St. Petersburg claims to have the strongest spirit of all Russian cities and indeed the shadowy metaphysics of this city captivate tourists and locals alike. St. Petersburg conjures up some of the greatest literary names in history, such as Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Modern day St. Petersburg lavishly offers the scenery and conditions for true noir stories, and the writers in St. Petersburg Noir concoct their own worlds within this city with stories ranging from mystical to outwardly grotesque.