Etched in the Frost

Girls could move from one room to another only in a column of twos and only by a matron's command. The only outdoor place available for pupils was a fenced institute's garden, and they could walk in it only for half an hour a day, at the scheduled time, in columns and under matrons' supervision of course. Any strong emotion or sharp move was prohibited, for a "noble maiden" should always look neatly and behave flawlessly. In particular, girs were ridiculed for missing their home. Due to purpose of "making a new sort of people" girls were not allowed to leave the institute till they are 18, and even their parents couldn't take them back home for any reason. Those whose families lived in Saint-Petersburg might see their relatives for few hours a month (under supervision too); others could only maintain letter conversations, and every letter was censured by matrons.

Meals were meager, dresses (uncomfortable and always unified, as well as hairstyles) and beds were too light to protect from cold (while temperature in common bedrooms never was higher than +16 °C, in winter it might be only +8 °C). Corporal punishment was not in use, but a common practice was humiliating pupils for fails: so, a matron might stich a stockling to a girl's sleeve if she didn't darn it when it got torn, and make her leave it for a whole day or more.

So what about «Шерочка с Машерочкой» [sherochka s masherochkoi] thing? Though today it's a funny idiom, representing in a comical way some pair of female friends or straight lovers of a very gentle, tender kind — the background of it is also very sad.

The phrase itself descends from French "ma chéri" [ma sheri], "my darling" (fem.). That was how Smolny's pupils had been addressing to each other; a common form due to the great popularity of speaking French among Russian nobility of that age. But sweet words were not only a tribute to fashion. Most of Smolny's girls had been forming a really strong emothional attachment to other girls — just because, as you may guess, no guys were allowed to the institute.

In conditions of total repression and distress, girls had found their only consolation in strongest and sweetest friendship, which often stayed then for a lifetime. It might be called a real love and intimacy — even if not including a sexual tension, though we can't say exactly, was it always such or not.

Also there came such a specific institute phenomenon as the "adoration" custom. Due to isolation and lack of social skills it was a very twisted, weird way to express emotions. An "adoratriss" (a girl who practiced adoration) had chosen her idol amongst the institute residents. Mostly it became an elder girl, also it might be a mentor, an institute churchman, a matron or even the members of royal family, who visited the institute sometimes. Then she had started worshiping her or him by writing love notes, running errands (if allowed), keeping every little thing related to her or him as a precious souvenir. Also suffering for the sake of love was required, and that was the weirdest part. For example a girl might have cutted her idol's letters on her wrist with a knife, or eaten the whole piece of soap as a vow to love. Adoration was about a platonic feelings only; so, for example, if an idol man had got married, then "adoratrisses" had started to adore his wife with the same passion.

One may think all of this was not such a great price to pay for a chance to get a real higher education in the times of patriarchy, which had not even a concept of violation women's rights, but a total absence of them. But was this "real" higher education real indeed? At the beginning on Smol'ny's history, under Catherine the Great — yes, it was. But up to the middle of XIX century the educational concept was changed. Natural sciences as geography and physics were excluded from study program, and liberal arts were taught very poorly. The major priority became external appeal of graduates: nice behaviour and good manners, obedience and modesty, also some art skills such as dancing, singing, playing music, needlework. In fact, Smolny had been training girls to be good wives for noblemen, and that's all. Smolny's graduates were mostly described as unsocialized, too sensitive, even mentally unstable young ladies, who were able to perform decorative functions only.

Good news is that since 1860 girls and women could visit lectures at the real, "men's" universities. Though they couldn't get a diploma 'til 1875 (when special female higher educational courses started to appear in Russian cities), they were allowed to study as auditors. In 1907 the Politechnical Institute in St. Petersburg started to accept female students as well as male ones. And in 1920 Soviet government finally removed educational unequality completely.

That's all for today! Enjoy learning and friendship, live and let live!