Pelym (Пелым) is a former

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

(now a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

) on the bank of the

Tavda River The Tavda ( Mansi: Тагт, ''Tagt''Трубачев О. Н. Русская ономастика и ономастика России: словарь стр. 215.) is a Siberian river that drains part of the central Ural mountains into the To ...

near its confluence with the

Pelym River The Pelym () or Bolshoy Pelym () is a river in the far north of Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. It is a left tributary of the Tavda, and is long, with a drainage basin of . The Pelym has its sources on the eastern slopes of the northern Ural Mountai ...

. It is part of Gari District, northeastern

Sverdlovsk Oblast Sverdlovsk Oblast ( rus, Свердловская область, Sverdlovskaya oblastʹ, p=svʲɪrdˈlofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia located in the Ural Federal District. Its administrative center is the c ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. In 2010, the village had 78 inhabitants. Once considered "the gate to

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

", Pelym owes its origin to a moving camp of Ablegirim, or Abdul Kerim, the last chieftain of the Vogul people. The Russians defeated him in an effort to pacify the

Cherdyn Route The Cherdyn Road (Чердынская дорога) or Vishera Road (Вишерская дорога) was the standard route used by the Russians to travel to Siberia in the late 16th century. It started in Cherdyn west of the Urals and followed ...

, whereupon Ablegirim and his family were taken to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

as hostages. The fort of Pelym was built in 1592 on the site of his former residence by Prince Pyotr Gorchakov, a

voivode Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...

from Cherdyn. Pelym was one of the first Russian settlements east of the

Urals The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.

, marking the eastern terminus of the

Cherdyn Road The Cherdyn Road (Чердынская дорога) or Vishera Road (Вишерская дорога) was the standard route used by the Russians to travel to Siberia in the late 16th century. It started in Cherdyn, Perm Krai, Cherdyn west of the ...

from

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. A makeshift timber fort was brought down the river from Upper Lozva to Pelym in 1597. The builders took with them the family of Ignaty Khripunov—the first Russians to be exiled to Siberia. After the discovery of the much shorter

Babinov Road The Babinov Road (Бабиновская дорога) was for a long time the shortest path across the Urals. It led from Solikamsk to Verkhoturye and thence to Tobolsk in Siberia. It was discovered by Artemy Babinov in 1597 and hacked out of th ...

to Europe the town declined in importance. The tsarist government used it as a place of exile. The first political exiles were the people of

Uglich Uglich ( rus, У́глич, p=ˈuɡlʲɪtɕ) is a historic town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River. Population: History The city was first documented in 1148 as ''Ugliche Pole'' (''Corner Field''). The town's name is thou ...

implicated in the assassination of Tsarevich Demetrius. Other notable exiles included the paternal uncles of Tsar

Michael I Michael I may refer to: * Pope Michael I of Alexandria, Coptic Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark in 743–767 * Michael I Rangabe, Byzantine Emperor (died in 844) * Michael I Cerularius, Patriarch Michael I of Constantinop ...

Ernst Johann von Biron Ernst Johann von Biron (; ; ) was the duke of Courland and Semigallia from 1737 to 1740 and again from 1763 to 1769. He was also briefly the regent of the Russian Empire in 1740. Early years Biron was born as Ernst Johann von Bühren in Ka ...

, and

Burkhard Christoph von Münnich Burkhard Christoph Graf von Münnich (; – ) was a German-born army officer who became a field marshal and political figure in the Russian Empire. He carried out major reforms in the Russian Army and founded several elite military forma ...

.Evgenii Anisimov. ''Five Empresses: Court Life in Eighteenth-century Russia''. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004. . Pages 146-147. Modern Pelym still has a penal colony.

References

Rural localities in Sverdlovsk Oblast Defunct towns in Russia Populated places established in 1592 {{SverdlovskOblast-geo-stub