Historian and translator Igor Alekseevich Bogdanov (1949-2010) shares his observations and memories of the life of Leningrad in the late 1940s - early 1990s, which are a connecting link, a bridge connecting generations. A reader who is not familiar with the realities of socialist reality will discover completely amazing things: he learns that "swinging" is not a children's blouse, but the layout of the apartment, "andropovka" is vodka, and "zhivopyrka" is a catering establishment. Memories are presented according to the dictionary principle.