Annotation: "Petersburg Globe" contains 52 essays – one for every week of the year – about St. Petersburg, written by the famous writer and journalist Andrei Shary, a Muscovite who for many years has lived abroad. On maps Petersburg is not signified by a red circle, but it is often considered a capital – of Russian culture, the Russian intelligentsia, of gloomy Russian rock and cheery Russian porn. The main character in Shary's book is the city of St. Petersburg, in all its manifestations. This Russian city is also European; it is educated yet marginal, literary and mythological. It is inextricably linked with world history and is a storehouse for stories, fables and anecdotes, and readers have a happy opportunity to immerse themselves, at least in part, in its captivating aura. Literary critics define the genre of books like "Petersburg Globe" as "pop intellectualism." Andrei Shary's subject and format are recognizable, and he resolves his essays elegantly yet simply, bringing to bear a gentle irony and the curiosity of a person who seeks to reveal the hidden structure of city life. Shary searches for answers to questions that are about more than simply history or culture. In the 21st century, do we need to create a new system of coordinates, or is it always predefined by past social experience? Is the place of Russia on the cultural map of the world changing?