The review is a landmark for the historiography of St. Petersburg University and for modern university studies the book of the St. Petersburg historian E.A. Rostovtsev. The author presents a social and anthropologically oriented history of three decades of the existence of the corporation of the St. Petersburg University, while simultaneously redefining the long-term power strategies with respect to universities and tracing their public reputation. The novelty of the approach of the second is the systematic analysis of a large statistical and biographical material and an attempt to present a “collective social portrait” of the academic corporation, both professorial and student. Attention is drawn to the complex internal structure and the system of relations in the professorial corporation of the capital's university. The conclusion of E.A. Rostovtsev that its solidary actions and the language of dialogue with the authorities often compelled the government to concede, correcting and supplementing the existing university legislation. Numerous university “crises” (1897, 1899, 1901, 1905–1906, etc.) were often resolved in favor of the university community and in the interests of science.