In St. Petersburg, what would seem incredible in any other place becomes real. Flooding is an everyday phenomenon. Northern Lights - almost every winter, as well as rain on New Year's Eve. Even the appearance of a ghost is not very surprising. St. Petersburg residents are more likely to be surprised by the absence of miracles. You can love St. Petersburg or not love it. But few people managed to ignore the city. There are almost no people indifferent to St. Petersburg; only a few were able to touch it and continue to live as if the meeting had not happened. In St. Petersburg, something is constantly happening in various areas of culture. It awakens the imagination and makes you think faster. St. Petersburg is the birthplace of a huge number of innovations both in Russia and throughout Europe. Theories that define the modern scientific picture of the world were created here, scientific and technical discoveries and developments that underlie modern civilization were made here. All this became possible thanks to the unique qualities of St. Petersburg as a place of development - the unity of the socio-historical environment and the territory it occupies. This book is about why our city is the way it is and not another, and how it shapes people.