As an instrument of State power, the prospékt has a lot in common with Michel Foucault's "Panopticon" (1975) – the ideal prison, where the doings of inmates are always open to unseen inspection.  But Névsky Prospekt is a place to "be seen" in another sense as well, as Marshall Berman brings out in his study of classical St. Petersburg culture (1982).  It is interesting to compare Berman's description with my own (composed independently), because of striking similarities in style and atmosphere, but also because of Berman's almost opposite emphasis.  He contrasts the prospékt and the palace, describing the street as a political meeting-place which the public must conquer and make its own...  I do not disagree with Berman.  Our differences are instead a result of our historical points of departure: the pre-Revolutionary time of change vs. the last stage of post-World War II stagnation.