Solikamsk

Solikamsk takes its name from salt and the Kama River. First recorded in 1430 as Usolye on the Kama, it grew around the exploitation of brine deposits on the Usolka by merchants and salt producers, probably from Vologda. The Stroganov family developed extensive salt works here and in the surrounding country. The salt town became a major center of the upper Kama, with its industry and merchants connected to routes across the Urals.

In the seventeenth century the Babinov Road began at Solikamsk and provided the overland route from European Russia into Siberia. The town grew rapidly with the traffic that passed through it. It also became an early center of copper casting, while the neighboring Stroganov settlement of Novoye Usolye added to the district's salt production. Later, the rise of ironworks farther south and the opening of a southern road to Siberia reduced Solikamsk's former importance. Its coat of arms, granted in 1783, displayed a salt well.