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A European, American or Asian is usually not particularly impressed with either the rank or regalia or the position of the guests. But when people in Poland, Israel, and China found out that I was an honorary resident of St. Petersburg, the reaction was invariably no less stormy than if they said that I was a Nobel laureate. And, of course, I want to conform to such ideas, strive for an ideal that for me is largely connected with the true St. Petersburg moral behavior of Dmitry Shostakovich and Dmitry Likhachev. With their life, they showed that being a Saint-Petersburger is not only great happiness, but also a high mission.