It was created November 3, 1923 by the merger of Perm, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and Tyumen Governorates.

At the time of its creation area of oblast was 1,659,000 km2 and the population was 6,380,000.

On February 26, 1925, Komi-Permyak Okrug was separated from the western portion of the oblast.

Okrugs included: Verkhne-Kamsky, Zlatoustovsky, Irbitsky, Ishimsky, Komi-Permyatsky, Kungursky, Kurgansky, Permsky, Sarapulsky, Sverdlovsky, Tagilsky, Tobolsky, Troitsky, Tyumensky, Chelyabinsky and Shadrinsky.

On December 10, 1930, Ostyak-Vogul and Yamal (Nenets) national okrugs were created in the northern part of former Tobolsky okrug.