Abstract Several existing schemes for Carboniferous stratigraphy officially adopted in regions of the Russian Federation are summarized and discussed. These regions with different geological histories and distinct depositional settings include the Moscow Basin, the Urals, North Timan, Siberia, the Kuznetsk Basin and the Mongol–Okhotsk, Verkhoyansk–Okhotsk and Kolyma–Omolon regions. Broad correlations based on macro- and microfossils are possible between the regions, while all regional schemes are correlated to the official Russian General Stratigraphic Scheme for the Carboniferous, using zonations based on orthostratigraphic fossils. The Russian General Stratigraphic Scheme is correlated to the International Stratigraphic Scale using ammonoids, conodonts, foraminifers and palynomorphs.

Abstract Permian Rugosa of southern Primorye (Russian Far East) occur in a series of terranes of different tectonic origin. The taxonomical composition of Guadalupian (Wordian–Capitanian) rugose corals distributed in southern Primorye changed progressively in an ecological succession, starting with primitive persistent cosmopolitan taxa (assemblage I). This was replaced by assemblage II with a marked invasion of Peri-Gondwanian genera such as Timorphyllum and Verbeekiella , and, in the Late Capitanian, by typical Cathyasian colonial waagenophyllids (assemblage III). Subsequent communities have nearly no transitional forms. The latter assemblage was abruptly replaced by small fasciculate and solitary primitive forms (assemblage IV). Species peculiarities of assemblages of the Parafusulina stricta Zone and the specific lithological features of coral-bearing deposits indicate a palaeogeographical differentiation of terrane positions. The terranes are of various origins: oceanic arcs, passive margin and guyot. The extinction of massive colonial Rugosa in southern Primorye (western Palaeo-Pacific) is identified as a biotic event that is recognizable in Japan, and probably in Inner Mongolia. It also coincides with a general reduction in coral diversity at the end of the Capitanian in China. The present study of the taxonomical distribution of corals has enabled the level of massive waagenophyllid extinction to be defined precisely and to correlate it to a similar pattern in adjacent territories of the Palaeo-Pacific below the Lopingian boundary. The diversity decrease coincides with the last phase of the Kamura event, and the effects of the Emeishan volcanism is correlated with a second positive shift in δ 13 C (South China). The assumed cooling impacted on the fauna in the western Palaeo-Pacific. The stepwise elimination of massive colonial waagenophyllids and large fusulinids documented in the southern Primorye at the end of the Capitanian is considered to be the first step in the Permian–Triassic extinction, about 8 Myr prior to the final Permian–Triassic (P–T) global event.