Berezniki, city in eastern European Russia, located in Perm' Oblast. Berezniki lies in the Ural Mountains, along the Kama Reservoir of the Kama. It is connected by bridge across the Kama to the town of Usol'e. Berezniki is a center of the chemical industry and the manufacture of electrical equipment. The city is also the site of important natural salts like potassium and magnesium. It has a train station along the Chusovskaya-Solikamsk rail line. Berezniki has a theater and a museum of regional history. In the 16th century Russian industrialists set up one of the country's first saltworks in the village of Berezniki. In 1883 one of the first soda factories in Russia was built there. Berezniki became a city in 1932. It is one of many medium-sized cities that has lost population since the breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991, as the populace is pushed out because of the lack of economic opportunities. Population (1995) 267,753.
