Olga Solodyankina, ‘Cross-cultural closeness: Foreign governesses in the Russian Empire, c. 1700–1850’

Until the mid-eighteenth century, Russian aristocrat families adhered to the model of home education by foreign tutors and governesses. The preferred nationality of governesses changed, as the relative significance of foreign languages changed. Parents preferred older single women and widows. Teaching foreign languages was the main duty of a foreign governess; very often she taught other subjects too. Western European women left for Russia to work as governesses because of economic reasons, to provide for themselves and maybe their next of kin, but also because as foreign governesses they were paid higher salaries than in their countries of origin.