This book is dedicated to the history of tobacco and smoking in St. Petersburg - Leningrad - Petrograd: from the founding of the city to the present day. Of course, the adventures of tobacco in Russia are considered by the author in the context of the “general history” of tobacco - we learn about how Europeans first encountered it, how they treated coughs and headaches with it, how they cast out the devil from smokers, and how tobacco was grown together with ficus. The author reproduces the history of tobacco smoking in the smallest detail, talking about the emergence of the first tobacco factories and the role of cigarettes in Soviet films, how the government fought against tobacco and, on the contrary, encouraged smokers, how cigarettes were made from fallen leaves in besieged Leningrad and about how the culture of snuff boxes appeared... Along the way, it is reported why Empress Catherine II did not smoke tobacco, but sniffed it, how “Rocket” differs from “Sport”, what “pink tobacco” and de-erotized cigarette are, where shag came from, what are the goodness of “sniffers” ", can a tobacconist speak his mind, when filtered cigarettes appeared in the USSR, why Leonid Brezhnev shot cigarettes and even where tobacco could be found in 1842.