The novel “Pushkin House” - “The Second Dimension” of the Empire by Andrei Bitov. Here the author expands his concept of a small homeland (“Apothecary Island”) to the scale of St. Petersburg (Leningrad), and more broadly to all Russian literature. Written in 1964 as the first “anti-textbook” on literature, it was “circulated on lists” for a long time and was first published in the USA in 1978. It immediately became a cult book of the generation, translated into many languages of the world, foreign researchers called the author “Russian Joyce.” The main character of the novel, Lev Odoevtsev, a hereditary philologist, heir to a famous family, thinks of himself and those around him through the prism of Russian classics. But times and morals have changed greatly, and no one explained to Leva how to live in St. Petersburg in the mid-20th century, and in the meantime, family, friends, lovers demand actions and decisions from Leva...