Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 148 005 Sending my sister to the Smolny Girls' School

Solovyov didn't know about the personnel transfer yet, but he always felt uneasy when he saw the actions of some senior officers of the Guards in the palace.

But he didn't have the heart to care about this now. He had to complete one thing today, which was to send Yulia to the Smolny School for Aristocratic Girls.

The name of this girls' school during the Empress's period was "Imperial Association for the Education of Noble Girls". The Smolny Girls' School is now under the jurisdiction of Empress Maria, and mainly provides closed-door education for aristocratic and bourgeois girls.

There may be more girls who are sent to school by their parents, but it is not common for them to be sent by their brothers.

The director, Mrs. Elizabeth Alexandrovna Palmenbach, received them in her office. When she saw the brother and sister, she also found it a little funny.

"Major, you look very young and you are wearing the uniform of the Guards."

"Yes, ma'am, I'm here to send my sister, Yulia, to school."

"Why do you want to enroll at this time?"

"Well, it was in a letter from a friend of my father's that he suggested that we send all the girls in our family to a girls' school."

The lady looked at the brother and sister. The major himself had two medals on his chest. He was very young, but he had made contributions on the battlefield, or he was particularly favored by the nobles in the palace.

He had both. Although the dean herself was not a snob, she always wanted to know the family background of the girls admitted to the school.

This was a rule that had been established during the time of the long-deceased dean, Madame de Lafont. It was normal procedure, and the snobbery of the Russian aristocracy was relatively rare among these educators - instead, another type called "Belikov" was more common, but that was in boys' schools.

All the girls' schools in St. Petersburg under the rule of Queen Maria were boarding schools, and their purpose was still to educate women. The Smolny Academy enrolled both public and self-funded students, while the Order of Catherine Academy mainly enrolled aristocratic girls without personal property, including some girls from poor families.

The former has its own plot, but the plot of the Smolny Palace also needs to be rebuilt, while the latter is currently still opposite the Tauride Palace.

"Mr. Major, I think you also need to introduce yourself and state your hometown. I am the dean, and I have to fulfill my responsibilities to the new students. I think as a brother, you should also be familiar with Yulia's education."

"There is no problem with this background check, ma'am, you can start asking questions."

"Okay, Major. First question, are both of Yulia's parents still alive?"

"Our father, Baron Sergei Solovyov, is still alive. Our mother has passed away, but we still have a stepmother at home. She is French and she used to educate Yulia at home."

The lady wrote it down quickly and was preparing to ask the next questions.

"Your father is still alive, so we will skip the second question. Major, you are Yulia's brother and an active-duty soldier. What I want to ask is whether your father, Baron Sergei, is currently in active service?"

"My father is a retired major. He used to be the adjutant of Lieutenant General Grushetsky. He retired because he was wounded in the battle against the Turks in the south. He was awarded a medal by Her Majesty the Queen. Do you need to ask about my situation?"

"Not yet, Major. I can see that you are very clever."

"Madam, if you are not smart, you can't do things well."

"Yes, Mr. Major, your family's income situation, but this is not the tax department, you don't have to write down how much property you have."

Solovyov filled out the form based on the income of his family's farm and included information about his family members, even his deceased mother.

"Mr. Major, according to your family's situation, there are actually two choices. Your father is a hereditary noble and a retired soldier. According to this standard, Miss Yulia should enroll as a self-funded student. But since you are an active soldier and a member of the Guards, you should enroll as a publicly funded student. Of course, this tuition fee is not high. Our school is different from the Order of Catherine Academy founded by Her Majesty the Queen. It is completely publicly funded."

There is not much difference in the quality of education. Both emphasize all-round development. In the Smolny Academy, there are more opportunities to go to the court.

Many court maids came from here, and some of them would become the "confidants" of His Majesty the Tsar himself. They were not necessarily mistresses, but the requirements of the girls' school itself were very high.

"I think we should follow the rules. There may be many more girls in my family in the future. You know, when I filled out the family members list, I mentioned that my stepmother gave birth to a sister and she is pregnant again. All the relatives in our family have boys, but my family has more girls."

"We welcome all girls of school age to come to the school. Even girls from civilian families will receive a good education here. And you, Mr. Major, if you have a wife in the future, as long as you are still stationed in Petersburg, you can send your children here, and we welcome you too."

"Thank you, ma'am. But it is unlikely that I will get married for a while. When you see the form, you will know how young I am and my current position."

"I know very well, Major, that you are by His Majesty's side, and you are a very outstanding young talent. I think your family's education of Miss Solovieva must also be very good."

"Although my family took it very seriously, the situation was different. I joined the army at a very young age. I was able to learn more when I served as an adjutant to the general, and I was also guided by the Grand Marshal Prince Suvorov. However, I learned a lot of knowledge by myself."

He thought about the cultural level of his stepmother. She could probably only speak French very well, but there was also a lot of Creole and West Indian dialect mixed in. Although her spelling errors were much less than her cousin's, they were not very good. She only helped the smart and lively Julia master the communication skills, but the content of her writing was not good.
"Well, even siblings can have very different educational levels. Even our old dean discovered this when she was educating her daughter."

Mrs. Palmenbach had to sigh that the great translator's sister made quite a few grammatical and spelling mistakes, but she spoke fluently, with a slight Nantes accent, and always with some dialect when she spoke.

"How is this going?"

