University of Surrey Faculty of Arts & Human Sciences The Representation of Western European Governesses and Tutors on the Russian Country Estate in Historical Documents and Literary Texts by Ulrike Lentz June 2008 Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ABSTRACT Foreign governesses and tutors were a ubiquitous presence on the Russian country estate. This thesis is an attempt to study their presence in Russian life and culture in two media. Firstly, I have conducted a historical data analysis of memoirs and diaries written by British governesses who worked in Russia and by their employers, members of the Russian nobility, who wrote about their upbringing under foreign tutelage. Secondly, the resulting impression was then compared with the representation of the foreign educator in literature. The aim of this approach is to highlight the noteworthy differences between the way these foreigners are referred to in historical sources and their literary image. In order to do so, this thesis first establishes the environment in which the presence of Western Europeans in Russian noble households was deemed an indispensable necessity. Owing to Peter the Great's forcible Westernisation of the country and his insistence on a service nobility, the Russian elite found its class consciousness not in titles and genealogy, but in service rank and "Western" accomplishments, such as the knowledge of foreign languages and genteel behaviour. In its endeavour to "Europeanise" the elite, Russia became a desirable source of employment for governesses and tutors. Especially for British governesses, who were faced with enormous competition and poor working conditions at home, teaching in Russia was both lucrative and an opportunity to live in an unusual, distant and exotic land. In their memoirs about their childhood and upbringing, Russians remember these foreigners with love, loathing or indifference. In literary texts, however, W estern educators are portrayed as types rather than as human beings, as minor characters with a literary textual function rather than as individuals. Furthermore, the general tenor of their depiction is mostly negative and their presence is frequently a source of ridicule. This thesis concludes that the distorted representation of foreigners in Russian literature is owing to the desire in the discourse of prose narratives to improve the image of Russia, to represent aspects of it as civilised and European. In encounters with the Western "other" - most frequently governesses and tutors - the potential to improve the portrayal of the Russian protagonists is enhanced when debunking the representatives of the "superior" West. ABSTRACT Foreign governesses and tutors were a ubiquitous presence on the Russian country estate. This thesis is an attempt to study their presence in Russian life and culture in two media. Firstly, I have conducted a historical data analysis of memoirs and diaries written by British governesses who worked in Russia and by their employers, members of the Russian nobility, who wrote about their upbringing under foreign tutelage. Secondly, the resulting impression was then compared with the representation of the foreign educator in literature. The aim of this approach is to highlight the noteworthy differences between the way these foreigners are referred to in historical sources and their literary image. In order to do so, this thesis first establishes the environment in which the presence of Western Europeans in Russian noble households was deemed an indispensable necessity. Owing to Peter the Great's forcible Westernisation of the country and his insistence on a service nobility, the Russian elite found its class consciousness not in titles and genealogy, but in service rank and "Western" accomplishments, such as the knowledge of foreign languages and genteel behaviour. In its endeavour to "Europeanise" the elite, Russia became a desirable source of employment for governesses and tutors. Especially for British governesses, who were faced with enormous competition and poor working conditions at home, teaching in Russia was both lucrative and an opportunity to live in an unusual, distant and exotic land. In their memoirs about their childhood and upbringing, Russians remember these foreigners with love, loathing or indifference. In literary texts, however, W estern educators are portrayed as types rather than as human beings, as minor characters with a literary textual function rather than as individuals. Furthermore. the general tenor of their depiction is mostly negative and their presence is frequently a source of ridicule. This thesis concludes that the distorted representation of foreigners in Russian literature is owing to the desire in the discourse of prose narratives to improve the image of Russia, to represent aspects of it as civilised and European. In encounters with the Western "other" - most frequently governesses and tutors - the potential to improve the portrayal of the Russian protagonists is enhanced when debunking the representatives of the "superior" West. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my family, friends and colleagues for accompanying me on this long and weary journey that there is called a PhD thesis. More particularly, I would like to show my gratitude to Marina for reading and commenting on my first draft, to Ben for reading my final draft and making suggestions, to Victoria for her hospitality and endless cups of tea, and to my landlady Mrs Foster for setting an example in how to deal with a difficult situation: just get on with it and do it! Special thanks go to my supervisor Prof. Peter Barta, without whose unfailing enthusiasm and support this "academic exercise" would never have been started, continued, and - most certainly - never finished! Was lange wahrt, wird endlich gut! Fur Tante Fritze CONTENTS Abstract Acknowledgements Dedication List of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 Literature Review ........................................................................................................ 15 Chapter 1: Education of the Russian Nobility ............................................................. 34 Chapter 2: The Profession of the Governess ............................................................... 59 Chapter 3: Historical Data Analysis ............................................................................ 91 Chapter 4: The Typification of the Foreign Governess in Russian Literature ........... 122 Chapter 5: The Role of the Foreign Governess in Russian Literature ...................... .l67 Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 216 Appendix I: List of Primary Literary Sources ........................................................... 221 Appendix II: Peter I's Table of Ranks ....................................................................... 222 Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 223 INTRODUCTION Before starting my PhD thesis, I was aware that the representation of foreign governesses and tutors in Russian literature was predominantly a negative one. Some Soviet critics claimed that this literary image was only natural, given that historical memoirs written by members of the Russian nobility painted an equally black picture of their foreign educators. History simply provided the prototype for their literary counterparts. I questioned this statement, assuming it to be an example of that tendency in Russian/Soviet criticism (which had existed in Russia from Belinskii to Lunacharskii and beyond) to treat literary texts as social documents. According to this critical approach, literature reflects reality. Subsequent theoretical work has proved this thinking to be flawed. The presence of foreign governesses and tutors working on country estates for the Russian nobility is an undisputed historical fact. Personal memoirs and diaries mention them frequently as an established part of the childhood, upbringing and education of children of the Russian upper classes in the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There are no scholarly work, however, which has actually looked at and analysed a representative selection of them. Herein lies the originality of this project. I posit that the qualitative analysis of historical texts, such as memoirs and diaries written by members of the Russian upper classes as well as by English governesses with work-experience in Russia, provides a balanced image of foreign teachers. These positive, negative and indifferent accounts, however, are at odds with - 1 - the almost exclusively unfavourable depiction of Western European governesses and tutors in Russian literature. My aim is to draw attention to, and explain, the perceiYed differences which exist between the two. It is entirely legitimate to study memoirs and diaries to sharpen one's interpretative focus on literary fiction: "nonfictional narrative accounts are world-creating in the same sense as are works of literature~'. 1 Why does Russian classic realist literature tend to be biased in this way, especially with repeated claims by authors and critics to be a true reflection of real life? To answer this question, this thesis has been divided into two parts, covering both the historical and the literary discussion of