Page 175

[Alexandr Korol]

You know, then I started realizing that Lake Ladoga, the Gulf of Finland, and where St. Petersburg is now, all of that used to be under water, and later it all dried up, which is why the city is built on a swamp, and everything here was rebuilt from scratch. But something was here before St. Petersburg. It’s like everywhere else, considering how the world is structured — everything happens at the same locations, everything repeats, and everything is built from cycle to cycle. I also developed a strong love for the history of St. Petersburg. It was my favorite subject when I was a kid. I also remember something a teacher once said, though I don’t know who it was: that the tsars were all in a hurry to build the city, as though their only task was not to live for themselves but to complete the city by a certain appointed time. They had to finish it, and all of them worked to build this city. Later, I started realizing that this city, like a machine, like the pyramids in Egypt or the Angkor Wat complex in Cambodia, is the same thing, just St. Petersburg. But people don’t even notice or understand that it’s all still hidden. I also remember, when I was little, I used to say that I liked St. Petersburg more than Helsinki, which is nearby in Finland, because in Finland, it felt like there were only two or three worlds, so to speak. There was the classic-dressed man and woman, then there were the bearded ones, like rockers or Viking types with tattoos, the chubby ones who grunted, and then a third group, and that’s about it. It felt like there were no more social layers or worlds — very dull. But St. Petersburg was different — it felt like people were gathered here like in New York, except in New York, they came from all over the world, and in our case, it was people from the former Soviet Union, all different and unique, from various worlds: from hardcore rockers and rappers to bohemians, intellectuals, aristocrats, and Christians. It’s a mixture of everything: from purebred to mongrel, from talented creatives to the darkest souls — everything is here in St. Petersburg. That’s why I loved St. Petersburg, because it felt like a station or an airport, where a lot of worlds intersect and mix together. It’s true, I noticed that when I walked through the city, I saw how people lived in different worlds. The city is so multi-faceted. You might think you’re living in the same city as everyone else, but in reality, there are many versions of it, and these are all different worlds. I traveled through all of them. That’s why I loved and still love St. Petersburg. Also, naturally,