The review analyzes the books devoted to the centenary of the Department of genetics and biotechnology of St. Petersburg State University. In the first book “Iurii Alexandrovich Filipchenko and his entourage” (2019) Sergei Fokin and Ilia Zakharov-Gezekhus tell about fate and scientific activities of biologists (Iu.A. Filipchenko, I.I. Sokolov, F. Dobzhansky, A. P. Vladimirsky, and others), who actively participated in the organization and work of the Department in 1920-1930s. The second book “Genetics: yesterday and today” (2019), prepared under the editorship of Sergei Inge-Vechtomov, summarizes significant events in science and education taking place in Department of Genetics during 100 years of its history.