari.

The Bashkirs, who were far more numerous and populated more land, also exerted an heavy influence upon the Udmurts. A petition of the Udmurts to the Tsar from 1812 shows that the Bashkir continuously tried to take over traditional Udmurt lands. Relations to the Russians, who began to settle on Udmurt territory beginning in the 19th century, was full of deep mistrust.

The territories in the south of the Ural mountains belonged to the Turkish people of the Bashkirs, who rented a part of their lands to the immigrating Tatars, Udmurts, Maris, and Meshtsheryaks. One can assume that the Bashkirs exerted a strong cultural, linguistic and economic influence upon all of the peoples; finally, a part of the Tatars even called themselves Bashkirian Tatars. The practice of tenant-farming on Bashkir territory led to a multi-ethnic community which was called the Tepteri. In the censi of the 19th century, up to 1909, they were treated as an independant people; in 1857-58, 8,712 Tepteri were counted. Today, one tends to consider the Tepteri as a specific social group of heterogenous ethnic origin which might be compared to the Cossacks. In any case, the "teptyary" (as they called themselves) in the Southern Ural certainly had a well-developed sense of identity.

According to some traditions, the Meshtsheyaks originate on the Crimean Peninsula while other sources claim that they are descended from the Finno-Ugric people of the Metshera. Like the Bashkirs, they too are Muslim and are closely related in their language as well as in their way of life. In 1870, there were 1,820 Meshtsheryaks. Apparently, they were later assimilated by the Bashkirs.

Marion Krause