Monsieur L’Abbé: A Citizen of the Russian Empire

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2022.4.746

Keywords:

French people in Russia, prototype in literature, monsieur l’Abbé, Alexander Pushkin, Nikolay Gretsch

Abstract

This article contains a previously unpublished biography of Gabriel (Gavriil/Gavrila) L’Abbé Deslondes (1773–1830), a well-known teacher of French and Latin who served in various educational institutions of St Petersburg. The information found in the Russian State Historical Archive and the Central State Historical Archive makes it possible to clarify the facts of life and the motives behind the actions of a French teacher. L’Abbé Deslondes lived in the Russian Empire of the early nineteenth century; the material helps discover some details of professional competition in this field, mechanisms of promotion, and vicissitudes of relations within the professional community of teachers and French expatriates. These reasons make the published documents a valuable historical source that helps put forward the hypothesis that Gabriel L’Abbé Deslondes, whose life was intertwined with the lives of many St Petersburg aristocrats, was Pushkin’s inspiration for Monsieur l’Abbé, “француз убогой” (a starving Gaul (Spalding), a threadbare Frenchman (Mitchell), a poor wretch of a Frenchman (Nabokov)) that has traditionally been considered a purely fictional character of Eugene Onegin. An account of L’Abbé Deslondes’s life gives reasons to disprove the school’s interpretation of the Russian epithet “убогий” interpreted as “заурядный” (mediocre).

Author Biographies

Elena Markasova

Dr. Hab. (Philology), Associate Professor, Beijing Foreign Studies University.

2, North Xisanhuan Road, 100089, Beijing, China.

ORCID 0000-0002-9231-1476

markasovaelena@yandex.ru

Pavel Kliushin

Undergraduate student, St Petersburg State University.

7/9, Universitetskaya Embankment, 199034, St Petersburg, Russia.

ORCID 0000-0001-8532-4386

pavel.kliushin@gmail.com

References

Azbuchnyi ukazatel’ imen russkikh deyatelei, dlya Russkogo biograficheskogo slovarya v 2 ch. [Alphabetical Index of Names of Russian Figures for the Russian Biographical Dictionary. 2 Parts]. (2003). Reprint 1887. Moscow, Nobel’ Press. Part 1. A–L. 518 p.

Bychkov, A. F., Polovtsev, A. A. (Eds.). (1867). Sbornik Imperatorskogo russkogo istoricheskogo obshchestva v 148 t. [Collection of the Imperial Russian Historical Society. 148 Vols.]. St Petersburg, Tipografiya Transhelya. Vol. 1. 558 p.

Cherepnin, N. P. (1915). Imperatorskoe Vospitatel’noe obshchestvo blagorodnykh devits: istoricheskii ocherk, 1764–1914 v 3 t. [The Imperial Educational Society of Noble Maidens: An Historical Sketch, 1764–1914. 3 Vols.]. Petrograd, Gosudarstvennaya tipografiya. Vol. 3. 754 p.

Ermakova, O. K., Rukosuev, E. Yu. (2019). Inostrannye pereselentsy i spetsialisty v Rossii v XVIII veke: zakonodatel’noe regulirovanie prebyvaniya (po materialam Polnogo sobraniya zakonov Rossiiskoi imperii) [Foreign Immigrants and Specialists in Russia in the 18th Century: Legislative Regulation of Residence (Based on the Materials of the Full Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire)]. In Vestnik gumanitarnogo obrazovaniya. No. 2 (14), pp. 7–21. DOI 10.25730/VSU.2070.19.015.

Frolova, S. A. (2011). Ot chastnykh urokov – k sobstvennoi shkole: uchastie guvernerov v sozdanii chastnykh uchebnykh zavedenii v Rossii (konets XVIII – pervaya polovina XIX v.) [From Private Lessons to a Private School: The Role of Tutors in Creating Educational Institutions in Russia (Late 18th – First Half of the 19th Centuries)]. In Frantsuzskii ezhegodnik 2011. Frankoyazychnye guvernery v Evrope XVII–XIX vv. Moscow, Institut vseobshchei istorii RAN, pp. 92–109.

Götz, Ch. (2011). Put’ Davida (Marata) de Budri: ot chastnogo prepodavatelya do vospitatelya Tsarskosel’skogo Litseya [The Career of David (Marat) De Boudry: From Private Teacher to Professor of the Lycee of Tsarskoe Selo]. In Frantsuzskii ezhegodnik 2011. Frankoyazychnye guvernery v Evrope XVII–XIX vv. Moscow, Institut vseobshchei istorii RAN, pp. 315–328.

Gretsch, N. I. (1827). Prostrannaya russkaya grammatika [Expanded Russian Grammar] / foreword by F. Bulgarin. St Petersburg, Ttipografiya N. Grecha. 386 p.

Gretsch, N. I. (1930). Zapiski o moei zhizni [Notes on my Life]. Moscow, Leningrad, Academia. 896 p.

Kalaidovich, P. F. (1818). Opyt slovarya russkikh sinonimov [Dictionary of Russian Synonyms]. Moscow, Universitetskaya tipografiya. Part 1. 157 p.

Kliushin, P. V., Markasova, E. V. (2022). Po sledam “mos’e l’Abbé” [Finding Monsieur L’Abbé]. In Prekrasneishei. Sbornik pamyati Eleny Dushechkinoi. St Petersburg, Nestor-Istoriya, pp. 75–82.

