by czorny
Babbler wrote:
In (late?) Tsarist Russia, French was the language of the aristocracy. In War and Peace, there are large bits of French dialogue (so I've been told; I've never read it in any language). I don't know when that trend began, but maybe it was around when Saint Petersburg was being built, since its purpose was to westernize Russia.
You're absolutely right, yes. Francophilia in Russia started something in late 18 century give or take. Before that everything German was popular, so names in German are OK as well. In Russian language there're tons and tons of German and French words like zoldaten (soldier) or lager (camp) from German and jalousie (blinds on the window) or equipage (ship crew). So basically both German and French look nice in terms of theme. English not so much, yet I prefer to have everything in English myself :-)