Article

Name: Friendship and Adoration among the Students of Russian Institutes of Noble Maidens in the Early 20th Century

Authors: Aleksandr F. Belousov

Independent Researcher, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

In the section Russian Children’s Literature: Plots and Gender

Abstract: The article discusses the subculture of the community that originated and existed in the Institutes of Noble Maidens (Russian boarding schools). Usually, girls were admitted to Institutes at the age of ten, when they still had no life experience other than home. Upon finding themselves in an unfamiliar environment of a public institution, they were shocked by strictly official relationships with the school authorities and teachers (“class ladies”). The only thing that at least somehow distracted and reassured those who entered the Institute were the developing relationships with other girls. Students become friends: started addressing each other by using an informal “thou” and first names, defended each other before authorities and other girls, sat together during celebrations, had long pillow-talks after going to bed, and, of course, shared “secrets.” For the residents of the new “home,” friendships provided aid and support. In the meanwhile, both younger and older students often participated in another “ritual” characteristic of the Institutes’ subculture: the famous practice of “adoration.” Adoration included the praise of its “object,” as well as providing certain services to the adored one (such as sharpening her quills or sewing her notebooks together). The admirer had to fulfill any request made by her “Angel.” Admirers subjected themselves to very real torture (like scratching a monogram of their “deity” with a pin on the back of their hand) and performed all kinds of “feats” (such as heading out to the porch of a church at night) to prove the strength of their feelings and draw favorable attention to themselves. Adoration was not at all “wild and ridiculous,” as the advanced women of the 1860s tended to think. It represented a form of admiration for persons who embodied the ideals and assumed perfection within the Institute’s community. By adoring their “perfect” counterparts, the girls seemingly rehearsed the female roles to be performed in adulthood. The conflict that arose between friendship and adoration became the basis for the melodramatic plot of Lydia Charskaya’s first published novella “Notes of the Institute Girl” (1902), which is being discussed in this article.

Keywords: institute, institute girl, Princess Jawakha, girlfriend, friendship, adoration, selflessness, sweetheart, disease, death

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