Anatoly Bakhtiarov (1851-1916) - a well-known Russian publicist, writer and local historian. In one of his famous works, "Belly of Petersburg," he talks in detail about the work of a huge economic mechanism that supplied St. Petersburg at the end of the 19th century with food, labor and materials. The book describes the life of pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg, hidden from view: urban slaughterhouses and a water pumping station, a gluttony row and a hay market; permanent and temporary residents of the capital, from local workers and day laborers to small entrepreneurs and street musicians.