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As far as I know, it was just a matter of style - no deep meaning beyond the fact the speaker was being conformant to the societal norms of the day. Of course
by drdaeman 8y ago
As far as I know, it was just a matter of style - no deep meaning beyond the fact the speaker was being conformant to the societal norms of the day.
Of course I cannot fit the background into a short comment (and I'm not good enough with history of that period), but the reason for this is that in 18-19th centuries the majority of Russian nobility was very francophilic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francophile#Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francophile#Russia
Of course, switching to a different language - or different style of the same language, like switching to extremely formal speech - has a stylistic meaning, but that's it.