Krasnovishersk is the administrative centre of the Krasnovishersk District in the northeast of the Perm Territory.

The city is located in the extreme western part of the district, on the left bank of the Vishera River. It is 300 km away from the city of Perm, the centre of the Perm Territory.

The city takes the area of 18.57 km.

Krasnovishersk, the most northern city of the district, developed from the settlement of Vizhaikha, where a Russian-French joint-stock company constructed steel works in 1894 — 1897.

Krasnovishersk was founded in 1930 in the context of construction of a pulp and paper mill, which was generally carried out using the labor of camp prisoners (the 4th branch of the Solovki labor camp from 1926 was located there).

Memory of the past is carefully protected by the dwellers of Krasnovishersk and the city authorities. At the entrance gates to the city there is a board with the inscription:

Varlam Shalamov's Memorial was opened in Krasnovishersk on July 21, 2007.It was in the Vishera Camp where he served his first sentence in the 1930s.

Architecture and sights

Local monuments of nature include over 30 skerries, called “stones”, along the banks of River Vishera. Between the villages Pisanoye and Akchim, on the right bank of Vishera there is an archaeological monument of the Neolithic era and the Bronze Age: the so-called Pisany Stone with rock paintings (geometrical ornament, drawings of animals and human figures). There is also Polyudov Stone (520 m high), Govorlivy Stone, etc.

At the 8 km distance from the Pisany Stone there is a monument of art and religion of the Mansi people - the Mokhovoi (Moss) Stone with some poorly preserved rock paintings.