The Belly of Petersburg. Social and Physiological Essays

Anatoly Bakhtiarov 1851-1916 — a famous Russian publicist, writer, and local historian. In one of his most famous works, «The Belly of Petersburg», he details the operation of a vast economic mechanism that provided St. Petersburg at the end of the 19th century with food, labor, and materials. The book describes the life of pre-revolutionary Petersburg, hidden from view: city slaughterhouses and waterworks, a food market and a hay market; permanent and temporary residents of the capital, from local slaughterhouse workers and day laborers to small entrepreneurs and street musicians. Why are hands hit during trading? Where does 800,000 pounds of bull blood go? Who are the Chukhontsy? Will a secondhand book dealer take a book with doodles? A. Bakhtiarov answers these and many other questions in detail and vividly. The book also includes stories about orphanages, lodgings, docks, sideshows, and city festivities. In minute detail, the «internal kitchen» of the belly of Petersburg is revealed. The edition is supplemented with comments from artificial intelligence — fresh statistical data and historical references.