Russian Imperial Corps of Pages and Tsar Nicholas's court, Great War years
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/exhibitions/pages/index.html
Have gone through this website thoroughly and gotten some great info from it, and have been busily googling for other pertinent information. Found some on Wikipedia as well as Pierre Gilliard's Thirteen Years At The Russian Court but I find myself stuck again on some fiddly little details. Any sources, online or books are welcome!
1) My character is the only son of the Master of Hunting (the one under the Chief Master of Hunting) He has just turned eighteen years old. I had read that those employed in the Corps of Pages typically accepted boys starting at eight years old and continued until fifteen before graduating. However I had also read somewhere that they accepted boys up to twenty years old. If my character had had his schooling interrupted or delayed until he was around 15 or so, would he still be able to be enrolled in the Pages Corps?
2) If his father lived within Petrograd, would he stay with his father or would he have stayed on the grounds of the Vorontsov Palace?
3) Were there any rules or restrictions about visitors during certain hours?
4) How did the typical year run for the boys serving as pages? Was the year divided up in any way, semesters or something similar?
5) Did the boys have breaks of any sort? (holidays, spring/winter breaks etc.)
6) If my characters wanted to leave the palace grounds for whatever reason would he be required to have a pass of some sort?
7) What would be my character's daily regime?
And some questions about his father as well, as I've found precious little information about the role of Master of Hunting
1) He's of old nobility, claiming boyar ancestry but how exactly would he be addressed formally?
2) What did his duties entail in the service of the Tsar before and during the Great War? Helping with organizing hunts I figured but what else?
3) Where would he have lived? Did members of court keep private residences in Petrograd or did they stay in the palaces around the area?
4) When his son was ten, I had him move to Gatchina and then back to Petrograd right before the outbreak of the Great War but I'm having trouble coming up with a plausible reason for him doing so. I thought perhaps his estate would have been centered in Gatchina and because of the situation of the war, he was forced to move back. What were the financial situations of Russian nobility around the time of the war? Would it have been possible that financial difficulties on his father's part would have forced him to sell the estate?
Any information you can give me I greatly appreciate it! :)
Have gone through this website thoroughly and gotten some great info from it, and have been busily googling for other pertinent information. Found some on Wikipedia as well as Pierre Gilliard's Thirteen Years At The Russian Court but I find myself stuck again on some fiddly little details. Any sources, online or books are welcome!
1) My character is the only son of the Master of Hunting (the one under the Chief Master of Hunting) He has just turned eighteen years old. I had read that those employed in the Corps of Pages typically accepted boys starting at eight years old and continued until fifteen before graduating. However I had also read somewhere that they accepted boys up to twenty years old. If my character had had his schooling interrupted or delayed until he was around 15 or so, would he still be able to be enrolled in the Pages Corps?
2) If his father lived within Petrograd, would he stay with his father or would he have stayed on the grounds of the Vorontsov Palace?
3) Were there any rules or restrictions about visitors during certain hours?
4) How did the typical year run for the boys serving as pages? Was the year divided up in any way, semesters or something similar?
5) Did the boys have breaks of any sort? (holidays, spring/winter breaks etc.)
6) If my characters wanted to leave the palace grounds for whatever reason would he be required to have a pass of some sort?
7) What would be my character's daily regime?
And some questions about his father as well, as I've found precious little information about the role of Master of Hunting
1) He's of old nobility, claiming boyar ancestry but how exactly would he be addressed formally?
2) What did his duties entail in the service of the Tsar before and during the Great War? Helping with organizing hunts I figured but what else?
3) Where would he have lived? Did members of court keep private residences in Petrograd or did they stay in the palaces around the area?
4) When his son was ten, I had him move to Gatchina and then back to Petrograd right before the outbreak of the Great War but I'm having trouble coming up with a plausible reason for him doing so. I thought perhaps his estate would have been centered in Gatchina and because of the situation of the war, he was forced to move back. What were the financial situations of Russian nobility around the time of the war? Would it have been possible that financial difficulties on his father's part would have forced him to sell the estate?
Any information you can give me I greatly appreciate it! :)