In Russia, Leo Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace is, in the eyes of children, still one of the most difficult books on the school curriculum today, and not only because of its impressive four-volume length.“When I opened the first pages, I saw that about half the text was in French and I thought: well, I’d better read a summary instead,” recalls Alexei, a 23-year-old Muscovite, speaking of his school days.
Indeed, the dialogues of the St. Petersburg nobility that open War and Peace, held in the salon of the highly fashionable Annette Pavlovna Scherer, are half composed of French phrases. However, this was not an author’s whim, but a faithful reflection of early 19th-century customs (the plot of the first volume of War and Peace takes place in 1805). Regarding one of the characters, Tolstoy noted: “He speaks refined French, in which our ancestors not only spoke but also thought.” In the 18th century, French “invaded” Russia, becoming the unofficial language of the aristocracy. Why was this?
Looking toward the West
It all began with the reforms of Peter the Great, who governed Russia from 1682 to 1725. The third tsar of the Romanov dynasty decided to change the course of the country’s history, his dream being to make it a European power. To achieve this, he not only waged wars but also destroyed the patriarchal foundations of ancient Rus’, forcing nobles to shave their beards, wear European clothes, and study in the West. As a result, in the 18th century, it became customary in aristocratic social gatherings to speak foreign languages.
At that time, among all Western languages, French dominated not only Russia but also the whole of Europe. “French was the first language in which the notion of unified standards was introduced,” explains Dmitri Petrov, psycholinguist and translator. According to him, the credit primarily goes to Minister and Cardinal Richelieu, who founded the Académie française in 1635, an institution responsible for the creation and harmonization of linguistic standards. Consequently, French gradually supplanted Latin in its role as an international language.
The French wave
Another surge in the expansion of Molière’s language among the Russian nobility was brought about by the French Revolution (1789–1799), when many aristocrats fled their country, consumed by revolts, and found refuge notably in Russia. The number of emigrants then amounted to 15,000.
The government of the Russian Empire was very wary of any revolution and gladly welcomed monarchists onto its territory. Some of them managed to reach high spheres in the country by entering the service of the Russian throne, as was the case for Armand-Emmanuel du Plessis de Richelieu, a descendant of the famous cardinal, who was granted the title of governor of the city of Odessa (located in present-day Ukraine). But not all had such a glorious destiny; many became tutors for wealthy families, teaching noble children dance and fencing.
Francophilia and Francophobia
Long before Tolstoy, publicists and writers had noted the general enthusiasm of the nobility for all things French, and many controversies erupted on the subject. Some believed that borrowings from the French language enriched the culture and made the Russian language more refined, while others, on the contrary, thought it led nowhere. “We are going to lead our language to its total decline,” worried Alexander Shishkov, Minister of Public Education, campaigning for the purity of the Russian language.
In his comedy “Woe from Wit,” the writer Alexander Griboyedov ironically depicted his fellow citizens who revered all things French, while being unable to string together three words in that language: “In grand gatherings as in parish feasts, do we not always see the mixture of languages reign, that of France and that of Nizhny Novgorod (a city 401 kilometers east of Moscow, editor’s note)?”
And although French was used by all nobles, it was a language of courtesy, associated with nobility of soul and exalted sentiments. A study of the correspondence of the most illustrious Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin, considered the founder of the modern Russian language, has for example shown that approximately 90% of his letters intended for women were written in French.
Decline of Francophonie
During the Napoleonic Wars, which notably pitted Russia against France, the popularity of the French language began to decline. Patriotic sentiments indeed compelled nobles to speak more frequently in their native language, which was sometimes even a matter of survival.
Denis Davydov, poet and war hero, recalled that it was common for peasants (who did not know French and were often illiterate) to “mistake [noble officers] for enemies due to their approximate pronunciation of Russian” and confront them with an axe or a rifle in hand.
The period of infatuation with France then ended, and many Gallicisms, which had entered the Russian language in the 18th century, began to fall into disuse. But dozens of words nevertheless remained. Many Russians do not even suspect the foreign origin of words such as “afisha” (poster), “pressa” (press), “charm” (charm), “kavalier” (cavalier) etc. “Some, indispensable to the language, remained; others, not necessary, disappeared,” affirmed the writer Pyotr Vail. “The same thing happens and will happen with other borrowings.”
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