The Tutscheff Family

Research Status: Basic Last Updated: 2025-12-07 Diary Coverage: Up to 1873-02-27

A Russian family in Nice whose social choices caused tension in Marie's family's social relationships.

Mentions in the Diary

• February 27, 1873: Marie's mother tells her "Maintenant avec les Howard c'est fini, les Tutscheff sont là" (Now with the Howards it's finished, the Tutscheff are there). The Howard family had a dinner party to which they invited the Tutscheff but not the Bashkirtseffs, causing hurt feelings.

Historical Context

The incident reveals the competitive and sometimes exclusionary nature of aristocratic social life in Nice. The fact that the Howards chose to invite the Tutscheff instead of (or without) the Bashkirtseffs was interpreted as a social snub.

This type of social slight was significant in the carefully calibrated world of 19th-century aristocratic society, where:

• Invitations signaled social standing
• Exclusion could indicate falling favor
• Competing families vied for the same social connections
• A dinner invitation was a valuable social commodity

Marie's mother's comment suggests she saw this as a real setback in their social positioning, with the Tutscheff family displacing them in the Howards' social orbit.

%%2025-12-07T13:05:00 RSR: Research needed on Tutscheff family background and whether they appear later in diary%%