“From the canton of Vaud to Siberia and back”: D.-L. Dupujet and J.-V. Sybourg, swiss educators at the russian court at the turn of the 18th — 19th centuries

This article deals with a dramatic page in the Russian-Swiss pedagogical relations. In 1799, two Swiss teachers, David-Louis Dupujet and Jean-Victor Sybourg, who served at the Russian imperial court and educated the Grand Dukes and Duchesses — the children of Emperor Paul I — went to exile to the east of the Russian Empire. Their accusation was not connected with any specifi c misconduct, but stemmed from mere suspicions that they were in contact with their friends abroad who sympathised with the revolutionary processes that were taking place in Europe at that time. The article analyses the reasons for the emergence of a group of Swiss educators (tutors and governesses) at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries at the Russian court, as well as a change in their position in connection with Russia’s entry into the anti-French coalition and the outbreak of hostilities that directly aff ected Switzerland. Based on new sources obtained from the archives, as well as on letters that were never translated into Russian before, the paper discusses the reasons for the exile of Sybourg and Dupujet and the peculiarities of the investigation of their case, which vividly refl ect the general features and atmosphere of the reign of Paul I. The return of the Swiss teachers from the exile has been considered in the context of changes in Russia’s foreign policy at the turn of the 18th — 19th centuries