Tea at Trianon: The Smolny Institute for Daughters of the Nobility

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, June 12, 2017

The Smolny Institute for Daughters of the Nobility

Founded by Catherine the Great, the Smolny Institute provided a liberal arts education for young ladies for over a century until the Revolution and the Bolsheviks closed its doors. According to Russia Beyond the Headlines:

The Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens was the first women's educational institution in Russia and paved the way for women’s education in the country. The institute was founded at the urging of Ivan Betskoy and in accordance with a decree signed by Catherine the Great on May 5 (April 24 according to Julian calendar) 1764. Smolny Institute admitted the daughters of officials with a rank no lower than colonel or actual state counselor and paid for their education using funds from the state treasury. The daughters of hereditary nobles were also admitted for an annual tuition fee. The girls were prepared for life in the royal court and high society. The institute’s curriculum included lessons on classic school subjects: Russian language, mathematics, history, geography, as well as music, dance, painting, sculpting, blazonry, etiquette, various means of housekeeping, religious studies, and others. Ivan Betskoy wrote the institute’s charter, instilling in it his pedagogical views that had been influenced by Western European Enlightenment philosophy, views that Catherine the Great also shared. (Read more.)