Here there was strict orders.
We offer you to watch a selection of interesting photographs taken at the Smolny Institute for noble maidens. This place was considered the Russian Empire’s first women’s educational institution. It was opened in 1764. It was thought that there of the girls make the best wives and elegant ladies. However, given such education is not easy. So, the girls barely saw their parents and succumbed to this drill.
The initiator of the opening of the Institute for noble maidens was Ivan Betskoy. Despite this title, to the educational institution Smolny clearly falls short, as science there studied superficially. The emphasis of the institution was done on foreign languages, good manners and discipline. Smart women do not need them.
Learning at the Institute lasted 12 years. Here took only noblewomen. Later would open a faculty for “for Philistine girls. Girls were brought up with the utmost rigor. They could get reprimanded for the slightest mistake: loose curl, pleat tucked into bed.
The girls slept on hard beds in cold rooms (up to 16 degrees). If they are more than modest. With age, girls began to study the geography, history, heraldry, physics and architecture. Great attention was paid to the Bible and home Economics. In the last year of teaching girls a lesson in the younger grades, to gain experience in the education of children. A graduate of the Institute could become a maid or a teacher. Most were just married.
