“Petersburg text” as supertext is a complex of different works, combined in a situational and content. Formation of a special semantic space of the “Petersburg text”, in which traditional values for Russian people receive the opposite illumination, the concept “house” contributes. The purpose of this article is to consider how to implement the concept of «home» in the perspective of the problem of the “Petersburg text” on the material of N. S. Leskov “On the knives” (1870–1871). The purpose is concretized in the following tasks: describe the essence of the phenomenon of the “Petersburg text” of Russian literature; to analyze the embodied features and shades of the meaning of the key concept of the “Petersburg text” – the concept “house” in the novel by N. S. Leskov “On the knives.” Basically, the novel presents two opposing topos – St. Petersburg and the province. The author of the article is important to show how the material reality of St. Petersburg in the novel influences and changes spiritual values. As a result of the research, the author of the article comes to the conclusion that St. Petersburg in the novel of N. S. Leskov appears in the traditional description – a gloomy, dangerous, unprotected city in which a person is lonely and unhappy, and the concept of the “house” in the “St. Petersburg text” realizes the shades of meaning that are not peculiar to him in the standard linguistic picture of the world: the house is a place of solitude and longing. The relevance of the article is due to the frequent appeal of researchers to the phenomenon of the “Petersburg text”, which is part of the national culture and influences its development. Insufficient study of the novel “On the knives” in connection with his forced and undeserved “forgetfulness” because of the antinigilistic orientation of the work speaks about the novelty of the research. Methods used: comparative, contextual analysis, typological analysis.