Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Note on Dates, Transliteration and Other Editorial Practices
- Abbreviations Used in the Text, Notes and References
- Dates of Reigns in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Russia
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 French and Russian in Catherine's Russia
- 2 The Use of French by Catherine II in her Letters to Friedrich Melchior Grimm (1774–96)
- 3 Language Use Among the Russian Aristocracy: The Case of the Counts Stroganov
- 4 The Francophone Press in Russia: A Cultural Bridge and an Instrument of Propaganda
- 5 Russian Noblewomen's Francophone Travel Narratives (1777–1848): The Limits of the Use of French
- 6 Russian or French? Bilingualism in Aleksandr Radishchev's Letters from Exile (1790–1800)
- 7 Code-Switching in the Correspondence of the Vorontsov Family
- 8 French and Russian in Ego-Documents by Nikolai Karamzin
- 9 Pushkin's Letters in French
- 10 Instruction in Eighteenth-Century Coquetry: Learning about Fashion and Speaking its Language
- 11 The Role of French in the Formation of Professional Architectural Terminology in Eighteenth-Century Russia
- 12 The Coexistence of Russian and French in Russia in the First Third of the Nineteenth Century: Bilingualism with or without Diglossia?
- Conclusion
- Notes on Contributors
- Index
4 - The Francophone Press in Russia: A Cultural Bridge and an Instrument of Propaganda
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 October 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Note on Dates, Transliteration and Other Editorial Practices
- Abbreviations Used in the Text, Notes and References
- Dates of Reigns in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Russia
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 French and Russian in Catherine's Russia
- 2 The Use of French by Catherine II in her Letters to Friedrich Melchior Grimm (1774–96)
- 3 Language Use Among the Russian Aristocracy: The Case of the Counts Stroganov
- 4 The Francophone Press in Russia: A Cultural Bridge and an Instrument of Propaganda
- 5 Russian Noblewomen's Francophone Travel Narratives (1777–1848): The Limits of the Use of French
- 6 Russian or French? Bilingualism in Aleksandr Radishchev's Letters from Exile (1790–1800)
- 7 Code-Switching in the Correspondence of the Vorontsov Family
- 8 French and Russian in Ego-Documents by Nikolai Karamzin
- 9 Pushkin's Letters in French
- 10 Instruction in Eighteenth-Century Coquetry: Learning about Fashion and Speaking its Language
- 11 The Role of French in the Formation of Professional Architectural Terminology in Eighteenth-Century Russia
- 12 The Coexistence of Russian and French in Russia in the First Third of the Nineteenth Century: Bilingualism with or without Diglossia?
- Conclusion
- Notes on Contributors
- Index
Summary
The francophone press, in the ages of the Enlightenment and Romanticism, was a pan-European phenomenon. It helped to spread the influence of the French Enlightenment and disseminated information and cultural models all over Europe, including Russia (Volmer 2000: 12–13). It began to reach Russia as early as the reign of Peter the Great, and from the mid-eighteenth century a francophone press began to develop in Russia itself. Our aim in this chapter is to consider the role of this indigenous French-language press in the second half of the eighteenth century, when it came into being, and during the first half of the nineteenth, when it reached its peak. As we shall show, this press was limited in scope and its impact on the Russian cultural landscape was not very far-reaching. However, it was of considerable interest for the Russian authorities and the Russian cultural elite as a whole. It also illustrates certain aspects of the role of French as one of the means by which francophonie was spread in Russia and as a linguistic and cultural medium in Russian society.
We shall begin with a brief survey of the Russian francophone press, against the background of the development of the francophone press in other countries and the general development of the press in Russia. We shall then show the degree to which the appearance of this press reflects the growth of a French-speaking readership in Russia. Did the Russian francophone public write articles for and take part in editing this press and was it attracted by the opportunity to express its views in French? We shall then turn to the attitude of the Russian authorities towards the francophone press and show how they exploited it for their own purposes. Finally, we shall show to what extent the francophone press, benefiting from the status of French as the main international language of the time, became an intermediary in cultural transfer from Western Europe to Russia and a platform for discussion of Russian cultural life.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- French and Russian in Imperial RussiaLanguage Use among the Russian Elite, pp. 84 - 102Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2015