Most myths tell of how worlds are born: how a harmonious cosmos emerges from unpredictable chaos. Alexander Kushnir's book is also devoted to the main cosmogonic process - it tells in detail and meticulously, with the use of unexpected evidence and previously unpublished documents, how a cozy archipelago of meanings called "Aquarium" emerged from the Leningrad chaos and mess in the courtyards-wells and Okhta catacombs. A group emerged that has long been a figure in the mythology of the city on the Neva, like the Bronze Horseman or the legend of the hare that gave its species name to the island where the Peter and Paul Fortress is located.