"The current Baroness, our stepmother, Amy Solovieva, has her origin clearly written as the West Indies. Her relatives are all from there, in Martinique and Guadeloupe, so it's not surprising that she speaks with a dialect. She was educated in Nantes and was once kidnapped by Barbary pirates. She's not very good at schoolwork, but you can understand what she says. That's about it."

"It's actually good this way. At least it won't be so hard to catch up on the missed courses. It's much better than some girls from noble families who have to start from scratch. But they also have to change some bad habits." "At the same time, Madam, you don't need to worry about Yulia's music, dance, and gymnastics. She is very talented in these areas."

"I can see that Miss Solovieva is very energetic. Such lively girls are actually our favorite type, as long as they are not like the troublemakers I have taught before."

Solovyov didn't know that when this lady came to help in the palace, the curriculum of the Smolny Palace Girls' School was still divided into four stages. In the first stage of the course, she was commissioned by Madame de Lafont to go to the palace to teach the four princes.
This is a bad memory. After all, it is difficult to find a girl as lively, active and mischievous as Her Highness Catherine. She put in a lot of effort to correct Her Highness's bad habits.

In other words, the lively and active prince that Solovyov saw was at least no longer a troublemaker.

The next test was for the lady to bring Yulia inside to check the bodies of the girls who were about to enter school. They also had to change clothes and undergo physical examinations.

When they came out, Mrs. Palmenbach brought out Julia, who had changed into a dark blue girls' school uniform.

"Mr. Major, your sister has passed all the entrance tests and has become a student of the Smolny Academy for Noble Girls. You can rest assured that we will educate her strictly. Family members can come to visit and take her home if necessary. Holiday notices will also be sent to your home. If you have any questions, you can contact me at any time."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Hello Miss Solovieva, you can say goodbye to your brother. I will take you to meet your homeroom teacher, your classmates and sisters."

Yulia's personality is very similar to her brother's, she is more profound and quite strong. This girl is about to start a 9-year study, but she needs to make up for some of the courses she missed before.

"Brother, I will definitely work hard and not lose to Katyusha!"

She also did not forget to kiss her brother on the cheek, while Solovyov would give his sister a hug.

"If you ever feel homesick, you can tell the ladies in charge of teaching and we will come to see you."

"Goodbye, brother!"

Yulia was taken to school and met dozens of girls in the same grade. If she could grow up healthily and complete her studies on time, she should graduate in 1809. At that time, her good sister and pen pal Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukova would also come back.

After she introduced herself, all 92 girls in the grade became curious about the transfer student. After all, Yulia was different from her brother. She always looked a little taller than girls of the same age, and she walked very fast, had a healthy body, and a rosy complexion.

"We also welcome Ms. Solovieva. As classmates and sisters, you should help each other."

As for which girl to live with, there is also an arrangement.

"Yulia, you have to live with the Komnenos sisters and Miss Lazareva. You must help each other and learn to share your common happiness. Also, don't violate the rules. The dormitory matron's management is very strict."

As for the lively Yulia, she has no idea how terrifying the dormitory supervisor's fighting power is.

For a grade, the teachers and administrators include the supervisor, the housemaster, two teachers and the class teacher. Generally, these students are divided into multiple classes.

The teaching content includes Russian literature, geography, arithmetic, history, music, dance, painting, social etiquette and various types of housekeeping training, as well as foreign languages, but generally not English. At the same time, moral education is also emphasized.

It was Yulia’s first time away from home and she still felt strange, but she quickly became good friends with the three little girls.

"Yulia, how did you get to school?"

"My brother sent it to me. He is a major in the Guards. Look, this is his portrait."

"What a beautiful big brother"

The older of the two sisters exclaimed, and then she also stretched out her little hand: "I am Anna Komnena, this is my sister Ekaterina, and the one playing with the ship model over there is Vera Lazareva, and her two brothers are students at the Naval Academy."

"Hello, Yulia, I think we can get to know each other." Vera also put down the sailboat model in her hand. It seemed to be a souvenir given to her by her brothers. She heard that Yulia was also given by her brothers. She thought of herself, because of her father's death, and she was accompanied to the girls' school by her 13-year-old eldest brother Andrei and 12-year-old second brother Mikhail. The scene moved her and she began to cry.

After the four girls got to know each other, they found out that the father of the Komnenos sisters was a descendant of the Dalmatian branch of the Komnenos dynasty who came to Russia from Austria to serve, and their mother was a local noble in Moldavia. Lazareva's father was a senator when he was alive. Her family sent the children to the Naval Academy and the girls' school respectively according to her father's will.

But her second brother would become an admiral in the future and would have a long and successful career as an admiral, which was something that the girls could not know from their chatter.

"What about your home?"

"My father is a retired major. He does business in Petersburg. We are from Ryazan. Amy's mother is French. My mother is long gone. And you have all seen my brother. He is an inventor and translator, and also a brave soldier. If I were a boy, I would be like him. Unfortunately, I am a girl, so I can only go to a girls' school."

"Yulia, I can't believe you've grown this tall when you're the same age as me."

"But my brother was not tall before. When I saw him leading his soldiers walking on Million Street, he was much shorter than the soldiers under his command."

"Small generals can also be very brave, like Field Marshal Prince Suvorov. That old grandfather was very brave, but unfortunately he passed away last year."

The four girls sighed together and started chatting again, but later they talked about what the girls liked and told stories. The atmosphere was relaxed and full of joy.

(End of this chapter)