We habitually associate the surroundings of St. Petersburg with world-famous architectural and landscape masterpieces: Peterhof, Pavlovsk, Tsarskoye Selo, Gatchina. Many monographs, albums and brochures are dedicated to them. The daily life of ordinary people in the suburbs of the Northern capital, who did not live in palaces, usually remains in the shadows. The proposed book by the famous local history journalist Sergei Glezerov fills this gap. Having scrupulously examined many archival documents and old publications of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, the author enthusiastically told little-known interesting information about the life of different classes of that time in the vicinity of St. Petersburg.