Cultural and linguistic practice at the Russian court set an example which men and women in the higher ranks of the nobility, as it turned out, followed with zest and without being compelled to do so. They embraced a European cultural identity, cultivating politesse and refinement. They adopted other European languages of their own accord and ensured – insofar as their financial resources permitted – that their children had the access to foreign tutors, governesses, books, and opportunities for foreign travel which would enable them to acquire a high level of competence in those languages, and in French in particular. In showing this independent interest in the field of education, and in insisting that language learning should be central in their children's curriculum, the great aristocratic families were acting in parallel with the court. (It was the lower-ranking nobility on whom the monarchy needed to exert pressure, if it was to ensure that they too would adopt the western cultural model.) Nobles’ adult reading habits then deepened the knowledge of western culture that their upbringing had instilled in them and kept them abreast of European developments in everything from philosophy, belles-lettres, politics, economics, and agriculture to social life, fashion, and coiffure. To be sure, their education and reading equipped noblemen for various types of service – especially in diplomacy, the upper ranks of the civil administration, and the officer corps – and, in a more general sense, prepared them to be worthy representatives of their empire. At the same time, this upbringing disposed them (both men and women) to a certain kind of sociability that was emblematic of their social class and exclusive to it.

It is the function of French in nobles’ performance of their social role to which this chapter is devoted. For the most part, we are dealing here with linguistic usage, rather than language attitudes, insofar as usage can be accurately established at this remove. We therefore rely as far as possible on sources – especially memoirs and materials from family archives – which yield what seems to be factual information. When we come to consider the use of French as a marker of the social identity of the nobility, on the other hand, we stray into the more subjective domain of perceptions and need to take account of the conscious or possibly sub-conscious biases that our sources may contain.