From the Life of St. Petersburg at the Turn of the 19th–20th Centuries: Eyewitness Accounts

The authors of this book — lawyer Dmitry Zasosov and engineer Vladimir Pyzin, representatives of the Petersburg democratic intelligentsia. Gifted with observation and a sense of humor, they captivatingly and lovingly tell about the life of their city, about the everyday life and morals of St. Petersburg residents of various classes in the pre-revolutionary era. The text is supplemented by extensive comments from art historian A. V. Stepanov, which contain interesting information from the city's history. The study of St. Petersburg follows the general trend of recent decades — researchers turning to more narrowly focused topics — and is enriched by works on the smells and sounds of the city, the peculiarities of sanitation, and the gastronomic habits of its inhabitants. An important source for such studies — the memoirs of contemporaries of the events, who are able to capture their emotions, impressions, and experiences. Such are the proposed notes of Dmitry Zasosov and Vladimir Pyzin, which should be read as an attempt to convey the subjective perception of life in the city. Detailed descriptive details weave into a web of meanings and images of old St. Petersburg, allowing us to view the modern city from a different angle. This book can be justifiably called the most important artifact revealing the life of the rapidly growing and changing city at the beginning of the 20th century. We invite you to follow our experience of retrospective sailing into the everyday life of the former capital on the Neva with its help.