Classical Russian literature seems to be full of French. Pushkin and Tolstoy use it all the time. And it’s not only single words (like in English and American literature, for instance) but also large sentences and even whole passages. How come? It looks quite weird

you are right. but not only Russian literature is full of French (for example, Agatha Christie’s novels). French used to be the language of educated, refined people, and they spoke french to show their education and belonging to high society.

Refined and very educated people who speak English also use a lot of French words in their speech. Even today.

That’s right. Back in the 18 century French was wildly popular all over Europe and considered a beau-ideal. Besides, most of Russia’s tsars were only partly Russian by blood (actually they were hardly Russian at all), so no wonder there were so many Francophils among them.

Wowka - 31 March 2011 04:17 AM

That’s right. Back in the 18 century French was wildly popular all over Europe and considered a beau-ideal. Besides, most of Russia’s tsars were only partly Russian by blood (actually they were hardly Russian at all), so no wonder there were so many Francophils among them.

That’s true!