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Antoinette de Saint Léger

1856–1948

Born
1856, Saint Petersburg
Country of birth
Russian Empire, today Russia
Died
1948, Intragna
facts
12
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Saint Petersburg

    Birth, Saint Petersburg

  2. Died · Intragna

    Death, Intragna

What was it like?

The world around Saint Petersburg, 1856: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Antoinette was born the same year as L. Frank Baum, Giuseppe Martucci, and Henrique Lopes de Mendonça.

Born the same year

  • L. Frank Baum

    American author of children's books (1856–1919)

  • Giuseppe Martucci

    Italian musician (1856-1909)

  • Henrique Lopes de Mendonça

    Portuguese writer (1856–1931)

  • Sigmund Freud

    Austrian psychiatrist and founder of psychoanalysis (1856–1939)

  • Nikola Tesla

    Serbian-American engineer and inventor (1856-1943)

  • Woodrow Wilson

    28th President of the United States (1913–1921)

Fashion

Peasant Footwear and Versatile Fur Coats

Peasants frequently wore bast shoes made from tree bark, but wealthier individuals wore leather boots for important occasions. In winter, both rich and poor favored sheepskin coats, which were often worn year-round and served multiple roles, including as bedding.

Uniform Men's Shirts and Diverse Women's Finery

Men's clothing remained relatively uniform, featuring a signature shirt with a side-fastening collar worn untucked and belted. In contrast, women's festive attire was highly diverse, often intricately decorated with embroidery, lace, ribbons, and precious metal threads.

Music

Improvised percussion for fast dances

During fast dances called pliaska, performers sometimes used improvised percussion instruments like wooden spoons, a metal pot, or even a scythe.

Khorovod communal round dance

The khorovod was a popular communal round dance where up to a hundred people moved in a circle, often in a sunwise direction.

Getting around

Railways revolutionized long-distance travel speed

The railway between St. Petersburg and Moscow, opened in 1851, reduced travel time between the two cities from four days by carriage to 22 hours by train.

Around 1825–1849

Four-day coach journeys between capitals

Traveling between St. Petersburg and Moscow by stagecoach took four days of constant travel before the railway was completed.

Daily life

Peasant Log Cabins and Shared Living Spaces

Peasants lived in timber log cabins, often consisting of a single living room with a large brick stove used for heating, sleeping, and cooking. Due to extreme cold, families shared these small, smoke-filled rooms with their livestock during the winter months.

Weekly Steam Baths and Water Access

The home had no plumbing or running water; families relied on pails of water and prioritized a weekly steam bath, often held in the stove itself or a dedicated bath-house. If a steam bath was unavailable, peasants would crawl into the heated oven to bathe.

Food

Everyday drinks and tea culture

Common drinks included kvass made from rye bread or beets, and hot beverages like sbiten, which was sweetened with honey and mixed with spices. Tea drinking also began to spread during this period, though owning a samovar was often a sign of a wealthy household.

Flavoring food during Lenten fasts

To add flavor to Lenten dishes, peasants used hemp or linseed oil, and hemp seeds were used to make a milk-like substance for flavoring soup. Mushrooms were also an essential part of the diet during fasts, with families consuming them in various forms including salted, dried, and fried.

Prices and wages
Around 1860–1860

Annual worker earnings in 1860

In 1860, a skilled worker in the Russian Empire typically earned between 150 and 300 rubles per year.

Around 1860–1874

Worker maintenance costs

Around this time, maintaining a worker in the capital provinces required about 100 rubles annually, with basic daily food costs for bread, meat, and a side dish totaling 26.5 kopecks.

Work

Common jobs in the Russian Empire

Most people were peasants who farmed crops like rye, oats, and millet, while also engaging in crafts such as weaving, pottery, and logging to supplement their income. Temporary migration to cities for jobs as construction workers, cabmen, or factory workers was also very common.

Daily life and long working hours

Workdays were dictated by seasons and the head of the family, often starting as early as 2:00 a.m. during peak times like threshing. Labor was physically intense and typically lasted from dawn until dusk, often involving 12 to 14 hours of work.

News and letters

International mail speed

International mail to and from Russia often took three weeks to a full month to arrive during the 1840s and 1850s.

Around 1858–1858

Introduction of postage stamps

Russia officially began using postage stamps for internal mail on January 1, 1858, changing how private letters were sent.

During their lifetime

  1. 1861

    Emancipation of the Serfs

    The 1861 Emancipation Manifesto freed nearly 50 million serfs, granting them personal freedom but requiring them to redeem their land through long-term government loans.

  2. 1874

    Universal Military Service Law

    The 1874 Universal Military Service law reduced mandatory military service from twenty-five years to six years for all social classes.

  3. 1880

    Switzerland becomes country of immigration in 1880

    Starting in 1880, Switzerland officially became a country of immigration, as more people began entering the country than leaving it.

  4. 1886

    Maggi instant soups launched in 1886

    In 1886, industrialist Julius Maggi began producing his ready-made soups to address the poor nutrition of factory workers during the Industrial Revolution.

  5. 1888

    First electric tram launched in 1888

    Switzerland introduced its first electric tram in 1888, connecting the towns of Vevey and Chillon in the western part of the country.

  6. 1891

    Famine and Cholera Epidemic

    A severe famine and cholera epidemic struck Russia in 1891-1892, causing widespread suffering and loss of life across the empire.

Family

Parents

Spouses

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.