1840 s, but published her first and only book of poetry in 1877 , after her
second husband abandoned her. Only the unmarried poets—Shakhova
(a nun) and Kul’man (recognized as a child prodigy)—enjoyed the lux-
ury of being able to concentrate on their art.^7
For most of the men poets of this generation, however, marriage notonly did not interfere with their writing but indeed advanced their ca-
reers. Tiutchev successively married two widowed German baronesses.
The first, Emilia-Eleonor Botmer, helped establish him in diplomatic
and literary circles in Munich through her wealth and connections. The
second, Ernestine Pfeffel, edited a posthumous edition of Tiutchev’s po-
etry. She also, in D. S. Mirsky’s words, showed “wonderful tact and for-
bearance” (History of Russian Literature, 133 ) in Tiutchev’s fourteen-year
affair with Elena Denis’eva, the governess whose reputation he felt
guilty about destroying. Fet married Mariia Botkina, the wealthy sister
of Vasilii Botkin, the critic who promoted Fet’s career. Baratynsky’s wife,
the very intelligent Anastasiia Engel’gardt, we are told, devoted herself
to creating a peaceful domestic atmosphere for her husband. Baratyn-
sky discussed his work with her and generally followed her suggestions
for revision. Del’vig’s wife, Sof’ia Saltykova, a student of Pushkin’s
friend the Moscow university professor P. A. Pletnev, established a suc-
cessful literary salon attended by Pushkin, Pletnev, Odoevsky, Mick-
iewicz, and other literary figures. And while Pushkin’s wife did not ex-
press a great deal of interest in his poetry, there is no evidence that he
felt he should curtail his writing to care for their three children.^8
Domestic Ideology
The doctrine that justified the educational, economic, and marital con-
straints experienced by these poets was domestic ideology. Arising in
Europe and the United States between 1790 and 1830 and coming to
Russia in the 1820 s, domestic ideology held that “ladies” belonged in
the home, where they were to exhibit the qualities of “piety, purity, sub-
missiveness and domesticity” (Welter, Dimity Convictions, 21 ; see also
Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, 8 ). The princesses from Denmark, Germany,
or Prussia who married Paul I, Alexander I, Nicholas I, and Alexander
II appear to have brought domestic ideology to Russia with them, pro-
mulgating it through the prestigious institutythey administered. By
1827 the rigorous academic program that Catherine II had originally
mandated for Smolny, the first institut,had been reduced to “the law of
Social Conditions 23