Wonderful story about your family, amazing pictures from the old Smolny Institute, and your presentation was really great!!! It was a privilege to find you here!!!!
Thank you for a wonderful presentation giving us insight into the education of girls of nobility in Czarist Russia, and the history thereafter. It further informs my past visit to St. Petersburg.
Thank you, bpekim! Please look into our mailing list for more events: www.russianhistorymuseum.org/join-mailing-list/. We hope that you will share this presentation with others who may be interested. :)
Fantastic presentation by Dr. Baker, very informative. It's so kind of her to share her family treasure with the world. Her family was certainly a lot nicer to Mr. Kerensky then I would have been
Facinating. I have seen the odd photo of the girls in Russian photograph books. In one the girls are assembled to watch a parade and all are decked out in identical shoulder wraps and gloves....very formal. Interesting how few pictures or posters were in the hallways, except for formal portraits of the tsar and other royals. In the kitchen photo there are two large stoves at the far wall. We had an old cast iron stove like those, that had been a hotel stove, in our hunting camp in Pennsylvania. You cooked on the top and there were warming compartments at the top, and ovens on the bottom. If the fall weather was chilly you could stoke up that stove and it would stay warm all day. It took skill to produce food and baked goods from a stove like that.
Thank you so much for this presentation. You hit a very sensitive nerve. The day my Grandma died I thought of some questions which I had had 35 years to ask, but only thought of them the day she died.
When the Grand Duchesses had the measles at the time of the abdication, they all had their heads shaved, to help bring down their temperatures. Also hair could have been lost due to high body temperatures for weeks at a time. So the girls might have had hair falling out so their heads were shaved to "start over" so to speak. Alexei, in a show of solidarity, had his head shaved too. They had a picture taken of them all bald, and the Empress was pretty horrified. The girls and Alexei thought it was funny. Another reason for such short hair might have been lice. In a comment under a photo of Russian country life prior to the revolution, the boys of the family had their heads shaved due to lice, whether b/c they had lice or as a prevention against them in longer hair. Hair just wasn't washed as often as it is today -- once a week tops for most ppl back then. Ppl were just more used to body odor then.
Thank you for this question-- we received the following response from Dr. Nancy Baker: "I have not heard of any relation between the Smolny students and those of the Bolshoi ballerinas school. That does not preclude one or two students from having transferred from the Smolny to the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. Catherine the Great prescribed dancing classes for the children of the Moscow Foundling Home, and the Moscow Ballet School, now known as the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, was founded in 1773, when Filippo Beccari was hired to instruct the foundling students in this art. Catherine also founded the Smolny Institute in 1764. Both schools had as their aim the creation of a new breed of people." We hope you will join our mailing list and attend future events! www.russianhistorymuseum.org/join-mailing-list/
Wonderful story about your family, amazing pictures from the old Smolny Institute, and your presentation was really great!!! It was a privilege to find you here!!!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you - very moving. What remarkable lives are animated by your painstaking (and dare one say very Russian) research.
We appreciate your watching and comment, dean. Hope you may join us for future Second Saturday lectures! www.russianhistorymuseum.org/events/
Another terrific lecture and a great learning experience….thank you for sharing
Thank you, Rosy! www.russianhistorymuseum.org/events/
Wow! What a beautifully presented history. Very interesting, and revelatory, with such a lovely personal touch. Thank You!
Thank you, Booka! We loved taking this journey through the Smolny led by Dr. Baker. www.russianhistorymuseum.org/join-mailing-list/
Thank you for a wonderful presentation giving us insight into the education of girls of nobility in Czarist Russia, and the history thereafter. It further informs my past visit to St. Petersburg.
Thank you, bpekim! Please look into our mailing list for more events: www.russianhistorymuseum.org/join-mailing-list/. We hope that you will share this presentation with others who may be interested. :)
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Ni
Hola cuanto vale el ni
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Fantastic presentation by Dr. Baker, very informative. It's so kind of her to share her family treasure with the world. Her family was certainly a lot nicer to Mr. Kerensky then I would have been
Thank you, NAOTMAA. Join us for even more programs and future events! www.russianhistorymuseum.org/events/
Facinating. I have seen the odd photo of the girls in Russian photograph books. In one the girls are assembled to watch a parade and all are decked out in identical shoulder wraps and gloves....very formal. Interesting how few pictures or posters were in the hallways, except for formal portraits of the tsar and other royals. In the kitchen photo there are two large stoves at the far wall. We had an old cast iron stove like those, that had been a hotel stove, in our hunting camp in Pennsylvania. You cooked on the top and there were warming compartments at the top, and ovens on the bottom. If the fall weather was chilly you could stoke up that stove and it would stay warm all day. It took skill to produce food and baked goods from a stove like that.
Fascinating, Virginia! Thank you for your keen eye and comment. www.russianhistorymuseum.org/join-mailing-list/
Thank you so much for this presentation. You hit a very sensitive nerve. The day my Grandma died I thought of some questions which I had had 35 years to ask, but only thought of them the day she died.
Thank you for watching and for this poignant comment, Eleanor.
Very interesting thank you
Thank you, Sandra! www.russianhistorymuseum.org/events/
Was Catherine Dolgorukova (Alexander II' morganatic wife) in this institute?
Yes, she studied at the Smolny
When the Grand Duchesses had the measles at the time of the abdication, they all had their heads shaved, to help bring down their temperatures. Also hair could have been lost due to high body temperatures for weeks at a time. So the girls might have had hair falling out so their heads were shaved to "start over" so to speak. Alexei, in a show of solidarity, had his head shaved too. They had a picture taken of them all bald, and the Empress was pretty horrified. The girls and Alexei thought it was funny. Another reason for such short hair might have been lice. In a comment under a photo of Russian country life prior to the revolution, the boys of the family had their heads shaved due to lice, whether b/c they had lice or as a prevention against them in longer hair. Hair just wasn't washed as often as it is today -- once a week tops for most ppl back then. Ppl were just more used to body odor then.
Thank you so much for this history and pictures. I would really like to know what the youg woemn ate at each meal. Surely someone knows......
Well Done
très belle histoire
Was any relation between these young girls and the Bolshoi ballerinas school? Thanks!
Thank you for this question-- we received the following response from Dr. Nancy Baker:
"I have not heard of any relation between the Smolny students and those of the Bolshoi ballerinas school. That does not preclude one or two students from having transferred from the Smolny to the Bolshoi Ballet Academy.
Catherine the Great prescribed dancing classes for the children of the Moscow Foundling Home, and the Moscow Ballet School, now known as the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, was founded in 1773, when Filippo Beccari was hired to instruct the foundling students in this art. Catherine also founded the Smolny Institute in 1764. Both schools had as their aim the creation of a new breed of people."
We hope you will join our mailing list and attend future events! www.russianhistorymuseum.org/join-mailing-list/
🍎Wow!-#
Thank you, Cristina! www.russianhistorymuseum.org/events/