Russian Girls.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 429, 18 December 1889, Page 6

Russian Girls.

As to the manner of tho bringing up of Russian young women— tho other stumb-ling-block encounteied by the foreigner in the big Eastern empire — it must be said that for the last quarter of a century entirely new methods have prevailed. Previous to the series of liberal reforms introduced by Alexander 11. in the sixtieo, Russian girls of good family were mostly educated in boarding-schools and institutions supported by the Crown, and were never allowed to go out, except in closed carriages for a drive, during the whole eight or ten years their education lasted. Since the female gymnasia have been instituted, howover, the great majority of Russian girls of the " intelligencia " are receiving in them the same education as is given to* tho boys in the male gymnasia, preparatory to their entering one of the great universities. Mindful of the drift of the times, even such exclusively aristocratic educational establishments as the Convent of Smolny, the Crown institutes and the high-priced boarding-schools have greatly deviated from the strict rules of the former method of cloistered education for young girls. In fact, former methods can no longer bo enforced, for out of hygienic considerations, little girls are on all sides encouraged to romp about like their brothers do. No girl is ever eluded for being a tomboy, and they grow to dread the appellation of c kisseynaya laryshina,' • ribbon-and-lawn young lady,' mockingly applied to all namby-pamby, eminently proper young persons. Being brought up under very similar conditions, the young men and the young women of Russia develop a great similarity of tastes and ideas. The young girls enjoy nearly, if not quito, as much freedom in Russia as in England and America, and are • generally considered equal to the young men in their intellectual resources, strength ofwill and determination. When such young people mar r ry there is, of course, complete equality botween husband and wife ; this quality is enhanced by the laws of the empire, which make any woman of 21 the complete mistress of her fortune, her income and her personal earn-

inge, is not allowed to hougliutn'from any where apart she her husband— liveless he voluntarily provides her with a separate passport empowering her to do so. In that lasb respect, however, few men ure obdurate enough to resist the strength of public opinion — scarce any man of tlie educated class would brave public censure and expose himself to ridicule by keeping his wife by force, were &he determined to live apart from him Nowhere, outside of France, does public ridicule kill or cure a person so speedily as in Russia Of course, the perfect equality, on which the majority of the Russian young women insist, has brought come drawbacks. They have heavier burdens to carry. They often have to face the brunt of life's battle, scorning to profit by any chivalric offer of aid from the men. So much in principle ; but in fact there are many and frequent deviations from the theory of woman's perfect independence. Still, no matter how strongly liberalminded girls adhere to the principle of personal libeity, they easily lelax Horn their cast-iron principles whon happily married, and though moved by a sense of honesty, many young women assert that they cannot consistently vow that they will always love the man they wed. Still separations are very few indeed, and nowhere are children more thought of and cared for than in the families of educated Russians who have grown to be men and women since the ' sixties.' Still, it must be added, that with all their pretensions to independence, none among the Russian girls would go to a ball without a chaperon, or even think of going to the theatre alone with any man not a near re'ative, and it is positively an un-lieard-of thing in Russia fora young woman to receive presents from any male acquaintance otherwise than in the shape of candy, fruit, plants or flowers.