Kurganovich, A. (1880). Istoricheskaya zapiska 75-letiya Sankt-Peterburgskoi vtoroi gimnazii v 3 ch. [A Historical Note on the 75th Anniversary of the Second St Petersburg Gymnasium. 3 Parts]. St Petersburg, Tipografiya E. Arngol’da. Parts 1. 152 p.

Lotman, Yu. M. (1997). Roman v stikhakh Pushkina “Evgenii Onegin”. Spetskurs. Vvodnye lektsii v izuchenie teksta [Alexander Pushkin’s Novel in Verse Eugene Onegin. Special Course. An Introduction to the Study of the Text]. In Lotman, Yu. M. Pushkin: Biografiya pisatelya; Stat’i i zametki, 1960–1990; “Evgenii Onegin”. Kommentarii. St Petersburg, Iskusstvo-SPb. 845 p.

Mézin, A., Rjéoutski, V. (2011). Les Français en Russie au siècle des Lumières. 2 vols. Ferney Voltaire, Publ. du Centre intern. D’étude du XVIIIe siècle. Vol. 2. 1424 p.

Mil’china, V. A. (2017). “Frantsuzy poleznye i vrednye”: Nadzor za inostrantsami v Rossii pri Nikolae I [“The Useful and Harmful French”: Supervision of Foreigners in Russia under Nicholas I]. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie. 480 p.

Nabokov, V. V. (1999). Kommentarii k “Evgeniyu Oneginu” Aleksandra Pushkina [A Commentary to Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin]. Moscow, Intelvak. 1086 p.

RGIA [Russian State Historical Archive]. Stock 13. List 1. Dos. 276; Stock 733. List 20. Dos. 107; List 86. Dos. 381; List 93. Dos. 17; List 118. Dos. 136; Stock 777. List 1. Dos. 741. Severnaya pchela [Severnaya Pchela]. (1830). No. 120.

Slovar’ Akademii Rossiiskoi v 6 t. [Dictionary of the Russian Academy. 6 Vols.]. (1794). St Petersburg, Tipografiya Imperatorskoi akademii nauk. Vol. 6. 1064 columns.

Slovar’ yazyka Pushkina v 4 t. [Dictionary of Pushkin’s Language. 4 Vols.]. (2000). Moscow, Azbukovnik. Vol. 4. 1223 p.

Slovar’ tserkovnoslavyanskogo i russkogo yazyka, sostavlennyi Vtorym Otdeleniem Imperatorskoi Akademii nauk v 4 t. [Dictionary of Church Slavonic and Russian Compiled by the Second Department of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. 4 Vols.]. (1847). St Petersburg, Tipografiya Imperatorskoi akademii nauk. Vol. 4. 489 p.

Solodyankina, O. Yu. (2011). Frantsuzskie guvernery i guvernantki v Moskovskom i Peterburgskom uchebnykh okrugakh (1820-e – 1850-e gg.) [French Tutors and Governesses in Moscow and Petersburg Educational Districts (1820s–1850s)]. In Frantsuzskii ezhegodnik 2011. Frankoyazychnye guvernery v Evrope XVII–XIX vv. Moscow, Institut vseobshchei istorii RAN, pp. 127–149.

Tchoudinov, A. V. (2003). Obychnye i neobyknovennye priklyucheniya frantsuzskogo guvernera v Rossii XVIII v. [Ordinary and Extraordinary Adventures of a French Tutor in 18th-Century Russia]. In Kazus: individual’noe i unikal’noe v istorii. Iss. 5. Moscow, Nauka, pp. 441–474.

Tchoudinov, A. V. (2004). Frantsuzskie guvernery v Rossii kontsa XVIII v.: stereotypy i real’nost’ [French Tutors in Russia in the Late 18th Century: Stereotypes and Reality]. In Evropeiskoe Prosveshchenie i tsivilizatsiya Rossii. Moscow, Nauka. pp. 330–340.

TsGIA SPb [Central State Historical Archive of St Petersburg]. Stock 2. List 1. Dos. 826; Stock 13. List 1. Dos. 814, 3567; Stock 139. List 1. Dos. 181, 630, 902.

Vengerov, S. A. (1914). Istochniki slovarya russkikh pisatelei v 4 t. [Sources for a Dictionary of Russian Writers. 4 Vols.]. Petrograd, Tipografiya Imperatorskoi akademii nauk. Vol. 3. 524 p.

Vlassov, S., Rjéoutski, V. (2013). L’enseignement de la grammaire française en Russie au XVIII-e siècle : enseignants, méthodes et livres utilisés. In Documents pour l’histoire du français langue étrangère ou seconde. No. 51, pp. 105–128.

Zlatopol’skaya, A. A. (2011). Obraz guvernera i pedagogicheskaya teoriya Russo v russkoi kul’ture [The Image of the Tutor and the Pedagogical Theory of Rousseau in Russian Culture]. In Frantsuzskii ezhegodnik 2011. Frankoyazychnye guvernery v Evrope XVII–XIX vv. Moscow, Institut vseobshchei istorii RAN, pp. 81–91.

Published

2022-11-04

How to Cite

Markasova, E., & Kliushin, P. (2022). Monsieur L’Abbé: A Citizen of the Russian Empire. Quaestio Rossica, 10(4), 1541–1552. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2022.4.746

Issue

Section

Disputatio