Yuri Shutov's book tells how Anatoly Sobchak (mayor of Leningrad - St. Petersburg) and others like him "went to power." These "walking through the agony" will certainly be of interest to readers, because they reveal the secrets of the behind-the-scenes political life of Russia. Anatoly Sobchak is a landmark phenomenon, one might say, a symbol of the "era of perestroika."