By the rules that applied to everyone who grew up in the Russia of
yesteryear, I was destined to live and die in the same city, the same
apartment, holding the same job all my life. But in my lucky case, the
city happened to be beautiful St. Petersburg -– then called Leningrad
-– and the job I had was in a very special place: the Hermitage, the famous museum founded in the 18th century by Catherine the Great...