The new book by Nikolai Konyaev talks about events, although extraordinary, but very ordinary for the people who became their heroes. Emperor Paul I, uncompromising in his adherence to the law, and the “iron” sovereign Nicholas I; scientist and engineer Pavel Petrovich Melnikov, singer Anastasia Vyaltseva and hero of the Russo-Japanese War Vasily Biskupsky, poet Nikolai Rubtsov, composer Valery Gavrilin, historical novelist Valentin Pikul... - about these talented and energetic Russian people, whose deeds are so great that they no longer are felt as the activities of an individual, the book says. Very early, much earlier than many of their peers, they found their path and, without turning aside, followed it during their lifetime, achieving national recognition. They were completely different, but they were all St. Petersburg residents, and their fates were in some ways subtly similar.